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Showing posts from 2013

The A1 Diner in Gardiner, Maine - Where Retro Meets Bistro!

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Should you find yourself wandering around in mid-Maine, take a detour to the city of  Gardiner which was founded as Gardinerstown Plantation in 1754 by Dr. Silvester Gardiner, a prominent Boston physician and Tory whose substantial land holdings were confiscated during the American Revolution.  The property was eventually restored to his grandson, Robert Hallowell Gardiner, and the town was incorporated on February 17, 1806 then later as a city on November 26, 1849.   A "bedroom community" of less than 6,000 residents comprised mostly of people working in Maine's capital city of Augusta or at the Bath Iron Works, in 1980 the entire downtown historic district of Gardiner was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Kennebec County, Maine due to its great deal of historic architecture.  Some of that historic architecture belongs to the 1820 Christ Episcopal Church  (the oldest continuously operating Episcopal Church in Maine), the 1881 Gardiner Public Library

Big Ed's City Market Restaurant in Raleigh - Good Southern Cookin' Served Up By Great Southern Folks!

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I recently had the opportunity to visit a city I'd never been to before when my cousin Amy asked me if I'd like to go to Raleigh, North Carolina with her for the International Bluegrass Music Association 's Annual Conference which had previously been held in Nashville but was making the switch to Raleigh for at least the next three years. Heck, as I'm always up for a trip someplace new I said 'sure' and so it was that we made the drive down along with Amy's sister-in-law Robin in search of bluegrass music and some of the local flavor. While Amy was attending to some conference business, Robin and I had the pleasure of spending some time talking to Ryan Smith of visitRaleigh who was kind enough to suggest a few local places that we might want to visit; she highly recommended that if we were looking for an "authentic Southern breakfast" that we be sure to visit Big Ed's City Market Restaurant as they were the best in town and not to be