When I think of the phrase "hot spot," I instantly think of a gambling establishment. In Arnoldsburg, this "hot spot" is also a full-service restaurant: Hot Spot Sandwich Shoppe.



I happened to be in town for a festival and decided to stick around to try a restaurant. This one was nearby and sounded interesting. While they did have a drive-thru, I parked and went inside. The interior has wood panelling everywhere and some cute country-esque decor.



The menu is made up of sandwiches, subs, salads and fried appetizers. I ordered a cheeseburger and fried mushrooms. They had run out of some ingredients, so the cook actually had left to go to the store. About 20 minutes later, he returned and started my order. I was the only one in there so it was a bit awkward.



The meal was definitely made to order, but was a bit lackluster. The burger could've used some salt and seasoning. The mushrooms were OK but don't hold a candke to the DQ mushrooms of yesteryear, which is my gold standard for fried mushrooms. Crunchy outer coating with a bundle of soft umami inside.



Grade: C

Good Fellows Baking Co. is a Morgantown bakery offering a range of breakfast, lunch, and dessert selections as well as custom cakes, cookies, cupcakes, and beyond.



Located on Don Knotts Boulevard, the bakery is run by a mother-daughter team who took their passion from hobby to business.



The name "Fellows" comes from the mother's maiden name. I think that is a sweet ode to the family bond.



The interior is pretty open with a good bit of seating and a mix between traditional decor with sleek lighting.



When I stopped in, I perused the pastry case to see what was available on this particular day. I landed on a scone, a muffin, a cookie and a cupcake.



My favorite was that beautiful cupcake. It was like eating spring. Light but sweet and gorgeous. The cake was moisy, and the icing wasn't overpowering.



The cookie was chock-full of pecans and butterscotch chips and was so buttery and delicious.



The blueberry muffin was great - one of my favorite breakfast treats. Love the little pops of fresh blueberries. The scone was decent, too. Next, I need to try their lunch options.



Grade: A

Malden Salt Fest was held this weekend at J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works to celebrate the history of salt making in the Kanawha Valley. The event featured artisans, live music and food trucks. I stopped to check out SweetGrass Granola, which is based in Kentucky. And, I had one of my most favorite pepperoni rolls in recent years from Karen's Pepperoni Rolls. The dough was sweet and not too thick. But the roll itself was huge and had a ton of pepperoni and pepper jack cheese. If you know where to find these rules outside of the festival, please let me know. Finally, I went to Little Jimmy's Italian Ice and had a mix of green apple, watermelon, blue raspberry, and cherry. The super fine ice and fruit flavor just heads different on a really hot day. Here is who else was there:

MUSIC
John Inghram Band
Kanawha Tradition
Chance McCoy & Tessa Dillon
The Chucktown Allstars

VENDORS
Angelos Italian Sausage
Appalachian Botanical Co
Autumn Sky LLC
Bean Theory coffee
Charleston Bee Works
Clairice Hemme Art
East Wheeling ClayWorks
Hill & Hollow
Karen's Pepperoni Rolls
Little Jimmy's Italian Ice
Made by Meish
Mady's Stichery
Manna Meal
MoonStruck Maple
Mountain Juice WV
Mountain Studio
Mountiques
Mrs. Mel's
Parties and Peonies
Soul Purpose Healing
Splinters Country Crafts
Sugar Bottom Farm
Summer Kitchen Books
SweetGrass Granola
Terra Fate Exotics
The Auber House
The Wild Ramp
Uncle Frankie's
Villa DiTrapano INC
What Nots Galore
Wick & Woodsy LLC
Wild & Wonderful BBQ
Yarn.Over

Charley West BBQ Fest is an annual event benefitting the Bob Burdette Center afterschool program. I was lucky enough to be able to serve as a judge - my first time ever for BBQ! Attendees were able to purchase meals from commercial BBQ vendors and tasting tickets to sample BBQ from competition and backyard BBQ cooks. Live entertainment featured local musicians performing throughout the day on the main stage. $10 would be good for 10 tasting tickets and gave the chance to vote for one’s favorite commercial, competition and backyard BBQ with winners being named “People’s Choice – Best BBQ.” In addition, the panel of judges did a blind taste testing - for me, it was the competition division. Competition BBQ entrants competed in 4 categories: best pulled pork BBQ, best ribs, best sauce, and wild card. Competition Division is voted on by thr following: People’s Choice Best BBQ – voting by public; Blind judging - Best ribs, best pulled pork, best sauce, wild card. Here was our schedule for the day:

