Skip to main content

Greenville SC: Duke Sandwich Company

Fate brought me to sample Duke Sandwich over a series of events. First, I passed their establishment on an earlier trip. I tagged it in my mind as a potentially interesting, old fashioned restaurant. Then, on a later trip, a BBQ restaurant I wanted to try was closed for vacation, and GPS brought me over a series of tiny roads to Duke's doorstep.

A little online research shows that Duke Sandwich was founded in 1917 when Ms. Duke started to sell her chicken salad sandwiches to the troops at the local base. The chicken salad made use of Ms. Duke's mayonnaise recipe, which she licensed and is still manufactured today. Her family still runs the business and it shows. The restaurant is bright, clean, and efficient. The staff all wear crisp, lively-colored t-shirts. When I expressed an interest in trying the chicken salad, he asked someone to bring me a spoonful. Later, our tray was delivered by an extremely courteous and helpful server.

I am not a big chicken salad person, but I must say that my sample was excellent. The chicken came through cleanly and mixed beautifully with the excellent mayonnaise. Fresh, crispy celery accented the mix.

Duke serves a full complement of sandwiches. For my lunch, I ordered the grilled cheese. The perfect grill marks are an outward sign of the tastiness of the sandwich inside. The cheese was rich and creamy. The toast was a perfect balance of softness and toasty crunch. I didn't get a chance to try the BBQ pork but I observed that it didn't last long.

This place reminds me of some of the old time spots in New Jersey. As with those spots, Duke's serves simpler food from a simpler time. People used to have less money to eat but they also had fewer transportations options to search out their food. Inexpensive, good food spots were important for sustenance and a sense of place. I am grateful that places like Duke's are still around for us to enjoy.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eating Around Georgia Tech: Ecco

Our Texas Instruments colleague Cathy Wicks was gracious enough to host several of us at Ecco tonight. This is one of those restaurants that has been on my list for a long time. Even though it is within easy walking distance of Georgia Tech, I hadn't made it there until tonight. The menu is a combination of Italian, Spanish, and French that make use of some local Georgia ingredients. The combination of those three countries is sometimes a little forced, although the georgia ingredients (fruit, cheese) were all great and perfectly appropriate. We started out with a meat and cheese board. This actually reverses the French tradition, where cheese usually follows the main course. Everything was excellent. The Georgia cheese was a big hit, as was the French cow/goat cheese. I thought the sauscisson was very subtle and very good. The waitress said that the roast pork pasta was their signature dish, so I had to try it. It had traditional broad pasta (fresh, of course) ...
Post a Comment
Read more

DCA: Cava Mezze Grill

Cava is a DC area chain with light Mediterranean food. Saibal encouraged me to try lunch at their airport location and I was very happy with the experience. I ordered falafel on SuperSalad with assorted other toppings. The falafel was tasty. The SuperSalad was light, flavorful, and very easy to eat. Overall, a healthy and enjoyable lunch, something you can't always say about airport eating.
Post a Comment
Read more

Pressure Cooker Candied Ginger

I made candied ginger a few years ago. It's not something I would do every day but I had a lot of fun doing it. I recently acquired a pressure cooker and it inspired an interesting idea to me: why not make candied ginger in the pressure cooker? It should be very soft and flavorful. Here is the result. I peeled two large ginger roots, cut them into small cubes, and put them in the pressure cooker with heavily sugared water. The traditional method first boils the ginger in plain water to soften it and then again in sugar water to candy it. The resulting candy was very tender but still with the characteristic ginger texture. It was also sweet without being overpowering. The traditional method leaves a lot of sugar crystallized around the ginger. The pressure cooker gives a much more subtle result. The ginger stays moist even after it cools but you can dry it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. That inspired me to dip it in chocolate. While I was in the b...
2 comments
Read more