CJ's Italian Kitchen was originally planned for a lovely lunch. I had a nice, planned out weekend, and this restaurant threw a wrench in my plans/ruined my life when they closed for lunch unexpectedly. Instead, I had to settle for a quick stop after dinner just for dessert.


Fortunately, dessert is right up front in the case when you walk into the restaurant.

There were CJ's Italian Kitchen desserts, as well as desserts from a nearby bakery, The Village Cakery.

I ordered a piece of the lemon cream cake from CJ's to go. I think part of the problem of having slices already portioned out is that the cake gets dried out. That was the case here. Sure, it tastes like a lemony cloud. But some more moisture in the cake layers would take this up a notch.

Grade: B

Lynn's Self Serve in Elkins is a gas station -- but it's not just any gas station! It has a growler fill station. How cool is that?

In 2015, after the passing of Senate Bill 273, this local gas station/convenience store began offering an eight-tap growler station that features local and seasonal beers. The growlers, which are available for a one-time fee of $4.59 (for a 32 ounce) and $4.99 (for a 64 ounce) in addition to the beer, uses a system that keeps beer fresh for 45 days.

I love that not only does offering craft beer gift this shop a leg up, it helps gain exposure for some local breweries.

McHappy's Bake Shoppe has a handful of locations in Ohio and two in Parkersburg. I stopped at their 7th Street location for a quick coffee and something sweet for the daylong trip ahead of me.

Inside, there are dozens of fresh donuts and other sweets tucked behind a glass case. Maple cream filled donuts, peanut butter glazed donut, McHappy's donut, applesauce donut, devil's food cake donut ... and so many more!

I ordered a raspberry filled donut and a caramel apple filled donut, grabbed my paper sack full of goodies and hit the road.

First up, the raspberry - sweet, but not overly sweet like some can be. Still, solid overall.

And the caramel apple was different, but very good. The caramel apple filling was pretty much the same interior you would get from an apple pie. The glaze on top was caramel-ly.

Both of these were quite tasty, and they will certainly satisfy that donut craving. Were they the best donuts I've ever had? No; but it's good in its own right.

Grade: B

Fisher Ridge Wine Co. is the first West Virginia wine I had that wasn't super sweet. Rather, Fisher Ridge has a good amount of semisweet and dry wines. They frequent the wine festival in Morgantown, but they don't have regular open tour hours, which has kept me from visiting them. 

That, and they're also located in Liberty, W.Va., which isn't really on the way to anything. It's a bit outside of Charleston. Fortunately, these people are incredible and provide excellent directions that helped even the two most navigationally challenged women find it.

When we finally pulled up, I was apprehensive. But, just a few seconds later, a woman warmly greeted us and ushered us inside. The ceiling was covered in cork, and a dozen bottles were spread across the table. We started making our way through the bottles with generous sample sizes in between crackers and cheese.

The owners are a hoot and definitely generous with that West Virginia hospitality. You feel right at home. They then took us around the place, touring and explaining the process. They even let us label a bottle.

My favorite wines included the Pork Barrel Pink and the Late Harvest Vidal. The latter of which was very sweet, and I'm pretty sure I ended up downing a half bottle. We sat and drank and ate and chatted for a while longer.

If we hadn't had plans for that evening, I think we could've stayed here and talked with these folks all day. It was easily the most fun, personable, engaging winery tour I've ever been on.



Give them a call. Spend your afternoon with them. You're welcome.

A little midday jaunt to Berdine's Five & Dime (which is so cool) led us to North Bend State Park (also cool), which led us to stumble upon Shemp's Cafe. As we made our way through the little town of Cairo, this ice cream shop just popped up out of nowhere. An who am I to say no to ice cream?

The shop has an old-school Three Stooges theme. They have a cute ice cream bar with all sorts of flavors like cherry nut, Turtle Tracks, Moose Tracks and butter pecan.

They also have a food menu full of fried appetizers, sandwiches, wings, pizza and stromboli.

I ordered a Turtle Tracks ice cream cone, because I can't really think of anything more fitting. Fun Fact: Moose Tracks- vanilla ice cream with chocolate chunks and peanut butter cups all swirled together in chocolately peanut butter goodness. Turtle Tracks- vanilla ice cream with chocolate caramel turtle chunks, with chocolate covered pecans and a caramel swirl.

Verdict: Turtle Tracks are pretty good. But, it was almost a little TOO sweet. It was kinda like pure sugar. And, I was totally bummed it wasn't this old ice cream shop restored and was instead crafted to look like that. But, it's cute and has ice cream, so it can't be all that bad.



Grade: B