I am what you may call a culinary naivete. My range of the foods I have experienced in my life is rather limited for several reasons, texture, taste, appearance and smell, or in my case a complete lack of that one of the basic five senses. If I go to a restaurant I tend to [...]
The crux of any quest is your expectation for victory. As an adventurer on this quest for the Holy Hamburger from Spartanburg, I expect to find something delicious in any place we stop to eat. I expect that each drive-in or restaurant will contain the mystical elements necessary to put together the best hamburger. To [...]
Previously on our quest, we stepped forthrightly into adventure by visiting the Nu-Way Lounge and sampling their burgers. We found them to be satisfying, but really nothing special. Leaving the Nu-Way made us crave further adventure, so we decided to head down St. John Street to Papa’s Breakfast Nook to see what questing we could [...]
Searching for a good burger is actually a lot harder than you might think. You have to take many factors into the equation of the burger. Are you looking for quantity of meat and cheese? Must there be toppings included that make or break the burger? As I pondered these eternal questions, I slowly came [...]
Homemade apple pie, fireworks exploding in the sky on the Fourth of July, these phrases personify what many think of when they conjure the image of America in their minds. I mean, these are the positive images at least. They provide a comforting sense of belonging, history, and nostalgia to a nation that is considered [...]
As reported late last month by the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, upscale eatery Brasserie Ecosse has been hard hit by the recession, and recently decided to make a dramatic change. How dramatic? Gone is the pretense of European-style haute cuisine and fine dining setting. In its place will be Bravehearts Bravehearts Scottish Restaurant and Pub, a more [...]
Every so often — like when I’m in a big rush out the door to get to a holiday vacation — I like to turn the Blog Report over to you, the readers. You have a very simple task ahead of you: Check out SparkleCityBlogs.com, browse for recent blog entries that strike your fancy out [...]
Don’t let the headline fool you. Reviewer Jake Grove at the Anderson-based Independent-Mail is just playing a little word game in his recent beer review. See? I feel kinda bad about this review. Or, maybe I should say I feel “BAD.” Why? Well, because this week I am finally getting around to reviewing a member [...]
For those of you who have been following the evolution of the Hub City Co-op from good idea to actually-looking-like-it’s-really-going-to-happen store, you’ll be heartened to know that the group now has a brand-new website to replace their static information page (which, as long as we’re on the subject, replaced their free blog page, which supplemented [...]
Early this morning, something that was once thought impossible happened in downtown Spartanburg: A business that had abandoned downtown more than a year ago actually reopened its doors. The same owners restored the location, and at least one of the same employees returned to work. Hub City Coffee — a locally owned drive through coffee [...]
Today is a historic day for the Spartanburg media. So historic, in fact, that you might want to go out and buy a copy of today’s newspaper to remember it by. It’s not because there’s some epoch-defining news. It’s because today, for the first time in months, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal‘s local coverage is hitting on [...]
Although the Hub City Co-Op has been active as a Facebook group for several months, and briefly had a blog documenting some parts of their organizing efforts, they haven’t had a true home on the web. This week, however, that changed with the unveiling of their new webite, HubCityCoop.org. Although the sites content is sparse [...]
You know its time to clean the oven when it begins to smoke. That’s what happened to me recently when I put in a casserole in the oven for Sunday dinner. The fact that the oven is used mostly for cooking occasional frozen pizzas and trays of tater tots would have you think that it [...]
While it has been common knowledge that the Hub City Co-op was looking at the space next to Brasserie Ecosse as their potential home — in fact, the Spark reported this in June — we’ve all been collectively waiting for some kind of confirmation since then. Today we have it. The Spartanburg Herald-Journal‘s Dudley Brown [...]
I have quite the active imagination and tend to dream big. One of my dreams of late is to grow a garden. And I don’t mean just plant it and water it; I’d like to actually get some food out of it. So for the past two years, I’ve tried to grow a garden. And [...]
