Winston-Salem Again
North Carolina calling, Notes on Moon Pies and Camel City
Dear Wanderers,
Back at Ardmore Coffee Shop, again. Experiencing that feeling I have every time I visit this town, the feeling that I could easily live here. As a native Southerner who has spent half of my life in Northern California, it’s always nice to get back to one of those Southeastern states where there’s so much rain the grass even smells green. There’s a lot about Winston to love—and not just because it’s home to “the original Krispy Kreme,” a whole lot of fried chicken, and the Mast General Store, which has devoted a significant amount of retail space to candy and Moon Pies.
I’ve walked to the Ardmore Coffee Shop every morning since our arrival—a 17-minute walk, mostly down a street named Magnolia, past pretty houses with porches and dormer windows. From the friendly barista, I order a small flat white and a large drip coffee. The trip to the coffee shop is necessitated by the fact that our airbnb has only a Keurig machine; Keurig is to coffee what an Eggo waffle is to a homemade Belgian waffle—although not exactly, because an Eggo waffle is pretty good and a Keurig coffee is barely drinkable.
