Time for lunch in small town Americana

When traveling, people usually want to try something new.

New, that is, as far as a place to eat. There’s that adventure aspect.

But that goes against the grain sometimes when not in somewhat familiar territory or a town big enough to have a “fast food row.”

On a recent trip, on a road in Alabama never traveled before, lunch time arrived when we were in what some would call the “middle of nowhere.”

Well, it was somewhere for those who live there. But to us, there wasn’t a lot of civilization 20 or so miles before we arrived, and upon leaving, it was the same way in the other direction.

I can’t remember the name of the town, but I believe it was Grove Hill. We had gotten off the main highway to take a break and check out our GPS to see how to get where we wanted to go.

After a few minutes of checking and not arriving at a different decision about how to head north, my wife and I decided to have some lunch.

But where.

The road we took off the main highway into the town took us along the side of a courthouse complex. It was a rather large building. This had to be the county seat, I guess. I didn’t know.

We were traveling on the road parallel to the front of the courthouse, but about a block away. We turned toward the building wondering what was in the neighborhood.

The road curved to the right and away from the courthouse. Before I realized it, we were already back to the road we had come into town on.

But wait, there was a restaurant to the northeast of the courthouse that we had just passed. I figured they had to have somewhat decent food. We turned around and decided to give it a try.

I found out that not only did the Courthouse Square Deli and Bakery serve good and reasonably priced food, but they were located in a building that once housed the Clarke County Democrat, which apparently was a weekly newspaper. I once worked on two weeklies.

The paper served the area from 1856 until 1941, al least that’s what the lettering on the building indicated.

As usual my wife got a salad and water and I had coffee and a Philly cheese steak sandwich.

There was a homey atmosphere to the place, and since it was early afternoon, the courthouse workers had apparently already made their appearance at the regular lunchtime hour.

There were a few patrons in the spacious building, enjoying the socializing that comes with a small town restaurant.

We enjoyed the meal and soon set out upon our adventure.

Next post: June 6, 2017