Fruits of Labor has been expanding across southern West Virginia - from Rainelle and Alderson to Montgomery and now Beckley.



"You'll be greeted warmly at all five of our locations which are nestled in four different river valleys across West Virginia. Sometimes by a core staff member, other times by a neighbor in recovery or young person in an addiction prevention program.

Both groups of students participate in our Nationally Certified American Culinary Federation Quality Training Program & Farm-to-Table Café and Bakery.

Each time you visit Fruits of Labor, your purchase invests in our students and allows us to offer this training and certification free of charge," reads the website.



This location is much like the others, offering soup, salads and sandwiches. It has several small tables inside and a bar area touting baked goods. It is also home to a separate spin off downstairs that offers pizza and coffee. I'll have to come back for that one.

For now, I ordered the Bacon & Blue Burger: Made with 1/3-pound Ground Beef, topped with crumbled Amish Blue Cheese, Smoked Bacon, and Baby Swiss Cheese served on our house made Café Bun. I do love some bleu cheese on a burger, but this one was pretty heavy on the funk so it overpowered the other flavors. I would love to see a bacon jam or candied bacon to bring the flavors into harmony. Overall, though, fairly tasty.



Grade: B

While driving through Ohio, I started to hear my stomach growl. At my next gas station stop, I did a quick search for drive-through food options in the next town and found Cristy's Pizza & Subs.



"Have you ever wondered why Cristy’s Pizza tastes so good? It’s simple, if you’re going to have the best pizza, you’ve gotta start with the best ingredients, like… Bold Sweet Sauce from Fresh, Vine-Ripened Tomatoes, Signature Dough Recipe, All-Natural Premium Cheese, Fresh Vegetables Old World Pepperoni, and of course, a team of Pizza Pros to make the best pizza every single time," reads the website.



While Cristy's is not necessarily a drive-through, it does have a pick up window. I placed an order online for "Nibblers": Single bites of pepperoni or cheese pizza all rolled up, slathered with creamy Parmesan garlic butter sauce. Served with sweet & tangy tomato or creamy Parmesan garlic butter. These are close to pepperoni rolls, and I like that they are bite-size, so that the proportions of meat and cheese and dough are equal.

I also ordered a cheese pizza with mushrooms. The pizza had a rustic feel with the crust forming a bubbly texture, and the sauce and cheese not fully uniform all the way around. Fairly mild in flavor - but generally crowd pleasing. I would love a crisper crust, a bolder sauce, more punchy flavors.



Grade: B

Did you know that Chambers General Store in Bethany is one of the oldest shops in the state? It opened in 1917 and carries a little bit of everything - from paper towels and nails to energy drinks and sandwiches.



It's kinda like a tight, one-way maze in here but there is plenty to check out. There is a limited deli case that you can order a sandwich or a couple sides. They will even serve Coleman's fish sandwiches on Fridays. I just got a small pasta salad to go - very simple and affordable.



Grade: B

It's my last restaurant on this Arizona visit - and it's to a BBQ joint. While Arizona isn't necessarily known for its BBQ, this restaurant has been voted the best in the area by the local newspaper.



Colt Grill is "a small group of BBQ smokehouses located in the coolest cities and towns of Northern Arizona. Each restaurant has a full bar and a menu entirely made from scratch, centered around smoked meats. We are female owned, family run, and believe in the value of hard work, personal responsibility and perseverance," according to the website.



The BBQ is smoked in giant steel smokers with hardwoods and selections include baby back ribs, brisket, chicken and pulled pork, plus burgers, tacos salads, corn bread, beans, fruit cobblers and whiskey brownies.



The dining room is fairly casual with music playing and folks generally having a good time. Pretty informal and generous with the whiffs of BBQ smoke.



You order at the bar at the front, and then the food is delivered to the table once it's ready. I ordered the pulled pork sandwich, which was topped with crispy COLT slaw and Kansas City Sauce. This was a good sandwich. It's maybe the 1,000th pulled pork sandwich I've ever had, but it was right there in the middle of the pack - some good smoke flavor, some decent quality meat and one of my fav BBQ sauce types.



To go along with the sandwich, I also had potato salad, mac & cheese and peach cobbler.



Everything here was solidly good, and any tweaks I would suggest are minimal. I'd love to see one wildly creative BBQ dish I've never seen before to turn up the innovation level. But, all-around crowd-pleasing good time.



Grade: B

"Make your own edible cookie dough bowl."



Has there ever been a more beautiful string of words assembled? Probably, but this one's pretty close.



Scoopwell's Dough Bar takes the well-known concept of assembling your own dish, but with a new medium: cookie dough. They do also offer ice cream, baked cookies and other treats.



Before I get too far into this, let's first start off by noting that, yes, the raw cookie dough is edible, as per their website.

Q: Is the dough safe to eat without baking?
A: Yes, it’s specifically made to be eaten straight from the mixing bowl. We utilize heat treated flour and pasteurized eggs to take the worry away.

Q: But I thought you couldn’t eat raw eggs?
A: Much like the heat treating process of the flour, the pasteurization process for eggs eliminates any potentially harmful bacteria so all the doughs are safe to enjoy without baking.



Once inside the playful & colorgul space, I went up to the bar to make my decisions on creating the perfect cookie dough bowl.



First step is deciding how many scoops of cookie dough you would like. then, decide on which flavors you would like to include: brownie batter, cookies and cream, chocolate chip, just dough, snickerdoodle, cake batter, peanut butter explosion, oatmeal chip, s'more, banana cream pie, Irish mint or white chocolate macadamia.

Finally, add toppings like: Rainbow Sprinkles, Chocolate Sprinkles, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, Mini Reese's Pieces, Mini M&Ms; Chocolate Chips, Oreo, Kit Kat, White Chocolate Chips, Peanut Butter Chips, and Butterscotch Chips.



I mixed and matched without much strategy in mind. That may have been a mistake, because it ended up very sweet. But, I very much enjoy the concept and getting to try something a little bit different. I like cookie dough much better than actual chocolate chip cookies, so this was quite a delight.



Grade: A