April 18 – May 2

The next day was full of errands Rendy needed to run and just generally spending time together until it was time for dinner when Ann joined us, and we journeyed to The Prescott which also happened to be located in Kernersville.  Touted as a farm to table dining experience, I had elevated expectations about the meal and while overall it was good, it was also just a little bit off. 

First, the service was inconsistent, taking much longer than it should have for some of the courses to appear, like the corn chowder (my third of the trip, did you notice?) I ordered to start, which didn’t appear until almost thirty minutes after we were seated. 

For entrees Joanna ordered the salmon, which came in a teriyaki glaze with some lump crab, quite delicious while I opted for a pork chop, also with a glaze which while tasty, was a bit overcooked and not nearly as tender and moist as it could have been.  In the end, it all didn’t matter as we were with two lifelong friends and, best of all, it was half price glasses of wine night.  That will make any meal a winner. 

The next day would be a repeat of one we’ve done a couple of times when visiting here, that is to pick up Rendy’s Mom Melody and take her out for a beer.  She’s had a rough year, between a serious fall and coming down with Covid, but she’s a tough old bird and for someone past ninety years old, in remarkably good condition. 

Our destination was Steel Hands Brewing, a South Carolina based operation that has expanded northward.  It was quiet when we arrived, it being a midweek afternoon and so we spent a couple of hours consuming a beer or two and enjoying slices of in-house pizza.  A slight miscalculation on our parts allowed Melody to go to long without a proper amount of food and having consumed two glasses of beer, suffice it to say she was a bit tipsy when we returned her to her home.

This would end our time with Ann and Rendy, and we took off the next morning to head southwest to Lincolnton for a night with Joanna’s middle sister Debi.  On the way out of town we followed up on Ann’s suggestion to check out Sweet Dough Bake Shop on the outskirts of High Point.  And were we glad we did.  Faced with multiple cases of delectable looking baked goods, we settled on delicious and sizable Pecan Sticky Bun, which along with a good cup of coffee would hold us for the rest of the afternoon. 

After landing at Debi’s house a couple of miles outside of town, we drove to the downtown district to stop in at BrickTree Brewing, a fairly new operation located in a large two story building, the second floor devoted to event space and indoor games.  We had a couple of rounds of beers to accompany the two pizzas we consumed from the Fat Guy and a Pie food truck, they were that good. 

The next day we set out for Charlotte for the rest of our stay, splitting our time between staying with Diana and Jim and Dianne and Loren in Kannapolis.  As with so many of our past visits, this one would revolve around meeting up with our many friends in town and hitting as many of our favorite restaurants as we could fit in, starting with JJ’s Red Hots, where I enjoyed my usual Char Heel (House-made Chili, Slaw, Diced Onions, and Yellow Mustard) and for Joanna, the Southern Girl (Pimento Cheese, JJ’s Slaw, Bacon, and Hot Blonde Mustard) both centered around a pork & beef blend Sahlen’s Smokehouse Hot Dog, while splitting a basket of very good tots.

Having established a sufficient base for drinking significant quantities of wine, we met our regular group of UNC Charlotte friends (Dianne and Keith, Doug, Diana and Jim) at the Wine Vault, doing our best to reduce any excess inventory they might have.  The next morning, we had the pleasure of a spur of the moment breakfast with Karie and Jason, cycling friends from Charlotte who now live in Wisconsin and were in town visiting family.  It was their last day, and we were lucky to have been able to catch up with them. 

The next day we drove to just outside of downtown so that Joanna could meet up with the members of her book club at Camp North End.  Originally the site of a 1920’s Ford automobile factory, it served as a quartermaster depot during World War II and then after the war, as a site for missile development, munitions packing and building army grade vehicles, called “Gama Goats”.  The US Army referred to the site as CAMP, short for Charlotte Area Missile Plant, which is what inspired the name that is used today.

In the 1970’s the complex was sold to Eckerd Pharmaceuticals and continued operating after a sale to Rite Aid which sold the 76-acre site to ATCO Properties who are developing the property as entertainment zone, full of opportunities to eat and drink. I took advantage of one such location, NoDa Company Canteen, to drink a beer and stream a program to my iPad while Joanna met with her friends. 

Later we had drinks and snacks with Lyndsay and Dave, who we normally hit breweries and a restaurant with, but instead met at their house as they were feeling a bit under the weather.  It was a nice afternoon to be sitting in their backyard, enjoying an array of cocktails Lyndsay concocted from recipes and ingredients supplied through a subscription service they belong to. 

For our last night staying with Diana and Jim, we took them to 300 East for yet one more really good meal, starting with a Pimento Cheese plate, followed by the Crab Cakes for Joanna and the Stuffed Airline Chicken Breast (Country Ham, tomato jam, Ashe County cheddar, Shiitake-Rosemary gravy, with mashed potato and vegetable). 

While it was all as good as usual, the highlight of the meal was a dessert special that night, a red beet mousse that was so unexpectedly good that we savored every bite, succulently rich in mouth feel, just the right amount of sweetness leaving one amazed that the basis for the creation was the humble beet. 

The last few days of our trip would follow a by now familiar pattern, that is dinner with our cycling friends at Bonefish Grill in Concord, followed by two nights with Loren and Diane in Kannapolis, an afternoon of hitting beer joints (Phar Mill Brewing and Lil’ Roberts, a dive bar in Concord), and finally our last dinner of the trip, meeting up with our friends from the Piedmont Adventure Club at Bubba’s Bunkhouse, a new restaurant in Harrisburg. 

It’s larger than it first appears, and our large party was seated promptly, Joanna and I sitting across from each other in the middle of the table so we could carry on a conversation with multiple people.  She ordered the Burnt Ends Plate (BBQ burnt ends, baked beans, and slaw) and I had the Chicken Cobb Salad (Chopped lettuce, eggs, rotisserie chicken, bacon, avocado, tomato, blue cheese, creole vinaigrette, and crispy corn nuggets), both good sized portions with quality ingredients.  It was enough to hold us until the next morning when a good breakfast at the house got us on our way to the airport and our flight home, another fun and rewarding trip to North Carolina in the books. 

Links

The Prescott: https://www.theprescottrestaurant.com/

Steel Hands Brewing: https://steelhandsbrewing.com/greensboro/

Sweet Dough Bakery: https://www.sweetdoughbakeshop.com/

BrickTree Brewing: https://www.bricktreebrewing.com/

Fat Guy and a Pie: https://www.facebook.com/FatGuyandAslice/mentions

JJ’s Red Hots: https://jjsredhots.com/

Camp North End: https://camp.nc/

NoDa Company Canteen: https://camp.nc/tenant/noda-company-canteen/

300 East: https://www.300east.net/

Bubba’s Bunkhouse: https://www.bubbasbunkhouse.com/