For edible Americana, look for Roadfood

FOOD | Julianne Glatz

By the time you read this, I’ll be back in Brooklyn. I just can’t stay away from my new grandson! As is often the case, I’m driving. Occasionally I fly, but more often than not, I take the car. Sometimes it’s because I’m taking stuff out to my son in Boston or daughter in New York. Sometimes I’m bringing stuff back. Sometimes it’s because we’ll be traveling outside the cities, especially to music festivals with camping. On this trip, I’m not only taking camping supplies for my husband, Peter (he’s flying out for the weekend), and kids for an oceanfront festival in Connecticut, but also bringing back a newborn crib, bags of baby clothes, and other stuff our grandson has outgrown. Our daughter’s Brooklyn apartment is spacious by New York standards, but storage is minimal. If and when another baby comes along, I’ll undoubtedly haul it all back.

For eating on the road (15½ hours to Brooklyn, 19 hours to Boston actual driving time) I bring along drinks and snacks – fruit, crudités, granola, etc. and sandwiches. It’s good to stop for a meal, too – get out, stretch my legs and take a break. But I refuse to eat at fast food franchises, which along interstates often seem like the only option. I make occasional exceptions for Steak ’n Shakes (which extend eastward through Ohio). But I can eat at Steak ’n Shake here – they originated in Bloomington. What I really want when I’m traveling is to find eateries offering regional specialties frequented by locals, rather than national chains with identical menus and identical architecture from Alaska to Florida. To find locally owned places making local specialties, I turn to Jane and Michael Stern, authors of Roadfood, a cross country culinary guide that, as People Magazine says, “should be stashed in every food lover’s glove compartment.”

The Sterns essentially stumbled into what would become their lifelong vocation. Neither had food or writing backgrounds. They met while they were pursuing advanced art degrees at Yale and married in 1970. As always, employment opportunities in the arts were scarce. “We decided to hit the road and see America,” Michael tells me. “In the early ’70s, CB radios were a big thing. We thought we’d do a book about truckers – they have such a fabulous culture and we wanted to document that. And where do you find truckers? At truck stops, of course.”

Actually, the Sterns didn’t so much as stumble into their vocation as invent it. “We tried to find a guidebook for good local eating places,” Michael says. “But the only guidebooks were for big cities, and they usually only listed upscale restaurants. There was no attention paid to regional specialties.”

Fast food and chain restaurants were expanding rapidly, while interest in regional food was virtually nonexistent, at least for publishers. The Sterns struggled to find a publisher for their first Roadfood guide, which came out in 1978.

Today, fast food and chains still abound.

But interest in regional food specialties and discovering off-the-beaten-path eateries has exploded, due in no small part to the Sterns. “Looking at the coverage today – it’s amazing!” exults Michael.

“When we wrote the first edition of Roadfood more than 30 years ago, we believed we were documenting the end of an era,” the Sterns write. “Good, inexpensive food served in colorful places along the road seemed to be a thing of the past, and we saw a bleak future of soulless franchised restaurants from coast to coast. While there is no denying the awful ubiquity of national chains and their depredations against good eating (not to mention their uglification of the landscape), we are happy to report that delicious regional food is alive and thriving.”