The Biscuit Stop - The Quintessential Southern Dining Experience

Soon after we arrived in LaGrange, we were driving down one the many country roads and saw this roadside building. Looking closely, we noticed the sign "Biscuit Stop."  Biscuits are one of the major food groups in the south (the others being fried chicken, grits, sweet tea and smoked meats) so we immediately stopped to try them out.

Walking through the front door transported us back to the 1950's.  

Inside was a Formica counter with 5 or 6 stools, a table or two, a range with eggs cooking in a skillet and a grill with sizzling sausages.

We sat down and the lady behind the counter asked us what we would like.  Being from California, I immediately answered, "A biscuit with 2 scrambled eggs, soft cooked", Nancy replied, "A biscuit with 2 poached eggs, cooked 3 minutes."  She smiled and just pointed to the menu behind her.  On the menu were biscuits, fried eggs, sausage, bacon, cheese, available in any combination.  We immediately changed our order to 2 sausage biscuits with egg.  I asked for a diet coke and was told, "no coke, pepsi."

She immediately assembled the sandwiches and served us with a smile.  I took my first bite and was again reminded why southern cooking was so popular.  The biscuit was flaky, tasty, warm and delicious.

After a few minutes she came over to start a conversation.  One of the nicest aspects of living in a small southern town, is that everyone is exceptionally friendly.  Check out at the grocery and you end up in a discussion of the weather.  Pick up dry cleaning on a Monday and there is a quick discussion of the weekend college football results.  Here in LaGrange, you are either for Alabama, Auburn or Georgia.  By way of our local family, we are Crimson Tide people.

Back at the Biscuit Stop, we explained that we had recently moved from California to be near family here in LaGrange.  Not surprisingly, she knew my brother-in-law who is the head of detectives for the Sheriff's office here in LaGrange.  Here in LaGrange, people know each other and look out for each other.

She went on to tell us that her mother had opened the Biscuit Stop back in the 1980's and they have been open ever since.  Every morning she starts the day at 4 AM baking biscuits and every morning a Sheriff's deputy stops by just to make sure she is all right.  I wondered how many local businesses in Palo Alto get a visit each morning from the local police checking on them.

The Biscuit Stop is open Tuesday through Saturday from 4am till the biscuits run out, usually around 10 AM. Days off are Sunday and Monday.

I doubt there is a Biscuit Stop branch in Las Vegas. We are going to miss it.

 😞 😞

Zen and the Art of Smoking

I can now reveal the real reason my wife, Nancy and I relocated to LaGrange, Georgia.  It is all about the smoke.

My wife's sister lives in LaGrange and during holiday family visits her husband Mike would often fire up his smoker and produce the most amazing smoked meats.  Between our infrequent holiday visits, I would encourage Nancy to visit her sister to ostensibly spend time with her sister and two nieces.  I, however, had an ulterior motive.  Often on the last day of her visit, Mike would get up in the middle of the night, fire up the smoker, and smoke a pork shoulder for Nancy to take home to me.

To facilitate this process I always made sure Nancy had some gifts to take to our nieces which would require an extra piece of luggage, which, coincidentally, would be large enough to hold a smoked pork roast.

A few hours before Nancy's flight home, Mike would take the roast out of the smoker, wrap in many layers of aluminum foil, seal it in an extra large zip lock bag and place it in Nancy's carry on luggage. Nancy would then rush off to the airport to catch the last flight from Atlanta to San Francisco.

Transporting the smoked pork roast across the country was a true act of love.  Imagine going through airport security with a tin foil wrapped soccer ball sized roast.  Nancy would first explain to the TSA inspector that she was bringing a pork roast home to her husband.  With raised eyebrows her luggage went through the scanner and was then selected for "further inspection."  Sometimes just opening up the zip lock bag and letting the inspector smell the roast was enough, but other times she had to unwrap the roast to let them see the meat.  She would then fly home filling the cabin with the smell of fresh smoked meat.

I would meet Nancy at the airport, we would rush home, have a quick sample of the meat, and then quickly portion out the rest and place the portions into the freezer.  These were then carefully rationed to last for a month or two.  I would then subtly start suggesting that maybe it was time for Nancy to visit her sister again.  Using this strategy I would get one or two pork roasts a year.

The decision to sell our home in Silicon Valley and build a new home in Las Vegas meant that we needed a temporary place to live for a year or two while our new home was under construction.  I recognized this as an opportunity to finally fulfill one of my secret ambitions.  I could use this time to learn the art of meat smoking,

We discussed the many places we could move while our home was being built.  We could live in New York, or near a beach or even a foreign country.  I however, started to drop hints about how nice it would be to live near family.  We soon agreed that we would relocate to LaGrange, GA. and I could start my apprenticeship in meat smoking.

