Three Awesome Small Towns, Best Seen by Road Trip

by Paul Brady on

In the past few weeks, I’ve spent plenty of time in small towns. They’re the kinds of places you only visit on a road trip, when passing through, going to bigger cities and bigger sites that aren’t sequestered below the Mason-Dixon, far from a major airport or hidden, for example, in rural Mississippi. (I’ve never heard my friends, otherwise adventurous types, talk about catching the next flight out of New York to Tupelo.)

But there are great travel experiences to be had in small-town America, where you don’t need a lifetime to peel back the layers of history like you might in Philadelphia or Boston. These small towns are manageable, navigable and just plain visitable. (It helps that every single person I met was super-friendly too.) These towns, all with fewer than 50,000 residents, have been some of my favorites stops on the trip, and here’s how to see them.

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Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez is, as it’s always been, a quintessential river town. A little bawdy, rough around the edges and a stopping point by definition: It’s at the head of the Natchez Trace Parkway. There’s not much to do here but wait for the next ship to come in, whether its a coast guard cutter–there’s one stationed here–or a boatload of luck at the Isle of Capri, a smoky riverboat casino that provides some contact with the gambling past–and present–of the Mississippi.

What often happens, though, is that visitors set up headquarters at the Natchez Grand Hotel and simply slow down. If they’re feeling adventurous, there are antebellum mansions to tour because the town surrendered to General Grant in the Civil War, sparing its buildings to watch history, like the river, wash on by. The even more intrepid visitor will brave the Under the Hill Saloon, a honky tonk with guest rooms upstairs that come with a disclaimer: “One demanding complete silence before 2 a.m. should probably stay elsewhere.”

Tupelo, Mississippi
On first glance, there’s one thing to see in Tupelo, Mississippi. Elvis’ first home is here, a two-room shack built for $180, where the singer was born January 8, 1935. But a downtown arena–where The Eagles, Tom Petty, Cirque du Soleil and Bill Cosby have played since its opening in the 90s–has sparked new development, with restaurants and bars taking up storefronts where stalwarts like Reed’s Department Store and Booth’s Tupelo Hardware Company still carry on.

Nautical Whimsy is a wine bar and Italian bistro, while 212 Cafe does a fantastic lunch and brisk coffee business starting at sunrise. Romie’s, a local BBQ titan, has a new location on Troy Street, around the corner from Fairpark Grill, a perhaps surprisingly good steakhouse and bar. (The small business world isn’t all success stories: Joe Joe’s Espresso went under recently but still sells fantastically roasted beans to 212.) Not bad for a town of 40,000, halfway to Nashville along the Trace.

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Paducah, Kentucky
In Western Kentucky, at the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio rivers, Paducah is a town of just 25,000, not quite 200 years old, founded by William Clark, of Lewis and Clark renown. But the last 20 years have turned it into a creative capital under even the most powerful of radar. Thanks to talkative artists who have taken up residence there, word is starting to leak out about this enclave by the rivers: The town was recently named one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 12 destinations of distinction. The recognition, says the Trust, guarantees “an authentic visitor experience [featuring] dynamic downtowns, cultural diversity, attractive architecture, cultural landscapes and a strong commitment to historic preservations, sustainability and revitalization.” Sounds like Paducah!

A city-sponsored artist relocation program has turned the LowerTown neighborhood into a gallery hopper’s dream, just a few blocks from downtown, with dozens of homes and studios to visit. The biggest ticket in Paducah may be the National Quilt Museum–it has more thrills than you’d expect!–but creative local businesses are making small-town life exciting: Max’s serves outstanding brick-oven pizza, Etcetera has the best coffee in town and Kirchhoff’s Bakery is a family-run institution, re-opened in its original location after 40 years with the ovens off.

The city center is quite manageable by foot, but the city tourism bureau has put together a cell phone walking tour that lets visitors dial in for more info as they explore historic shop buildings, theaters and churches. (The number is 270-854-3050. Try it now!) More importantly, it’s a small enough town that people will happily strike up a conversation with you, just to find out what the heck you’re doing in Paducah. More often than not, it’s someone fascinating, like Shane Lee, the clothing designer I met while getting a cup of coffee. For personal connections and experiences like that, maybe it is worth hopping a plane to flyover country.

America’s 25 most expensive restaurants

by Laurel Miller on

What recession? Bundle just released a list of the 25 most expensive restaurants in America, and you’d never know the economy was still faltering. Your average diner would definitely require a stimulus package to pay the check.

Topping the list is The French Laundry, located in Yountville, in the Napa Valley. Chef/owner Thomas Keller’s three-star Michelin restaurant is ranked among the world’s best (as is Per Se, his New York outpost). An average check is $957 per visit, while Per Se bats $883. Also in the top five: Michael Mina (San Francisco), at $844; Alinea (Chicago), at $736, and Charlie Trotter’s (Chicago), at $666 (ironic, given Trotter’s reputation as…difficult).

To determine the list, Bundle examined spending data, then looked at average check sizes based upon millions of transactions in restaurants nationwide. Interestingly, the most expensive restaurants fell into two categories: French, and Contemporary American. But Robert’s Steakhouse in the Executive Penthouse Club (New York) and Mario Batali-co-owned Del Posto (Italian) also made the list.

