Park Road Soda Shoppe, Charlotte, North Carolina

I tried to take it easy after a day of meals at Flo’s, Stephenson’s, Pik N Pig, and Mama Ricotta’s, as well as an after-party. Scott, Nora, and I got up the next morning with a plan to have breakfast at the Park Road Soda Shop followed by lunch at a barbecue place to be named later, after which I’d head north toward Lexington and Winston-Salem. We dawdled over coffee and conversation, and ended up meeting Sinclair and Eric at Park Road.

The Park Road Soda Shoppe has been around since 1999, back in the era of superfluous “E’s” on store and restaurant names, and it recreates a 1950s era soda shop.

While most such efforts have faded, Park Road has thrived by serving great food at prices that, while not quite the same as the 1950s, are far below today’s, especially to a wandering Washingtonian. Both Scott and Sinclair have been going to Park Road for decades, and they appear separately on faded collages of customers in years past. Scott and his son, Chip, eat breakfast together there once a week. Isn’t that a nice thing?

We arrived and, after a short wait, managed five stools at the counter and proceeded to order. After that I proceeded to fail to photograph most dishes. I didn’t even photograph my own two eggs over easy with sausage and a biscuit. That’s a particular shame because the eggs were gorgeous, with nary a speck of yolk solidified, and the hash browns were beautifully crisp. The sausage patty had a nice exterior such as you’ll see momentarily, and a view of a biscuit is in your future as well, as I also ordered a breakfast sandwich.

I did capture Eric’s fluffy pancakes,

and while I missed Sinclair’s bacon and eggs, I did catch the grits that she shared with me.

Let’s pause to discuss those grits. Usually an order of grits is a starting point. They arrive on your plate and you add some salt, pepper, butter, and, maybe some Texas Pete or Tabasco sauce. You may mix in some cheese or egg yolk or bacon. Sinclair claimed, and I personally verified, that these grits needed nothing. No salt, no butter, nothing. Corn kernels dream of becoming grits like these as they’re nixtamalized.

You can see the biscuit there, too. It’s a little darker than the biscuit that came with my plate, and you can see the tender and fluffy interior, balanced by that solidity you want in a breakfast sandwich — a rare combination.

You also can see the sandwich filling. Park Road offers a wide range of biscuit sandwiches with egg and a wide range of familiar meats, as well as a rare North Carolina Piedmont specialty, livermush.

Livermush, for the many uninitiated, is a traditional sausage. that, much like scrapple, is made of miscellaneous parts of a pig. By law it is 30 percent liver, but the liver flavor is tamed by traditional country sausage seasonings, sage, pepper, and so forth. The result is a whisper of liver much like that in a good pâté campagne. Of course, if you’ve tried pâté and didn’t like it, or if the very word “livermush” makes you woozy, don’t waste your money. Eric and Scott tried some, and Eric reported as better than expected and worth trying again, while Scott maintained a judicious silence. I thought the seasonings and the texture, with a good crust and smooth interior, were quite good, and I enjoyed it.

While we were there, a local celebrity, Shorty, entered. Shorty is a genius with a guitar or mandolin. It seems that he has no internet presence and, as far as I can tell, no regular band or schedule, not even a last name. He pops up on stages around town, however, and whenever he does, it’s a phenomenon. If you know more about Shorty, please let me know. Speaking of music, for those in or visiting Charlotte, I’m told that LiveMusicCLT

Music and livermush aside, it was a fine breakfast. The staff is very friendly and informative about local music and about Shorty, or as much as anyone. And it’s aways good to get together with family. After breakfast we strolled over to the vast Black Hawk Hardware and Garden Center, which is the Buc-ees of hardware stores, the nicest hardware store I’ve ever seen. And they offer free fresh-popped popcorn. Top that.

Charlotte is a great city, and it’s growing like topsy. It seems like everyone who isn’t moving to Florida or Texas is moving to Charlotte. It’s dynamic, and in recent years has gained some excellent barbecue places (search “Charlotte”), and Park Road is definitely one of Charlotte’s a great places to eat breakfast. Give it a try.

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