SEC college towns ...

... can you recommend your favorite places to eat?

I know there is an On the Road thread, but I'm working on a story about places to eat in the SEC and who would know better than the many SEC regulars that hang around here.

What I'm looking for is the must-visit places, as much for their character as their food, and the places to get a damn good meal.

I'm from Athens and went to school at Ole Miss, so I pretty much got those two covered. Any help you guys can throw my way would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

What woul be your pick in Oxford? Ajax Diner?

 

Oh, to be in Starkville now that fall is here...

 

Ajax, yes.

 

I think after Athens and Oxford, there's a pretty big drop as far as SEC Cities...

 

In Starkville, I always eat at Little Dooey. Great barbecue. I get either the pulled pork plate with two helpings of corn salad, or the large barbecue sandwich with hot sauce and slaw (slaw on the sandwich) and a side of waffle fries.

Herbstreit and Fowler made an indirect reference to the restaurant during last week's game. Fowler asked Herbstreit how many straight meals he'd eaten barbecue in Starkville. There are several pictures of Herbstreit on the walls there, some of him playing tennis with the owner. The walls are also covered with placemats colored by the patrons there. Lots of silly pig puns with good and not-so-good artwork. It's an old house that's got a winding dining room woven through it.

 

Thanks, that's exactly the kind of input I'm looking for.

 

One thing that struck me about Oxford was the lack of truly good BBQ. All the restaurants try to copy Memphis dry ribs and fail miserably.

A good sandwich at Lil Dooey is about as good of BBQ as you're going to find in either town. Never had the ribs there.

 

everyone talks about dreamland, and dreamland's great, but i gotta go with archibald's in tuscaloosa. get the half-and-half plate. half an order of ribs, half an order of sliced pork. oh, and get the small, unless you've got three people to feed

 

Anyone got any Gainesville tips?

There's a good take-out burrito joint across the street from the Holiday Inn, with a Mellow Mushroom nearby, but I don't know of any other places. And I don't want to mention Mellow Mushroom because I want to keep this local.

 

A fellow hack I trust tells me the best BBQ in Oxford is at a little gas station right at the top of the Lamar Street exit off Hwy. 6: B's Hickory Smoked Bar-B-Q at the Shell station.

 

I covered a Florida-Florida State game in the late 1990s and was stunned at what a shithole Gainesville is.

I ate at the Swamp. It was OK...