So what does a $957 dollar meal taste like? Well, it damn well better be flawless–service included–but there’s a reason these chef/restaurateurs are at the top of their game. Prix fixe menus are a big reason tabs are so high. At Per Se, you’ll pay up to $295 a pop, while at Le Bernadin (New York, ranked 14th) it’s $330 with a wine pairing.

As a food writer, I admire the hell out of these guys for their talent as both chefs and businessmen. That said, I don’t think any meal on earth is worth nearly a grand, especially when said chefs generally aren’t the ones doing the cooking. It’s their hard-working, usually underpaid staff who do the heavy lifting, which is one of the great inequities of the restaurant business. I take issue when the people doing the cooking, serving, bussing, dishwashing, and cleaning don’t have the luxury of eating at their place of employment.

[Editor’s note: Bundle’s data take only take the average price per check per restaurant in their calculations, meaning some abnormalities may result from particularly large or small restaurants. They also don’t appear to include every possible, most expensive restaurant in the country. Please bear the limits of this data in mind — and try to have a good dinner]

Barbary Coast Sex: Satisfaction Guaranteed

by David Farley on
It’s not very often when a madam guarantees you’ll have the best sex of your life. Or at least so satisfying you’ll walk out of there thinking your twenty-five cents was very well spent. Such was the case in Barbary Coast-era San Francisco. Having walked from the Old Mint, the beginnings of the Barbary Coast trail, across wide Market Street (the city’s answer to the Champs Elysées), past the tourists queuing for a cable car on Powell Street, and, finally, across Union Square, I found myself standing on Maiden Lane. In the 1870s this narrow street, stretching from Union Square to Kearney Street, was the home of 1,000 prostitutes. Their houses of ill repute were called cribs.

I stood there trying to imagine the topless women hanging out of first-floor windows, yelling “Touch one breast for ten cents, two breasts for fifteen cents, or come on in for twenty-five cents.”

The men were encouraged to hang up their clothes in a closet. And once the they were, uh, preoccupied with their lady, a colleague from another room would remove the back panel of the closet and take the rest of the John’s cash.

I joined up with a walking tour on Maiden Lane. Sponsored in part by the San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco City Guides gives free tours throughout the city. This particular one, called “Bawdy & Naughty” focused on Barbary Coast-era prostitutes. Specifically, though, on Maiden Lane, today a posh pedestrianized street flanked by Chanel, Prada, Paul Smith, and Hermes shops.

The guide, John Ferriera, walked the group (of which there was a guy who bore a striking resemblance to everyone’s favorite news pontificator and Mexican immigration lover, Lou Dobbs) down the two-block street, regaling us with salacious stories of 19th-century San Francisco. As we stood in front of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building at #140, Ferriera told us about Bertha Kahn, a famous Maiden Lane madam who coined the term “Satisfaction guaranteed.” If you weren’t satisfied with your amorous encounter, she’d give you a token to come back and try again.


Today, randy San Franciscans can go to the Tenderloin to pretend they’re in Barbary Coast-era Maiden Lane. It’s highly doubtful, however, that anyone there is putting a guarantee on satisfaction. And it certainly will cost you more than twenty-five cents.

A bison is on the loose in Austin, Texas

by Kraig Becker on

Austin, Texas is a city that is use to large bovine creatures roaming around. After all, it is home to the University of Texas Longhorns and their mascot Bevo. But the city got an unexpected visitor earlier this week in the form of a North American Bison, who escaped from its owner on Saturday, and has been roaming free ever since.

Apparently, a rancher living not far from town purchased the bison last week, and upon returning home, the creature promptly escaped. On Saturday, it was spotted by gardeners at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, a local nature preserve, and has been wandering, and grazing, on the 280-acre site for the past few days.

After sighting the creature, officials at the Wildflower Center took the precautionary step of shutting down their trails in order to keep visitors, and the bison, safe. They say that the animal hasn’t caused any problems, or done any damage so far, and that they are rather pleased that she chose the preserve as her hideout.

Of course, a large animal, such as a bison, roaming around a highly populated urban area isn’t exactly an ideal situation. Austin animal control officers have been working hard to find the creature so that it can be tranquilized and safely transported back to its owner. So far, the creature has remained elusive however, and all attempts to find it have failed.

For now, Austin is where the buffalo roam.

[Photo courtesy of Joseph A. Marcus]

Photo of the day: Whippet in Texas

by Elizabeth Seward on

I smile just about as big as the Whippet in this photo each time I see this photo. Stephanie Williams is the co-owner of Bennu–a coffee shop here in Austin wherein I spend many of my days typing away at the good ol’ laptop, continually seduced by the iced teas and mate lattes. When my own travel site hosted a summer photo contest recently, Williams’ photo of Elliot won our readers’ approval by a landslide. And it’s not difficult to see why… look at this pup.

Now that I’m a (proud, so proud) dog owner myself (and she’s part Whippet herself!), I have a deeper respect for shots like these. Getting an energetic dog to sit still is a challenge in itself at times, so capturing a photo like this impressive. Moreover, a happy dog basking in the Texas sunshine is what’s depicted here, and sunshine is certainly synonymous with Texas this time of year.

Have photos of your own dog experiencing the landscape or season of a certain place? Share them with us at the Gadling Flickr Pool.