Smoking meat is not for the impatient.  It is the original "slow food." The night before the actual smoking before you prepare the meat.  Mike showed me how you first wash the roast, pat it dry and then work in the rub.  There are a large variety of rubs and part of fun is choosing the right rub for each type of meat. You then do some other preparations and place the roast into large zip lock bags. You then let the rub marinate overnight to work itself into the meat.

Early the next morning you fire up the smoker and place the meat inside.  Now for the most important lesson I learned about smoking.  "Leave the meat alone" For the next 10-12 hours you don't do anything with the meat, you don't open the door, you don't look at the meat, you don't even turn it over.  Every few hours or so you just open up the firebox on the smoker and insert some wood chips to generate smoke.  Different types of wood were more appropriate for different types of meats and sometimes even combinations are called for.

Waiting is the hardest part of the entire process.  During football season, you start the smoker, spend the day watching football, with an occasional break to insert some more wood chips.  When the last game is over, your meat should be done.  Since we were cooking during the summer, we would just pull up our chairs and watch the smoke slowly wafting out of the smoker chimney with an occasional break for beer or diet coke.

Finally, Mike declared the meat done.  We took it out of the smoker but unfortunately the wait was not yet over, as had to let the meat rest for 20-30 minutes.  Almost a day since we had started, we could finally eat.

Was it worth 24 hours for a pulled pork sandwich?  Absolutely, it was the greatest pulled pork I had ever eaten and we feasted on it for a week.

We fire up the smoker next weekend and tackle beef brisket.

My stomach can't wait.

And if you find yourself near Atlanta, give us at least a day's notice and I'll smoke up some of the best meat you are ever going to taste.

The WSJ Delivery Conundrum

In Silicon Valley our day often started with reading the Journal.  We were Journal subscribers for many years, and like clockwork, it appeared in our driveway each and every morning six days a week.  Over a year ago, we cancelled our subscription for a variety of reasons. 

The Journal, however, had other ideas.  The paper kept coming, day after day, week after week.  We tried calling to "really" cancel, but since our subscription was already canceled we didn't even have an account anymore.  So the paper piled up.  This was not so much of a problem except when we would go on a trip out of town.  We didn't want a pile of papers which collected in our driveway and provided an indicator to everyone that the house was unoccupied.  Nothing we did could keep the paper from coming.  

Sometimes I felt like Mickey in the famous Sorcerer's Apprentice scene, but instead of a never ending stream of water buckets, we had a never ending stream of Wall Street Journals.  My wife finally came up with a clever solution.  We should resubscribe to the Journal and then put the paper on vacation hold.  Sure enough, it worked like a charm.  The paper stopped coming.  We then tried to fool the Journal and cancelled our subscription at the end of the vacation hold.  But they were too clever for us, the day after the vacation hold the paper started arriving yet again.  We did this two or three times, and always at the end of our trip the paper started coming.

This was not such a great problem after all, we did love reading the paper and we had a very large recycling container.  However, when we started to plan our move to LaGrange, we realized that having the paper pile up in front of the house after we moved could be a problem.  I suggested to our realtor that we advertise that one of the features of our home was that it came with a lifetime subscription to the Wall Street Journal, but that idea was quickly vetoed.

Again it was my wife who came up with the solution.  She had saved the self addressed envelope our paper deliver person had left during the holiday season hoping for a tip.  Having tried everything else, my wife suggested that we send the deliver person a "tip" along with a note thanking them for their many years of deliver service and ask the to stop delivery since we were leaving the area.  Much like tipping the Mariachi band at a Mexican restaurant to stop playing, I tipped the delivery person to make the paper go away.  And like at the Mexican restaurant, the delivery magically stopped.

When we got to LaGrange we decided to restart home newspaper delivery.  I first called the New York Times and was told that unfortunately there was no home delivery of the Times in LaGrange.  The best they could do was a mail delivery of the Sunday paper (on Tuesday) along with a digital subscription.  I then called the Journal and they were happy to inform me that they indeed had home delivery in LaGrange and my home was on a delivery route.  I subscribed and looked forward to the paper the next morning.

I got up the next morning, went out to the driveway, and searched in vain for the paper.  Thinking that perhaps it was an initialization problem, I reasoned that of course it would appear the next day.  Unfortunately it never arrived the next day or the day after.  We were going on a trip the next week, so I called the Journal to both lodge a delivery complaint and put on a vacation hold.  They were very apologetic, promised to credit me for the missing papers and they assured me the paper would appear when we returned from our trip.

Of course, when we returned there was no paper.  I now started a daily call campaign to customer service.  Each call was the same.  I would tell them the paper was not delivered, they would apologize, tell me they would send a message to the delivery department, and promise "tomorrow" it would arrive.  I would ask them to check yet again to be sure they delivered the paper to my address and each time they assured me that they did.  

