While visiting Charleston recently, I stopped by the East End Bazaar. The open-air market, located at the corner of Washington Street East and Ruffner Avenue, features artisans, live music and local food. It is open every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the months of April through October.


I went fairly early, so not everyone was set up yet. But it's a really cool little place for unique crafts, jewelry and pottery goods, and fresh veggies. When I was living on the East End, I would often walk here and get either a quick lunch from the vendors or something to cook up at home.

What's your favorite purchase from this market?

 

Buckhannon is home to some pretty cool restaurants, like CJ Maggies, The Donut Shop and The Market Bistro. The next one on my to-try list was 3/4 Cafe.

That name? Well, the owners have some insight as to why that is:

During a vacation in the summer of 2013, in an antique store on the California coast, a vintage cast brass ¾ house number was discovered at the bottom of a box of random hardware parts. We immediately recognized it as the rightful address for the 3rd basement, being the 3rd of 4 basements in the Stockert Building, and we delighted in the concept of the fractional addresses that are still found on so many Main Streets across the country, which the postal system no longer permits. It seemed that we had discovered an historic version of the contemporary "micro" trend. This ¾ name also solidified our hopes to someday have all four basements occupied by creative and alternative enterprises, comprising an underground district for the Arts in Buckhannon.

3/4 Cafe is located off the beaten path, in an alleyway behind Main Street. That sort of adds to its charm of being this hidden gem. Despite being in the basement of a building, there is a surprising amount of light that comes in through the windows. Plus there are hanging lights above each table, which adds some more air to the space. It's quite lovely inside, really, with sleek furniture and simple accents.

Water for the table is served in these glass bottles with swingtop closures. They have a variety of coffees, teas and wines, as well. The menu consists of mostly light plates, like salads, bread and cheese plates, soups and paninis.

The bacon, peach and chevre panini caught my eye. The panini had bacon, fresh peach, basil, and goat cheese on a nice hearty, crisp bread. It was served with a garden green side salad that I had dressed with a maple bacon dressing.

I really liked my sandwich. The flavors and portions of each were well thought out. The goat cheese was a perfect bite with the sweet peach, salty crisp bacon. It all tasted fresh, too. The salad dressing was a bit too sweet for my taste, but not bad.

It's something a little different, light and fresh. Give 'em a try.

Grade: A

The Cathedral Cafe is a lovely space, with quirky lights strung across the dining space, colorful chalk noting the day's specials on chalkboards and beautiful stained glass windows lining the walls up to large vaulted ceilings. It's a lively space, full of chatter, which is perfect to hang out for a leisurely lunch.



Tony and I stopped here because of all the good things I've heard. We luckily got the very last open table. In fact, someone had just gotten up, so it wasn't even cleaned up until we had already made ourselves comfortable.



The menu has items like hummus, salads, paninis, quesadillas and sandwiches. I was going for straight comfort food with this one: the Ultimate Grilled Cheese. It's made with three kinds of cheese, tomato and red onion. But I actually did the "panini special," which was half a panini and a choice of a cup of soup or tortellini salad. So half of my ultimate grilled cheese and a tortellini salad it was. Tony opted for a quesadilla, because of course. He loves Mexican food. I am not a big fan (unless the Mexican food is just used as a source to get sour cream into my mouth).

It took ... a long time for our food to come out. Like, a painfully long time. Maybe it was because we had plans and I was anxious to get going. But it was incredibly frustrating. I don't think our waitress came over after initially taking our order. Someone else even brought out our food. No refills, no small-talk. Nothing. It didn't make us feel super welcome, despite really loving the general atmosphere of the place. Weird juxtaposition, I know.

Tony liked his quesadilla. And I must say, any quesadilla that comes with sides of both salsa and sour cream make me happy.

My sandwich, however, seemed to be missing both the onion and tomato. Essentially, it was just a grilled cheese - just missing the ultimate part. The focaccia was pretty thick, and the cheese is rich - so having a little acid with the tomato would've been great. Or a little sweetness from red onions. But, it was still good.

