So what if we didn’t grow up with a Southern grandma? We still know a good fried chicken biscuit when we taste one—like, say, the Ace Biscuit & Barbecue sandwich on this week’s cover. Southern cuisine may be having a moment in the national spotlight, but ’round these parts we’ve had an embarrassment of fried chicken, grits, and collards riches for some time now (page 23). And as you’ll see in the following pages, we’ve also got more than our share of Japanese (page 25), Italian (page 25), and standard American (page 27) fare. Every year around this time for our Food & Drink Issue, we take a great big bite out of the local food scene to find out what you should be eating and drinking, cooking at home, and learning about our edible landscape. There’s a whole tasty world out there, and we’ve got the goods on where to start off. Trust us. We ain’t just whistling “Dixie.”
By Graelyn Brashear, Elizabeth Derby, Stephanie DeVaux, Shea Gibbs, Laura Ingles, Tami Keaveny, Tracey Love, Susan Sorensen, Courteney Stuart, and Caite White