You can't get fresher beer than at Foothills (evoking the Piedmont) because right there is where it's made-they give tours-and as a brew pub they are as serious about their food as they are about their beer. It would never occur to her to serve anything else, and her loyal clientele know that.
The grits, as you can guess, are simply cooked but taste of corn, topped with seasonal greens, tomatoes, two fried eggs and feta ($10.95).ĭown the bottom of the long menu Mary lists her purveyors, all from North Carolina, like Homeland Creamery Dairy Products from Julian, Ward's Happy Chicken Eggs from McLeansville, Sanford Milling Company Flour in Henderson, Plum Granny Farm Produce from Greensboro, King and Kranies Coffee from Winston-Salem. Pour on some pork gravy and you have a breakfast as good as any in the South ($10.50), and one to hold you till dinner. The biscuits at Mary's are knock-outs-big as a baseball, fluffy, buttery, they're light and airy but with just the right textural heft and that tangy hint of buttermilk. "Over the years, many people have found it hard to believe the food isn't rigged with some 'special' ingredient," she says, "Perhaps it's the LACK of strange ingredients that blows people's minds and taste buds." Whatever it is, I was enchanted with the place and the food, from the billowy "build your own" omelets to the plump breakfast burrito ($10.75) and the griddle-fried cornmeal cakes with thick-sliced bacon or sausage ($10.50). The Mary in question is Mary Haglund, and nothing goes in or out of that kitchen that she doesn't deem the best she can buy and serve, and do it at very reasonable prices: a square deal for a square meal. Breakfast is served six days a week, out of an old bank building in the burgeoning Arts District. Mary's began on a smaller scale but business bloomed so well that they were forced to get bigger and offer even better. On one wall is stretched the "Garden of Eden." On another "Culinary Warrior Women." Stars twinkle, colors pop, dinosaurs stroll with lions, and wit abounds. There's not a little whimsy in attaching "Gourmet" to Mary's Diner, now six years in business, for while all the traditional no frills chairs and tables and the "sit-down-and-eat" ambiance are what you might expect, they are enhanced beyond anything you might imagine by vast murals by local artists of justified reputation, including Liz Simmons, Laura Lashley, Daniel VonSeggen, Jason Blevins and John Blackburn. A dish called "The Colonel" is composed of crispy buttermilk fried chicken and "sawmill gravy" with smoked tomato and pimento cheese grits ($19.95), while the crusted pork chop ($23.95) comes with brown sugar whipped sweet potatoes, pickled shrimp and crab salad with smoked tomato rémoulade. Otherwise the regular menu is long and has something for everyone, each dish piled high with food and garnishes, from the house salad towering with juicy roast duck, caramelized onions, mushrooms, potato and goat's cheese ($25), to the shrimp, crab, and roasted corn beignets with a red beet sauce and horseradish condiment ($11.95). Inside the kitchen there is a "Chef's Table" where chef/co-owner Tim Grandinetti displays his considerable showmanship in lavish multi-course dinners. The place retains the look of a great house with broad staircases, French doors and fireplaces, white oak floors, and four upstairs bedrooms. Owners Lynn Murphy and his wife, Lynette Matthews-Murphy, have infused a congenial hospitality in every detail and corner, including the beautiful Library Bar, the sun room, and, in good weather, tables outside on the spacious lawn.
BEST FOOD IN WINSTON SALEM FREE
Located in the historic 1920s Bahnson House on "Millionaire's Row" and once used as the city's public library, Spring House enters its fifth year as one of Winston-Salem's fine dining restaurants wholly free of pomp while remaining genteel in the most disarming sense.
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