The tortellini salad was definitely on the sour side, but I did like it. So overall thoughts, I want to like this place a lot more than I actually did. I love, love, love the space. The service needed some work. And my meal wasn't actually correct - but even in that state, it was tasty. Hopefully a return visit will provide improvements



Grade: B

Before a day of adventuring in Fayetteville, I needed a quick breakfast. We stopped by Wild Flour Bakery to get a bite to eat ... and apparently a bunch of other people had the same idea.

I first requested a sausage, egg and cheese bagel, but they were out of bagels. It seemed they were running short on a lot of things. Not sure why; we didn't come in late. But I guess it was just a busy day.

Instead, I opted for a sausage, egg and cheese croissant. And it wasn't bad. Pretty average. The eggs were a little rubbery, and the croissant got a little too black around the edges. But it could have been an off-day. I have hope yet for this little bakery, so I want to check them out again. Until then, they're pretty middle of the pack.

Grade: C

Fresh donuts 24 hours a day? Plus pepperoni rolls? It's true at JR's Donut Castle in Parkersburg.



The Donut Castle has been around since 1969, and it offers breads, donuts, pepperoni rolls, muffins, brownies, cakes, cookies, pastries, pies, hotdog sauce and drinks.

"JR’s famous saying “Baked Fresh Daily” is what JR lives by. Everyday the employees start making each product over again so we can have the best for our customers. Each product is made from scratch and put together by JR’s old recipes. JR’s has kept the same product for thirty years, and does not plan on changing that. Everything is made the same way day in and day out." - JR's Donut Castle

PRODUCT LIST: Breads - White Bread, Wheat bread, Pan Rolls, Butter Bits, Hot Dog Buns, Hamburger Buns, Sub Buns, Kaiser Buns, and Italian Bread

Pepperoni Rolls - Plain Pepperoni Rolls, American Cheese and Pepperoni Rolls, Pepper Jack Cheese and Pepperoni Rolls, Pizza Roll. 

Muffins - Famous Chocolate Chip, Cream Cheese, Apple, Cherry, Banana nut, carrot, Oat Brand Raisin, Lemon Poppy, Cranberry, Pumpkin, Double Chocolate Chip 

Brownies - German Chocolate, Fudge, Cream Cheese, Peanut Butter, Walnut brownie. 

Cakes – ¼ sheet, ½ sheet, Full sheet, and 8” round. White and Chocolate cake with butter cream Icing 

Cookies – Chocolate Chip, M&M, Oat Meal, Sugar, White Chocolate Macadamia, Peanut Butter 

Pastries - Cream Cheese Danish, Apple and Cherry Turnovers, Strawberry Cream Cheese Stick, Apple stick, sticky bun, cream horn, Éclair, and Radio Bar 

Pies – Chocolate Cream, Lemon Cream, Coconut Cream, Apple, Dutch Apple, Cherry, Peach, Blueberry, Blackberry, Pumpkin, Lemon Crunch, and Pecan. All the cream pie also come in 4” pies too. 

Hot Dogs – Home made hot dog sauce 

Drinks – Coffee, Tea, Pop, Milk, Chocolate milk, Orange Juice, Cappuccino, Hot Chocolate, Ice Coffee and Summer time only cherry slushie 

The bakery offers about 34 types of donuts, including favorites like glazed, maple cream filled, yum yums, apple fritters and chocolate glazed. We ordered a half dozen donuts, including maple glazed and cream filled, an apple fritter, a blueberry cake donut, a chocolate donut with chocolate icing.

I think it would be ridiculous to give a donut place less than a stellar grade. This place totally deserves that stellar grade. I love a cake donut, and those maple glazed ones with whipped centers? Holy donuts. Those are good. Getchu a dozen. Or two.


Grade: A