While staying at Hershey Lodge, I stopped by the Cocoa Beanery.



"Cocoa Beanery is an all-day coffee shop, serving up eats, ice cream, drinks, and treats in the heart of Hershey Lodge®. Stop in for snacks, grab-and-go meals, specialty coffee, espresso, rotating flavors of ice cream, and your favorite Hershey's candy toppings," according to the website.



I went for a cookies and cream, ice cream, topped with marshmallows. It is almost impossible for this to not taste good, right? It is kinda unfair. But, this was sweet and satisfying, and simultaneously familiar, but with a little bit of a unique spin.



Have you been to Hershey Park?



Grade: A

I may be weird, but I get excited when I get to try a new caterer.



Because, you can only check their food out in certain circumstances. You can't just decide to order a meal whatever you want. There has to be an event with food, and you have to hope that it's not just a generic provider.



I got lucky I had a recent Junior League of Charleston event where we celebrated our centennial anniversary. And one of the highlights for me was getting to eat food from Tastefully Dun.



We were able to enjoy crabcakes, antipasto skewers, fig and goat cheese crostini, stuffed meatballs, and, my favorite, a Swiss almond dip that I could have eaten the entire container of.



Plus, there were desserts: Macarons and fruit tartlet bites. I wish I could have dinners like this all the time. Just a bunch of hors d'oeuvres and I'm happy especially when they contain a lot of cheese.



Have you had the opportunity to enjoy any food from Tastefully Dun?



Grade: A

A few months ago, I learned about a bingo hall in Dunbar that raises money for the local schools.



It is apparently a big draw in the area every Saturday evening. And, they are really serious about it. I'm not sure if you've ever been to a bingo hall, but it was my first time. And, I learned that there are many more ways to hit bingo than I realized, and there are many more games than I knew.



For example, there are games within games, you can get bingo by not having boxes in a row, and there's something called tips that I still don't exactly understand. Despite that, my friend Beth and I had a fun time chatting with the other folks, fumbling our way through the game and dodging the indoor smokers.



But, one perk of the outing was a homemade dinner available for purchase. On this day, it was lasagna with salad and garlic bread. It was a little dried out by the time I got my plate, but it was still a decent meal with money that goes to a good cause.

Macarons have hit the Kanawha Valley, and folks can't get enough.



Bake My Day is a home baker who is specializing in French macarons and popping up at events all over.



Sure, there are some other bakeries in the area where you may find a flavor or two of macarons. But Bake My Day is all in on them: vanilla, strawberry, blueberry, tangerine, margarita, mimosa, mint, blue raspberry and more.



Those were just some of the summer flavors, but there are always different, creative ones added.



French macarons are notoriously difficult to make. They are technically challenging, but these are the right combo of soft and crisp. My favorites have been the fruity-boozy flavors.



Grade: A

There's another teal-tinted business that opened up in South Charleston. This one is doling out coffee and breakfast food.



Cocoa Coffee offers the standard coffee and espresso drinks, like lattes, cappuccinos and mochas. They also have a few bubble tea options, which I thought was exciting so I ordered the strawberry one.



Food options include bagels, muffins, and oatmeal. I went with a bagel sandwich with egg and bacon.



The drink was eye-catching and bright, which stood out amongst the neon interior. Lightly sweet with the popping boba makes for a fun experience. The bagel may have been the tiniest I've ever seen, and I could've easily housed three of them. But I do think they've upgraded since my last visit.



Grade: B