A New/Old Country Store

In February (See "Losing the 'Lost Parkway Blues'"), I recommended Norman's Café, a roadside diner on Highway 10 in central North Carolina, where I stumbled into some fine home cooking. Here's another.

"Tha Store," on Two Notch Road just outside Gilbert in west-central South Carolina, is the closest thing to an old-fashioned country store I've visited in many years. It's in a vintage crossroads building that's housed a hodge-podge of rural businesses. Today, it functions in much the same role as rural stores half a century ago. From its wooden floors to its ice cream churns to its refrigerated case of breakfast essentials, this is a nostalgically wonderful place to patronize -- and to just hang out. It offers old-style burgers and hotdogs (the sign out front was what stopped me) from a short-order grill, a voluminous rack of used video movies ($5 each), fishing supplies, a few folksy collectibles, and most every type of snack you can want. You can buy a bottle of Cheerwine. Best of all, although it's only a mile or two from "downtown" Gilbert and a modern school campus, and perhaps three miles off I-20, it's still "in the country" where it's always been. It basically commands the intersection and surroundings, as far as you can see, all for itself.

"Tha Store." Well worth a detour on the Carolina backroads.