Big Ed

Some say that the richness of travel is found in local cuisine, prepared and served without fanfare or pretense. If that is the case, then Big Ed’s in Raleigh, North Carolina is a gold mine of dining destinations.

Big Ed Watkins reigns over this greasy spoon in Raleigh’s City Market with the regality of Jed Clampett and the sincerity of Mayberry’s Aunt Bee. Outfitted in Pointer Brand overalls and a red checked shirt, there’s no missing Big Ed when you walk in the door.

His is the reserved seat at the first round table a liars in a café where many a tall tale is told on a daily basis.

But if all the lies being told confuse you, you’ll recognize Big Ed by the smile on his face, greeting all customers like lifelong friends.

“My mama told me I got enough teeth for two folks smilin’,” he says of the perpetual grin on his face.

It’s the vittles at Big Ed’s that make most people smile. Raised on a tobacco, cotton and corn farm in the toughest days of the Great Depression, Big Ed learned to cook by helping his mother feed the farm hands using recipes passed down from a great-grandfather who was a Confederate mess cook.

Known for his homemade sausages, saw mill gravy and hot cakes, made from a pound cake recipe, Big Ed’s is packed long before daylight. The grilled biscuits are best enjoyed with homemade black strap molasses.

“My biscuits are so good they’ll make a poodle dog wanna pull a freight train,” he says of his breakfast specialty.

For lunch, the crowds come for sweet tea and chicken and dumplings so good “that a tadpole will slap a whale just for a nibble.”

And because honest-to-goodness country cooking can’t be reheated, each day as the doors close at 2 p.m., volunteers from the Raleigh Rescue Mission carry out the leftovers to provide the homeless of the city the best meal available in all of North Carolina.

The décor at Big Ed’s is as simple and complex as the man himself. A collection of antique plows outside represent Ed’s days of hard work behind a mule on the family farm and the exhibit of Willard Watson handmade toys are reminders that we should all have a little fun every day.

The most fun comes on Saturday mornings when a Dixieland band out front pumps a little more richness into a kingdom already overflowing with local culture, cuisine and character. The Kingdom of Big Ed Watkins in Raleigh, North Carolina.

– Diana Lambdin Meyer, RED Travel Writer