The Broken Axle is a restaurant located at the Appalachian Outpost Resort. It has a rustic and rugged design, but it is new, clean and slick. Here's what we tried: Cheeseburger sliders with mayo, ketchup, onion and blue cheese. Fried green tomato stacks - cornmeal breaded tomato fried to perfection layered with fresh feta cheese and balsamic glaze. Grilled cheese platter - grilled cheese with cheddar and mozzarella and a second grilled cheese with barbecue pulled pork and macaroni and cheese, served with a side of tomato bisque. All of these were perfect for a shareable meal. The burgers were pretty average, but I enjoyed the fried green tomatoes. They were fried nicely and kept their crisp. The grilled cheese option is fun, but it would be nice if the sandwiches were cut up into bite sizes so they could be more dippable. something a little different, though, so I applaud the creativity. Grade: A

Red Bird Cafe is an ice cream shop in southern West Virginia that is part of a new development called the Appalachian Outpost.



This new development features of variety of shops and a restaurant in addition to the ice cream store. But I bee-lined straight to the Red Bird Cafe. The black and red themed shop features hand-dipped ice cream, coffee and assorted pastries.



I ordered a butter pecan milkshake. It was decent. The sweet cream with a touch of saltiness is always always one of my favorite flavors. Texture was a bit odd as a milkshake though - maybe it would have been better if it was less blended so the nuts seemed more intentional rather than odd, tiny gravel-y bits.



Grade: B