This morning I got a call from my sister asking if I wanted to share a day with Dad. Yes! We would make it fun for him. We had a few ideas.
Little did we know that Dad had an idea of his own.
When we arrived at his condo, he had a magazine in his hands open to a page about a restaurant he thought we may try out for lunch today. It's here in downtown Raleigh and the article boasts that it serves the best fried chicken. Dad is not a chicken lover at heart because, when he was young, he grew up raising chickens. But fried chicken? He was ready to see if it was as good as KFC. We were keen on rating the chicken with him. Let's go!
Located at 237 S. Wilmington Street (again, that's downtown folks) is Beasley's Chicken & Honey. You can see by the picture I took above that people were coming in by groups. The only problem? Parking. Bring your credit or debit cards to use in the automated parking meters. $1.00 will get you an hour's worth of parallel parking which is all you need to come in, sit down, order, and enjoy the fare.
Fortunately, I am pretty good at parallel parking but I drove around the block once in order to see if someone would pull out of their spot closer to the restaurant so Dad would not have to walk too far. Voila! As I turned the corner, two cars left the curb almost simultaneously, one in front of the other, and I was able to cruise into my space with room to spare as if the parking angels swept them away just for us. We were not disappointed as we got out and walked in the First Day Of Summer breezes to Beasley's.
Can you see Dad's white head of hair? There he is sitting in the corner. He likes to be in the middle of what's happening, so this table afforded us all a good view of people to watch. At any rate, we ordered from the huge blackboards on the walls, and Dad, of course, got their fried chicken with a side order of their creamy version of macaroni and cheese.
He said he really didn't prefer the mac 'n cheese over the regular old-fashioned kind that he is accustomed to but it was creamy and moist. As you can see, beverages are served in jars. They don't have real Coca Colas here but rather RC Colas and Nehi Grape-like drinks and such. Fresh lemonade. So if you are a die-hard Coca Cola lover like myself, just order their sweet tea and have a coke when you get home. My sister was coming off of a cleanse, so she ordered a salad and some veggies. She said it was all good. I ordered their fried chicken sandwich of the day that was really a veggie sandwich that I ordered with chicken thrown in. It was massive!
I did my best to get through it but none of us could eat all of our lunch portions. We all got the remainders to go which came in a brown bag (for me and my sister) with their stamp on it. Cute! I ordered their coconut cake to go as well and I have to tell you it is weighty, sweet, moist, and good for a few sessions with a fork. Our waitperson said it takes them about two days to make. I believe it.
Dad's leftover chicken came in a tiny box which made us think they had secretly put in some Sesame Chicken with Fried Rice or maybe a fortune cookie.
When you go to Beasley's ask for Katie. She's fabulous! Her smile and warm persona really made our day.
We admit that the bill was too high . . . about $44.00 for four people ... for lunch. Wow! So that credit card or debit card you brought to pay for your meter will come in handy. Phew!
Onward to our next fun thing of the day which was going to my house to play Parcheesi with Dad. Dad picked yellow (his favorite flower color), I picked red (my favorite color of anything) and my sister was left with a mix of green and blue (my cats know where the rest are . . . probably batted under a couch or bed).
Growing up we played a lot of board games and my Dad taught us as young children to win! But I will have to admit that I was feeling pretty bad for Dad when he was constantly being sent 'home' by my sister at the beginning of the game. But as luck would have it, she was then being sent home and he finally had a chance to get his men out and about the board. At the very end, we were neck and neck like the horses in the Preakness. We were sitting at my pub table hollering for our dice to "come on, come on!" We all needed a one on our dice to win.
Well, this go-round my sister won, so we will have to set up the board game another time and see who's on first. Hope it's you, Dad!
Thanks for the memory.
I love you.
(c)nancy 6.22.2013
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