Like Shooting Fish in a Cracker Barrel

Is there a Cracker Barrel comin' ta Waycross?  Rumors abound!

Rumors abound about another large chain restaurant coming to our area.  It's always hard to tell around here.  Are we growing or shrinking, or just holding our own?  Some of these big chains we attract, and they thrive, others fade almost as quickly as they arrive.

I have a friend who has expressed regrets over the arrival of these big chains because it made the experience of visiting them when one when out of town less special.  It was something to look forward to visit one of these while traveling because it was something you couldn't do at home.

Oh, no, no, no.  A thousand times no.  That is not what Alison and I find fun when we travel.  It's not a major cuisine goal to find a big restaurant chain that hasn't yet arrived in our local area.  We love to find a restaurant that is special and unique to the area we are visiting.  The taste of the undiscovered flavor, the quirky atmosphere, the promise of attentive staff - it's what we seek.

Taking a chance on someplace new is always risky.  But there are many newfangled apps and websites that can help steer you to the best bet for your tastes and interest.  Alison carefully thumbs through the ratings and reviews, and it increases our odds of hitting the right place.

Before the advent of phone apps in the palm of your hand, and still a strong supplement to it,  we would ask locals what their favorites were.  We would also do the drive-by test.  Those with lots filled with local customers became prime opportunities to try.  We found a great Italian place in St. Augustine using that method - the lot test proved to be a winner!

We found a great local pizzeria in Milledgeville, a wonderful Mexican restaurant in Cleveland, Tennessee, an amazing pancake house in Nashville, a superb Greek restaurant in Savannah, a BBQ road stop at St. Simon's Island, a German restaurant in Rincon, the perfect pie place in Lansing, Michigan.  Our travels are dotted with the discovery of great local restaurants.  And there is nary a chain among them,

Have we occasionally come across a cropper?  Someplace where the food or service or cleanliness was disappointing?  Yes, absolutely.  But that's part of what makes the discovery such a thrill.  What fun is there in always hitting the jackpot?

And we have jackpot places right here in our local area.  We have a Chinese restaurant that is good we rarely try Chinese out of town, because we know we'll be disappointed.  And we delight that we can have food in any way or combination we want - all we have to do is ask.  We don't have to go to a national burger joint - we have a great local chain right here.  We have diners filled with good food and great local conversation,  And I could go on and on.

So I welcome the big chain's arrival - variety is always nice,  Sometimes familiarity is a comfort, too.  But there is hardly anything that compares with the discovery of the new and exciting.  Like it is when you discover a new band that you know is great, but not everyone is into yet.  And then when they hit it big, you say, "Oh, but I was there first!"

You know.  Sort of like going to The Green Frog in Waycross, long before the Dardens became the holders of some of the biggest franchises in America.

Who knows?  Maybe one of these small favorites you go to will be the start of the next big thing!

Of course, by then, we may have moved on to another small upstart.  Boy, it's fun to be in on the beginning!