Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Greatest College Town Eats
SI ^ | August 12, 2019 | Joan Niesen and Laken Litman

Posted on 08/15/2019 8:28:49 AM PDT by C19fan

In honor of college football's 150th anniversary, we scoured college towns to find out which restaurants, dive bars and hole-in-the-wall food joints serve up the greatest grub. Read on to find out the top 10 drool-worthy spots in college football.

(Excerpt) Read more at si.com ...


TOPICS: Food; Sports
KEYWORDS: college; football
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-34 next last
Top 10 according to authors:

10: Waffle House

9: Mamaleh’s Cambridge, MA

8: Mother's Bear Bloomington, IN

7: Archibald’s Auscaloosa, Ala.

6: Dixie Chicken College Station, Texas

5: Simply Pressed South Bend, Ind.

4: Zingerman’s Ann Arbor, Mich.

3: Dotty Dumpling’s Dowry Madison, Wisc.

2: Veracruz All Natural Austin, Texas

1: Booches Columbia, Mo.

1 posted on 08/15/2019 8:28:49 AM PDT by C19fan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: C19fan

You missed Litton’s and Calhouns in Knoxville...


2 posted on 08/15/2019 8:31:23 AM PDT by JBW1949 (I'm really PC.....Patriotically Correct)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JBW1949

Yeah. I had Calhoun’s in Gatlinburg; yummy. The one in Knoxville is right on the TN River.


3 posted on 08/15/2019 8:32:57 AM PDT by C19fan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: All
I am sorry some deli in Cambridge, MA is not "college food". The blurb about "Simply Pressed" in South Bend makes it seem like a place Mayor Butt would hang out at. My experiences with college food:

1: Creamery at Penn State. The agricultural dept at Penn State runs their own creamery and ice cream shop.

2: Greasy Tony's New Brunswick, NJ.

3: Hoagie Haven Princeton, NJ.

4 posted on 08/15/2019 8:36:14 AM PDT by C19fan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

Zingerman’s is top notch. Every time I’ve been there I had to wait in a long line outside, but their sandwiches are legendary.

The photos of dishes from most of those dishes looked pretty blah, especially the place in Alabama where they serve what looks like Bush’s canned baked beans.


5 posted on 08/15/2019 8:36:50 AM PDT by be-baw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

Without a doubt Shakespear’s Pizza in Columbia, MO.


6 posted on 08/15/2019 8:38:17 AM PDT by HapaxLegamenon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

Where is the Varsity?


7 posted on 08/15/2019 8:38:32 AM PDT by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

Yep...Right down from Neyland Stadium....


8 posted on 08/15/2019 8:41:57 AM PDT by JBW1949 (I'm really PC.....Patriotically Correct)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

Louis’ Lunch est. 1895.


9 posted on 08/15/2019 8:45:40 AM PDT by golux
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Conan the Librarian
Close but #2 to the BEACON in Spartanburg, close to Wofford College.

Order a “burger-a-plenty” and sweet tea.

10 posted on 08/15/2019 8:45:47 AM PDT by PeaRidge
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Conan the Librarian

I went to the Varsity right off the GT campus. I ate in the room with the school room chair/mini table and watched TV while eating my hot dog. Although I did get a funny look from the woman taking my order when I asked where the ketchup is and told her no mustard.


11 posted on 08/15/2019 9:02:18 AM PDT by C19fan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

It has been years since I have been to Husky Stadium for a Washington Husky game but you used to able to get Ivar’s clam chowder in a hollowed-out half loaf of fresh-baked bread with a hard outer crust. When you finished, all you had left to dispose of was the plastic spoon. Best food I have had at any stadium anywhere.


12 posted on 08/15/2019 9:02:31 AM PDT by CommerceComet (Hillary: A unique blend of arrogance, incompetence, and corruption.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CommerceComet

Oh yeah. I love eating those from Boudin’s in the SF Bay area.


13 posted on 08/15/2019 9:03:27 AM PDT by C19fan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

It is a required taste, the Varsity. I wouldn’t eat there every day. But, it is an experience.


14 posted on 08/15/2019 9:03:30 AM PDT by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

I went to law school at U of MO (Columbia) for a year, and never jeard of Booch’s. I wasn’t really tuned into campus life, and it may have been a thing, but not a big thing.

Some of the most famous University hangouts actually don’t do so well. U of Chicago had Jimmy’s Woodlawn Tap (where famous profs once went), and it never had that many people there. More people went to Morry’s pedestrian “deli” or Harold’s Chicken Shack, or the Medici. Jimmy’s is closed. So is Medici. Harold’s moved down the street, started selling bad pizza and lost its cachet.

In Columbia, my preferred hangout was Famous Freddies (deep fried onion brick for $2!). It is long closed as well.


15 posted on 08/15/2019 9:06:21 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("...a choice between Woke-fevered Democrats and Koch-funded Republicans is insufficient."-Mark Steyn)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

They didn’t scour very hard. Hickory Park in Ames Iowa is better than almost that entire list, and I have eaten at 4 of them on the list.


16 posted on 08/15/2019 9:06:45 AM PDT by RoadieFan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

Denco’s in Norman, Oklahoma. The absolute king of grease. Been closed for 30 years but should have received an honorable mention.


17 posted on 08/15/2019 9:14:17 AM PDT by DugwayDuke ("A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JBW1949

In the 80’s I would stay for for a week or so every couple of months in Knoxville while doing field work at Oak Ridge. I would always hit Grady’s a couple of times.


18 posted on 08/15/2019 9:15:20 AM PDT by Starstruck (I'm usually sarcastic. Deal with it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: C19fan
The greatest college dive restaurant of all time was "The Shack" in Columbia, Missouri. The unique atmosphere of "The Shack," characterized by booths and walls filled with generations of carved initials and grafitti was memorialized by Walker in the Beetle Bailey® comic strip. The 63 year old institution closed its doors in 1984. In 1988, the University of Missouri acquired the property from for a proposed alumni center and pedestrian walkway. Fire consumed the vacant building on Halloween night, 1988. The cause of the fire was never determined.

It's so sad to see the institutions you loved in college bite the dust.


19 posted on 08/15/2019 9:44:15 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CommerceComet

Ivar’s Clam Chowder is now sold in grocery stores and is excellent. I have a tub in the fridge as we speak.


20 posted on 08/15/2019 9:46:59 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-34 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson