“He Took His Recipe To The Grave”

by Zoë Pollock

Wright Thompson eulogizes a man who ran a Birmingham mainstay for hot dogs:

Before he died this spring at 81, Gus Koutroulakis came to work every day since he took over Pete's Famous from his uncle in 1948. Gus fixed so many hot dogs, for so many years, that it permanently bent his back in that position, difficult to sleep but easy to ladle on his sauce. Nobody but him knew the recipe. He worked the day he died, just like he'd done every day for 63 straight years.

Thompson's larger point:

Books are devoted to the grease palaces of the American roadside. Television shows visit and beam nostalgia to orbiting satellites. The producers don't expect people watching to actually visit. That's not what they are selling. They expect you to watch and remember longingly a past that perhaps you never had at all. They are selling you a vision of what a simpler life might be.

Our family's bible has long been Roadfood by Jane and Michael Stern, because it makes road trips feel like time travel. Last week we hit up the Southern Kitchen in New Market, VA, famous for their peanut soup. The afternoon light on green diner countertops was more than worth it.

(Film about Gus Koutroulakis by Joe York)