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Practice What You*Preach: There are only so
many times you can hear the words "all-natu-
ral"jand "from scratch" from a franchise estab
lishment before you want to bonk your head
into a wall The fact is, most places that tout
the freshness of their ingredients get them out
of vacuum-sealed bags. I can't actually tell
you whether Hubee 0's (1591 S. Lumpkin St),
the chicken franchise out of Charleston that's
just set up in the former Marble Slab, does
what they say they do, as far as not freezing
their chicken or stirring together real ingre
dients recognizable as food in the Michael
Pollan sense. What I can tell you is that the
results, jvhethet engineered in a lab or cooked
up in a family kitchen, are pretty dam good
and will give any chicken place in town a run
for its monev.
CHICKEN ¥ CUPCAKES
small freezer by the door is full of Blue Bunny
ice cream sandwiches and frozen banana
• pudding pops, a specialty of the restaurant.
Hubee 0's is open for lunch and dinner daily.
It doesn't serve alcohol but takes credit cards.
Island Oasis: When you're out on Epps Bridge
Parkway, adrift in a sea of national franchises
and giant parking lots, it's easy to miss Bee's
Knees Bakery and Gifts (1880 Epps Bridge
Pkwy.), which is tucked away to the left of
Trader Joe's, near Barberitos. The nice thing
.about the bakery, which does plenty of sugary
stuff, is that it also offers cute box lunches
(a misnomer, as they actually come in a paper
bag). For $7.99, you get a sandwich (good
chicken salad, decent egg salad, deli meat,
PB&3 and sometimes, if you're lucky, meat-
10 FIAGP01E.C0M • APRIL 25,2012
Tuai^Sun 9am-IhJOarr.
Hubee D’s
The menu isn't big, but it rarely is at a
chicken-focused establishment Tenders, nug
gets, sandwiches, wraps, wings (regular and
boneless), salads and a couple of simple des
serts are about it and most offerings come
with fries, coleslaw, com bread and a variation
on Thousand Island dressing dubbed Hubee
Sauce. Do not take your vegetarian buddies
unless they want to say "hold the chicken"
on their salads. I'm not really sure what it is
about the chicken that impresses me favor
ably. Maybe it's the fact that it tastes like
something other than batter and salt. The
shapes aren't uniform, and there is a genu
ine tang of buttermilk in its flavoring. The
wings are some of the best in town. They're
not enormous, but they're prepared in a dry-
rub style, which means you can taste every
nuance of the central protein rather than
only the glop its been tossed with, and they
can easily be eaten with nothing added. You -
can get them with sauce already added or
you can visit the sauce bar to fill up tittle
cups of equally tasty stuff in low Country
Buffalo, Black Tie Bourbon, Wadmalaw Island
Jerk, honey mustard and Old Edisto Honey
Barbecue. These, too, resemble actual food.
Even the fries and the coleslaw appear to have
received some thought and although the
combtead is on the sweet side (sigh), it too,
could probably pass for homemade.
The quarters for eating in are tight You
may literally rub elbows with your neighbors.
The staff is efficient and eager to please. The
soda fountain has Cheerwine on tap, and a
loaf), chips, a canned soda or a bottled water,
piddes and a cupcake (Chocolate, vanilla or
strawberry). Wrapped in waxed paper and no
frills, the sandwiches are nonetheless kind
of comforting in their simplicity. The cup
cakes fall about in the middle of the range
in Athens. The strawberry is hot pink and the
caramel could use a richer, more browned
flavor, but they are appropriately sized and as
straightforward as the rest of the offerings.
The real find at Bee's Knees is the bakery's
signature "girdle-buster gooey bars," flat
bar cookies that come in an array of flavors
and manage to Be both light and surprisingly
dense. Bee's Knees also does all kinds of cus
tom cakes, from basic to elaborate, and is set
up to host children's birthday parties, with
cake decorating, an attendant, T-shirts, games
and more. Theyll even mail the invitations for
you. Should yoli be looking for gifts for your
preppy friends, the extra room the business
owns is crammed full of jewelry, glassware,
Georgia-themed hairbows and.the like. The
bakery is open Monday through Saturday from
10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 6
p.m. It takes credit cards and promises that it
will also do delivery.
What Up?: Gnafs Landing on Baxter Street
has closed. The new project from Hilltop
Grille, an oyster bar at the Five Points inter
section in a former house, is moving forward.
Read more at www.flagpole.com...
Hillary Brown food@flagpole.com