The menu is reliably good and vaguely New American (crab cakes with grilled artichoke remoulade, $21 pecan-crusted pork, $19 baked goat cheese atop arugula, $10), and the wine list is always approachable and well thought out. But when we needed a break from kegs and cheap shots, 6th and Vine it was. There's many a crappy dive bar ( West End Opera House with its weird carpet) and an increasing amount of legitimately good ones ( Finnigan's Wake, most of all). The standard dog delivers, as does the Chicago-style, but I always go straight for the Reuben ($3) with a side of thick-cut fries ($1.75). But lo and behold, the downtown lunch spot thrives (as do a strange amount of others), thanks in part to its house-made pretzel buns and Nathan's (and Nathan's only) weiners. Best of all, for students and idlers alike, the Krankies folks are happy to have you linger at the tables for as long as you'd like.įrankly speaking, you might think that a place hawking mostly hot dogs wouldn't make it in a smaller city like Winston. (It also plays host to a farmers' market, artisan market on occasion, art studio and performance space.) Krankies roasts all its own coffee beans and has pastries at the ready. Leading the charge: Krankies, located inside an abandoned meatpacking plant that was taken over by five squatters and declared The Werehouse. Late in my tenure at Wake, Downtown Winston-Salem started to pep up. But I skip straight to the sandwiches during lunch service, namely the open-faced meat loaf on Texas toast ($9) and the Sweet Potatoes version of the Kentucky Hot Brown ($7), smothered in a mushroom-studded take on cheesy Mornay sauce and served on a sweet potato biscuit (naturally).ĭowntown Winston Salem | Photo: Brandon Ore via Flickr Of course, this down-home Downtown spot does have a build-your-own sweet potato ($3 and up) with toppings like diced ham, pineapple and toasted coconut.

(My preference is a chopped tray with slaw and hush puppies.) Stop in on a Wednesday and add pit-cooked ribs on the side. But tucked among a sea of strip malls is this Lexington-style barbecue shack serving pork three ways: chopped, sliced and coarse chopped. There are a helluva lot of barbecue options in the Tar Heel State, and most of the best ones are found off random highways outside the cities. Case in point: Southern fried pickles ($9) with tomato remoulade for dunking Frogmore stew ($23) filled with Surry sausage, hominy and amber ale-tomato broth salmon coated in pecans and Moravian cookies (a W-S speciality, $21) and a pimento cheese-topped burger (pictured above, $13). This white-tablecloth restaurant owned by two brothers hits all the down-home classics while adding a cheffy twist. Here, a few favorites I still think are worth the journey. (Including our beloved double-sided drive-through, Cook-Out.) But veer off the main drags or into Downtown Winston, and there's a whole lot more to love.

Restaurants in winston salem nc