Stop here for the chicken.
The Junction Deli is more than a restaurant appended to a gas station. It is actually the best fried chicken in this region. In fact, it may even be the best restaurant in this tiny hamlet.
Don't bother reading the menu. As you approach the hot bar, your senses and urges will naturally guide you to the golden chicken before you. Don't bother with the rest. You will be seduced rather quickly.
This is what it must have felt like for Christopher Columbus to hit pay dirt while traveling the great Atlantic. As you travel down that lonely rural stretch of federal interstate you pass by the Lincoln green wilderness of the Pinebelt. Without sources such as Yelp, a mutiny would be threatened as your passengers grow hungry and tired traveling east or west. Let this review be the beacon that guides you to a peace treaty with your sailors on board.
The chicken reflects a bronze glow under the heat lamps. Sinfully it lays there staring at the ceiling. It's a brilliance that pierces the plexi-glass-curve of glass that protects it and cradles it as you drool and ogle it. At first sight, you know it is that golden and fluffy chicken that you pray for. Light batter--Nothing artificial or frozen about it. In the meantime, the chicken lays there and waits for you.
It lays there like a familiar scenario. We've all seen and desired gas-station chicken and have secretly loved it. No more time for secrets. You're crew is growing hungry and threatens a mutiny by the minute.
At $1.39 a strip it is practically a steal. These jumbo-golden slices of euphoria could have taken you for much...much more than that.
Make damn sure that you nestle those (not that) jumbo-sized strips in a fine bed made of "tater babies." They look like those standard "tater logs" that you have become accustomed to. These see that standard and raise it. There's not always second chances. Do it. Stop reading and do it.
The tater babies are as soft as the alluring voices that take your order here. Those voices are as soothing as that first crispy, salty, juicy---nay---succulent bite of this legendary chicken. Those voices are paired with faces that are as inviting as the food itself.
It takes no time. You are in and out. As you grab for that chicken tender, remember your manners. However, take off your hat in remembrance of ole Christopher Columbus. Be thankful you avoided a mutiny on this interstate trip to the black nowhere horizon. Roll down the windows to let the soothing piney smell seep into your vehicle and mix with aroma of that first golden strip. Turn down the radio. Take that first bite in your busy life and remember. read more
