Dinner in the Diner, Nothin’ Could be Finer The Summerton (SC) Diner Serves Up Southern Cooking at Antebellum Prices by Kelly Monaghan I’m one of those people who dream of pulling off the dusty road into Small Town America, driving past the fast-food franchise joints, and finding the perfect diner: the small local establishment with a short order cook who actually knows how to cook and who serves up the kind of unpretentious, soul-satisfying local specialties that grandmom used to make. Usually, I’m disappointed, finding only the kind of lackluster fare that let the franchise giants take over the culinary landscape in the first place. It’s enough to make you believe that the golden age of diners, if it ever existed, faded away with your parents’ youth. But the diner of my dreams does exist. I know because I found it, quite by accident, a few years back, in Summerton, South Carolina, just a stone’s throw from Interstate 95 (at Exit 108). Since then, Summerton has figured prominently in my planning for my regular trips to Orlando. Driving might take longer, but I can’t hop off a plane in Summerton. And airline food can’t hold a candle to the Sunday Special at the Summerton Diner, for that is the name of this special place. Here’s what’s on offer on a typical Sunday. Dinner begins with a friendly greeting and a tall glass of iced tea (or a cup of coffee if you prefer), that will be constantly refilled. Then you have your choice of turkey with all the fixin’s (fabulous), Southern fried chicken (terrific), roast beef, or baked ham with pineapple. It is the vegetables, however, that make the Summerton Diner’s specials truly special. You can choose three out of eight and the choice can be devilishly difficult. If you would like to read the rest of this review (with pix), visit http://www.intrepidtraveler.com/travels/
South Carolina