After a week of no paper, next time I called I asked to speak to a supervisor.  I asked them to just call the delivery people and find out what was going on.  They told me that the only thing they could do was send a message to home delivery.  They had no way of actually calling and speaking to someone.

The next morning I got a call back from the supervisor asking if my paper had been delivered.  It had not.  They said they would give me a call every morning to see if the problem had been resolved. Ten minutes later I got a call from the local delivery company who assured me that the carrier had my address and would deliver the paper.

The paper never came that day or any day since.  I never got another call from the supervisor.

Seems somewhat ironic:  In Silicon Valley I could not stop the Journal and here in LaGrange I can't get it to start.  I look forward to getting the Wall Street Journal someday soon.

The Service Trifecta

City workers installing a new curb

LaGrange is a very strange place.  It is filled with service people who actually want to provide service.  It's really quite amazing and every time it happens I am still surprised.  Let me explain.

Back in Silicon Valley, one the worst things that can happen to a homeowner is a small problem, like a leaky faucet, or a light switch which needs replacement.  You would think that the simpler the repair the easier it would be to find a service person to fix it.  You would be wrong.  

The rapid rise in Silicon Valley home prices, has led to an explosion of home improvement projects.  Homes are so expensive, it is usually far more cost effective to renovate your current home, than sell it and buy another home. And in the crazy Silicon Valley world, if you can't find a house which fits your taste, you simply buy a home in a location you like, tear it down and build your dream house from scratch.  The effect of all of this is that every contractor, electrician, plumber and painter has more work than he or she can possibly do.

So if you are an unlucky homeowner with a small project like a faucet replacement, getting a plumber to come out and fix your problem is much akin to winning the lottery.  You reason, that much like the lottery, the more people you call (or tickets you buy) the better your chance of getting someone to call you back.  We have had to call three to five different plumbers to even have a chance of one of them calling us back.  And if you are lucky enough to have one call you back, you probably have to wait a week or two until they can fit you into their schedule. You then wait and hope they actually show up when they said they would.  Everyone acts like this is completely normal and never apologizes for the delay.  After all, who wants to do a small job when all of those major building projects are available.  I know some people who once they find a responsive electrician or plumber (not me), won't even give their names to friends for fear that the next time they need help, the plumber will be too busy to come by.

When we moved into our home in LaGrange, the cold water faucet for the washing machine leaked.  I called my landlord who said they would have a plumber get back to me.  I started to wonder about the location of the nearest laundromat, knowing that I might be in for a long wait.  An hour later the plumber called.  I explained my problem and he said, "I am sorry that I can't make it out this afternoon, would first thing tomorrow morning be alright?"  I was so shocked I actually asked him to confirm that he meant the next morning, not the next week.  He assured me I had heard correctly and sure enough at 9am the next morning the plumber arrived and quickly fixed the problem. 

The next day was my appointment for the cable company to install our internet connection.  When they didn't arrive at the appointed time, I started to feel a little better, maybe LaGrange was not so different.  I called and after a few minutes on the phone, the customer service person apologized and explained that somehow my order had been cancelled which is why no one had shown up.  They then went on to ask if it would be all right if an installer came the next morning to set up my internet service.  Again, the service person arrived at 9am and within a few hours our orders were again flowing smoothly into Amazon.com.  Later that afternoon, a supervisor from the cable company came by to check to see if  everything went well.

This amazing service ethic, even seems to extend to public service workers.  A few days later, I got a knock on the door in the morning.  A city worker told me that they the city was replacing the curb in front of our house.  I looked out and there were at least five people, ripping out the old curb, digging the ditch and installing the forms for the concrete to be poured etc.  Every time I looked out the window, all of the workers were actually working.  I did not see a manager standing around watching the work, I did not see two people standing on the street with stop signs directing traffic.  All I saw were workers doing work.  The sun went down around 5pm; lights were brought out and by 7:30 the concrete for the new curb was poured.  The next day the project was complete.

I no longer dread something going wrong in the house and the accompanying stress of trying to find someone to fix it, I simply pick up the phone, call a service person and smile when they arrive within the next 24 hours.  I have won the service Trifecta - prompt, quality and reasonably priced service!

The STORE

Back in Silicon Valley when you told someone "you were going to the store," they would probably then ask "which store?"  Food shopping would be at Safeway or Draegers (having not yet accepted Whole Foods as my personal food savior), clothing at Stanford Mall or Santana Row, hardware at Los Altos Hardware or Orchard, furniture at Macy's or Scandinavian Design, you get the picture.

In LaGrange, "going to the Store" almost always means you are going to Walmart.  Regardless of what you are looking for, most likely Walmart has it.  From clothing to furniture, from food & vegetables to televisions, from hardware to guns and ammo, from sporting goods to cosmetics, Walmart has it all in one convenient place and it is all available 24/7.  

