If your bologna has a first name, and it's O-S-C-A-R, then you might be a college student (Who am I kidding? That shit's expensive. Gwaltney's your brand). If your mother has a bumper sticker that reads, "My child and my money go to UNCG," then there's a good chance that you may become well-acquainted with Bestway.
Coming from the now defunct Bi-Rite family of stores in the early '70s, Bestway became one of the more popular local grocery chains around Greensboro, with locations at Golden Gate, Phillips and Summit Avenues at US-29, Asheboro Street (now MLK), Summit Shopping Center, and this one - a former A&P - among others. That popularity was short-lived, though, as larger supermarkets became the norm and the deluxe neighborhood grocers were forgotten, and by the time I was entering my teens and spending a lot more time around UNCG in the '90s, only the Walker Avenue location remained (you can still see the faint lettering of "BESTWAY" on the western wall of the former Phillips Avenue location). Interesting fact: the former Lawndale location - I can't recall whether it was a Bestway or had remained a Bi-Rite - became the very first Fresh Market.
This remaining Bestway underwent a transformation over the years, thanks to its location in the heart of the Lindley Park/Brice Street neighborhoods at Walker and Elam, just a mile from the UNCG campus. Although most of the store is still devoted to typical grocery items, at typical neighborhood grocer prices (perhaps 10-25% more than you'll pay at Harris Teeter), the defining characteristic of Bestway has become its selection of the nectar of the nitwit.
Now, when you begin your transition into college life, the Ale-ing Wall will be an imposing beast, indeed. You're just 17 or 18, so you've spent the past 2-4 years getting wasted on PBR, Milwaukee's Best, and whatever the homeless man picked up from the gas station with the $8.57 you and your buddies scrounged together and handed to him (most likely some MD or OE), not to mention countless 10 parts liquor to 1 part everything else concoctions involving Gordon's or Bacardi.
But a funny thing will happen one day during your second semester as you're sitting with all your friends in some guy's dorm, with a towel stuffed into the crack under the door, the window open, and you're drinking a can of Icehouse and watching them blow bong hits into a paper towel roll stuffed with Snuggle sheets (when they're not blowing them into the face of the pet ferret, Nigel, that his roommate has somehow managed to keep in the dorm for more than 4 months). You'll start to wonder whether there isn't more to college life. You'll finish that beer and stand for the first time in more than an hour, and you'll wander out of the building in search of... something.
Heading west along Walker, you reach a corner and stand there for a while, and as you're staring at that big red hand, you think it starts talking to you. A moment later, you realize it's the slightly older chap with a legendary beard standing beside you who's making conversation. His name is Brent or Dexter or some uncommon shortening of Christopher, and he asks where you're headed. Out of reflex, you ask if he knows where you can get some good beer. In your mind, your question signified a search for some Newcastle or Red Stripe, but to your barbate new friend, thoughts of Cuvee Van De Keizer and Two Hearted Ale are aroused. His reply: "Have you been to Bestway?"
And so begins an education of another sort; one which involves your professors only insomuch as a few of them join you at this or that gathering, where you engage in discussions regarding the walkability score of each person's neighborhood, or on the philosophical conflicts at play during the Gene Deitch years of Tom & Jerry, while sipping Belgian brews from special glasses.
If your Brent never comes along and you find yourself doubting the words of a Yelper who's been essentially a teetotaler since sixteen, Bestway has laminated cards for many of their brews, with details and scores from RateBeer, to assist in your decision, as well as a knowledgeable staff to help you find what you're looking for the next time you decide your trip to the store for chips, ramen and Vienna sausages should also include something new and interesting on the beer front.
Avoid the meat and poultry. There are better meat markets around.
Drive SLOWLY entering and exiting the parking lot, unless you really hate your bumper. read more