How about and ewww no to both choices I like real food thank you very much Democrat?
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I’ve eaten at both places (not a fan of Applebees, really) and have no problem finding “real food” to eat when I go to restaurants. It’s especially easy at a place like Chipotle, who only source their meat from small pasture-raised farms that don’t use hormones and only use fresh vegetables.
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To be fair I never paid attention to that part of their business and I do like that beer is an option there… just meh it’s everywhere kinda thing and Taco Del Mar is closer and I have a taco truck just 2 blocks from the house.
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I’m an immigrant in “the other America” (blue by upbringing in a very red location) and I gotta tell you, the restaurant options are abysmal. At least the chains feature vegetables beyond iceberg lettuce with shredded carrot, which I can’t say for our local restaurants. Now, eating at Applebees when there are better options nearby? Sad!
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My objection to Applebees isn’t that it’s a chain. I eat at chain restaurants often enough. It isn’t the Red-State/Blue-State socio-cultural-political associations. I go to Cracker Barrel/Waffle House sometimes (though not often). My objection is the revolting food. It’s the same reason I won’t eat at TGI Fridays, and avoid Denny’s if at all possible. If I have to eat at traditional Red-State restaurants to bridge the great cultural divide, I’ll stick with Cracker Barrel - at least the fried apples are good.
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Yeah, in a neighborhood with multiple taquerias I have no need to go to Chipotle, really. Their food can be quite tasty in a mellowed-down southwest-tex-mex kind of way, but when I can get really excellent tacos al pastor a block away, I don’t see the need to visit.
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I’ve never been to a Cracker Barrel. Have I missed out?
It is decent ‘southern’ road trip worthy food you can get good greens for a veggie choice. I should let @JemmieDuffs pipe in here as she didn’t grow up in the region but has eaten there a few times while we were visiting my family.
It is the attached store full of Mayberry kitsch that makes the ‘experience’.
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It’s not something I’d really recommend, but when I’m on the road it’s a safe choice. They’re consistent, and the sides pretty are generally good, esp. the fried apples. I wind up driving from Austin to Alabama/Florida a few times some years where road food options are pretty dismal. Going into a Cracker Barrel is kind of like an anthropological expedition into the Other America. There’s old-timey Americana everywhere. They also have some odd old-time candies in the store like Choward’s gum and violet candies that I like.
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Yeah this more than anything. Not really awesome but a much better choice than Denny’s, etc.
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This is exactly my feeling, too. I wouldn’t seek out Cracker Barrels or make it a destination for dinner, but when I’ve been driving for 10 hours, going to a kitchy old-timey homestyle place and being called “honey” while eating stuff like meatloaf, chicken fried steak, collard greens, and fried apples is definitely comfort food. And the country store is about the only place to find things like Ale-8-1 and Valomilks.
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Safer than Waffle House too, though for different reasons. If you were born with a low roll for Constitution, you might have issues with Waffle House.
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What’s the other one like Waffle House?
Huddle House?
Jane and Michael Stern’s Roadfood books and their crowd-sourced reviews for regional restaurants on the Roadfood website are what I rely on for food when travelling.
A travel writer Duncan Hines who journeyed down US’s early highways made notes of worthy, safe restaurants and compiled them into a guidebook. Edited: The book expanded to include recipes one can make at home and eventually was published as Adventures in Good Eating, and had a review of a Sanders’ Cafe in Kentucky, owned and operated by a man named Harland Sanders.
Few of those restaurants exist today, but I understand some keyword search powers can divine some restaurant-review websites.
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I had NO IDEA that Duncan Hines was a travel writer before he licensed his name to baked goods. Thank you, this is fascinating.
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Waf le Ho se, or W ff e ose, or something along those lines. Never Waffle House.
I find their use of extreme amounts of vegetable oil to fry eggs abhorrent.
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If you’re LGBTQ or an ally, you’ve missed rampant bigotry. If you’re vegetarian/vegan, you’ve missed a menu and corporate website that refuses to give ingredient information; what is apparent is that only the small side salad and possibly a few of the veggie side dishes are appropriate (the greens, for example, are made with bacon).
And if you like peanuts, you’ve missed the opportunity to throw their shells directly on the floor in public.
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Got that one covered, I’ve been to a Texas Roadhouse.
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Yeah, they’re really horrible. They also got nailed with a racial discrimination suit for the way they treated black customers in the '90s/'00s. Most large restaurant chains are run by knuckle-dragging anti-labor rights neanderthals - it’s a capitalist race to the bottom to squeeze profits out of exploited labor, but they’re trying extra hard to be horrible.
I usually do the multi-side plate and ask the wait staff about things. I’ve been there enough to know which things they stick bacon in, since my mom loves the place and there’s one down the road from her house.
Many, I wish the ones I went to had peanuts. I love peanuts in the shell. I go to Five Guys, despite being a vegetarian, mostly because of the free peanuts.
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Well put 
That’s why I stick to the classics: waffle (or pecan waffle if I’m feeling sassy), side of hash browns scattered smothered covered and diced. Maybe bacon. Coffee, of course.
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