The LaGrange Walmart is immense, it is not just a Walmart, but a Walmart Supercenter. According to Walmart it is somewhere between 178,000 to 260,000 square feet.  To give you a sense of scale, my old Los Altos Safeway was 41,000 square feet.  

It turns out that being able to get everything in one place is great.  No more arguments over which grocery or market has the best produce, or which department store has the best jeans selection; in LaGrange the answer is always Walmart.  Walmart always has what we need.  To our great amazement, we discovered even if we didn't find exactly what we wanted, we could actually live with a substitute item carried at Walmart.  Who knew?  I will admit that black truffles and caviar (which were often available at Draegers) were not in the grocery aisle, but then again I never bought them  anyways.  Now, if I really need them, there is always Amazon Prime.

One of the cool things Walmart offers is their "Savings Catcher."  Using the Walmart app, you simply scan your receipt when you leave the store.  Walmart maintains a comparison price database and compares the prices you paid to prices at other local stores.  If an item is available at a lower price at another store, the app give you a credit ("reward dollars") for the difference. 

Since we are setting up a new home, there were always things we need, so we end up at Walmart at least once a day, and sometimes even twice.  I guess we are too good a customer.  After the first four or five visits, we exceeded the app's weekly limit, and could not enter any more receipts till the next week.  I guess from now on we have to ration our Walmart trips to only a few times a week.  As of today our total reward dollars equal $4.98!

Moving to LaGrange???

Image © 2016 Nancy Laube

After over 20 years in Silicon Valley, my wife Nancy and I are relocating to a small town about 90 miles south of Atlanta.  We arrived in Los Altos Hills in 1991, at the dawn of the Internet, and were lucky enough to be a part of the most amazing technology revolution over the past 25 years. These years have been well beyond anything we could have imagined when we arrived here from New York.

Over the years, Nancy had often reminisced about her childhood in the mid-west and how being close to her family was so wonderful.  She talked about having coffee with her aunts, and extended family dinners with cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.  So one day when she was remembering such a moment, I said "why don't we just move near your sister in Georgia and be part of our  nieces' lives?"

From that moment, we started to consider if we could actually leave our friends, favorite restaurants and our lives here in Silicon Valley.  Turns out there are restaurants and good food everywhere, so that left us thinking about friends.

After 20 years, we have established a group of wonderful, interesting, exciting friends.  Could we leave them?  We first realized that some of them were leaving us.  Over the years, some of our best friends had moved on.  Some moved away and then moved back.  But we realized that we were able to maintain our friendships despite the distance.  Facebook, Twitter, Skype etc. allowed us to be part of their lives and they of ours, maintaining our connections between our visits and phone calls.

We also realized that our lives were so busy that we only physically visited with most of our friends every 6-8 weeks.  Nancy made the sly comment that we could move to Georgia and never even tell anyone!  If someone invited us to dinner (which usually was a few weeks out given our schedules) we could just fly back and see them, with no one being any the wiser.

Our decision made, we rented a house in LaGrange about 3 miles from my wife's sister, and in the first 10 days of staying there, we had 4 family dinners, had our nieces come by after school to do homework 3 times, and visited WalMart 9 times (but that is a story for another day).

The DMV

Tell anyone in California that you are going to the DMV and you get a knowing look of deep sympathy.  Visiting the DMV for any reason ranks somewhere between a root canal and spending an afternoon with a used car salesman.  The process of dealing with the California DMV is so bad, there are successful businesses which simply hire people to stand in line at the DMV on your behalf.

So it was with great dread I prepared for visiting the Georgia DDS (Department of Driver Services) to obtain my Georgia drivers license.  I first went to the DDS website to find the online appointment system.  In California no one in their right mind would attempt to simply walk into a DMV office without a pre-scheduled appointment.  Without an appointment you could expect to wait 3-4 hours for service.  Sadly my search of the DDS site found no online appointment system.  I did find a notice that my local DDS office was open Tuesday-Friday and the best days to visit would be Wednesday and Thursday.  I also discovered, to my surprise, that unlike any other state I have lived in, Georgia does not require a written test if you already have an out of state drivers license.

I planned to be at the DDS office on Wednesday as soon as it opened at 8am hoping to beat the crowds.  Having overslept that day I finally arrived around 10am.  I walked into a large room with about 50 folding chairs and about 5 service windows.  There was one person sitting on a chair filling out a form, 3 people behind 3 of the service windows and a receptionist.

I walked right up to the receptionist and after a few pleasantries (in the South, simply asking immediately for what you want is considered rude) I told her that I was here for a driver's license.  She said she would give me a number and then watch an electronic board for my number to appear and the service window I should go to.  She handed me my number and immediately said "just go on now to window 3"

The gentlemen behind the window took my documents, took my picture, and 10 minutes later I had a Georgia drivers license.  Total time from when I walked through the front door to license about 11 minutes.

I think I may really like small town southern living.