12:00 PM: Ribs (6 bones of ribs in any 1 sauce or glaze)
12:30 PM: Pulled Pork (8 oz. in any 1 sauce)
1:00 PM: Sauce (4 oz. of any 1 sauce)
1:30 PM: Wildcard – any item you wish to BBQ (6 portions)
We were tasked with judging based on appearance, taste, and tenderness. So, I looked up what I should be looking for when it comes to ribs. Here is what one website suggested:

APPEARANCE
Competition BBQ judges look for a deep mahogany finish on ribs - a thin dark gloss of caramelized BBQ sauce and smoke that coats ribs. This is often achieved by regular mopping, spritzing, or saucing the ribs throughout the smoke session. Another factor in the presentation is that the ribs are evenly cut with no jagged edges on any singular rib, every rib needs to look consistent and uniformity is key. Clean-cut ribs come from sharpening your knives before the event and using the proper type of knife.

TASTE
Smoky sweet BBQ ribs with just a touch of heat or bite in the aftertaste seems to be the flavor profile that has been producing BBQ rib champions.

TENDERNESS
Myth: If rib meat falls off the bone it is tender meat. This is incorrect! The perfect tenderness for competition BBQ ribs is determined in just one bite. Judges hold each end of the bone and bite in the center of the rib if the rib meat freely releases from the bone only in the area where the bite is taken then they’re perfect. Judges should never have to pull or tug at the meat with their teeth. Tender ribs often come from hours of low and slow smoking in conjunction with a flavorful rib foil bath. Here are some more from Weber:

Appearance
Some competitors will display their meat on leafy greens. While this is not mandatory, the contrast of the green leaves against the often-amber BBQ makes the meat pop. It also helps the meat stay steady in the box, so it’s not all jumbled around when the table captain first opens the lid. Requirements: Make sure you turn in the right meat, only use leafy greens. Red-leaf lettuce, lettuce cores, kale stems and other objects are a no-no, don’t sculpt your meat, ensure there are six equal portions – one for every judge, only sauce the meat. A pool of sauce is a penalty.

Taste
This is all about flavor. From seasoning and rubs and sauce and a nice bark. It just needs to be tasty. Big time barbecuers include three versions of pork in their boxes: money muscle, pulled and chopped.

Tenderness
Tenderness really equals texture and making sure the meat is not overcooked. If you’re smoking chicken thighs, it’s best not to serve the judges a slimy, fatty piece of skin. Some competitors go to great lengths to avoid this. They remove the skin, scrape off the excess inner fat and then replace the skin over the meat. Their goal is to create a nice snap of texture when judges take their first bite. Ribs – believe it or not – should not fall off the bone. If all of the meat slides off with the first bite, they’re too tender. Judges are looking for a bit of bite to the meat. Watch out for fat. While fat is flavor, you don’t want to give judges a big bite of chewy pork fat with their chopped or pulled pork. Remove the silver skin from your ribs before smoking. It will help them pull from the bone more gently. My favorite categories were actually the sauce and the wild card. You kind of know what you're in for when you're judging ribs or pulled pork. But the latter two categories can be a free-for-all. My personal favorite sauces are thick, sweet with a nice bit of peppery heat. The wild cards included an apple tart with ice cream, a meat lollipop with vanilla icing and BBQ chicken.

Ellie May’s is located at the Elk Springs Resort & Fly Shop, where farm fresh trout is raised on site at the hatchery and cooked daily.



The restaurant features traditional breakfast options, classic lunch fare and homestyle dinners. Though, on this particular visit, I was here for the dessert.



The inn is in a lovely, secluded space by the water with a gorgeous wraparound porch and an interior made top-to-bottom of wood. There is plenty of decor dedicated to fishing, as well as a gift shop.



I ordered the pecan caramel brownie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It came with caramel and chocolate sauce. I don't think you could really go wrong with this. This was a super fudgy, brownie and pretty rich. Tasty, but just a touch of bitterness from the cocoa.



Next time, I would love to try all all of the fish dishes from the tacos and midges to dip and more.



Grade: B