The Custard Stand is a West Virginia institution. With six locations around the state, the restaurant draws a loyal crowd - both on the chili and the custard front. The chili can even be bought in most local grocery stores in the area.

While traveling, we tried to stop at the Elkins location determined to get an iconic ice cream photo a la Gordon Gee. When the location was unexpectedly closed, I poured my heart out on Twitter. I was devastated that we rushed to get there and Tony wasn't going to get his first Custard Stand experience. With some swift assistance from their social media person and some refiguring of our schedule, I figured out we would be traveling near the Oak Hill location later in the week. Plan made.

The Oak Hill location has a more modern feel with a few stainless steel table and chair sets inside. I ordered a small caramel cone; Tony ordered a small cone, as well. So the small here wasn't quite as impressive, but it worked. And it's delicious, as always! Creamy! No hotdogs on this visit, but sweet treats are always welcome.

We also managed to get T-shirts out of the exchange, which is awesome. It's a perfect reminder of our fun trip and Tony's first Custard Stand cone.

Grade: A

While I'm a fierce advocate for the Morgantown Farmers Market, there's another market not too far away. My friend Kayla and I decided to check out Bridgeport's Farmers Market recently to see what vendors are there and what new goodies we could get our hands onto.

It was a super rainy day, and most of the vendors were hiding under their tents. One of the first tents we sought refuge from the rain was "My Little Cupcake." I hadn't heard of them previously, but they made an impression. The set-up is cute with a burlap runner and chalkboards noting the day's flavors. Chocolate covered strawberry, orange, almond ... mmm. They also had homemade ice cream for sale! I snagged an almond cupcake. I can say it's one of the best ever. Moist, sweet, nutty. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Most cupcakes, they're good enough. They're fine. I mean a bad cupcake is still not that bad. This one? I would travel for this one.

One really nice thing about Bridgeport's market is they serve hot food! So you can come down, get your groceries for the week plus have lunch while you're doing it. They have Hash Browns & New Grounds on site, plus the Conference Center has a lunch menu available. There's a covered table for seating so you can be comfy while lunching (or breakfast-ing)!

Lots of veggies available, plus some sweet treats AND a hot meal while you're there? #winning, as the kids would say.

There's a new grocer and bubble tea shop on High Street: TK's Fruit, Produce and Bubble Tea. With the exception of the Mountain People's Co-Op (now on Pleasant Street) and Vonson, there aren't many options for fresh groceries downtown. Lots of restaurant options, yes, but for the folks who live downtown, this should be a welcome addition.





There's everything from bright, leafy greens and coconuts and ginger to watermelon, grapes and garlic. It's a small space, but they have a good variety of produce and organic options.





While I don't necessarily need to buy my groceries downtown (I'll stick to the farmers market + bougie Kroger for that), I'm always open to trying bubble tea!


In the back of the shop, there is a bubble tea section where you order your drinks. There are a few different options. First of all, you have to figure out if you want Milk Tea with Tapioca or Fruit Black/Green Tea with Tapioca. I ended up going the milk tea route and chose the caramel black tea with milk. 

The bubble tea is pretty good - I love the tapioca balls with the flavor of the caramel tea. It was pretty tasty. I think I'll try a fruit one next time, though. This place is a nice addition, but it's a tad rough around the edges at the moment. There were a lot of boxes and things that were a bit haphazard. Plus I think some finishings need to be in place just so it looks more put together. But that's OK, there's plenty of ambiance around town once you get your drink to walk around and see High Street. Some chairs outside would be lovely!

Grade: B

The Mountain People's Co-Op has moved into its bigger and better location on Pleasant Street. Just to recap, that means there's a pretty bangin' burrito shop, a kickass music venue, a healthy juice bar and now the coolest grocer all on one street. Don't worry, I won't blame you if you never leave that street again.

The co-op has an incredible selection of organic, fair-trade, vegan and all other sorts of alternative diet products available. Read about my first visit here. I swear I'm not quite as stupid as I was three years ago. But since my first visit, I've made many trips here. They carry products you can't find at the local grocery stores, and the container aisle has become my very favorite. I love getting granola and dried fruits here.

This new space seems to have even more area for them to display all sorts of delicious goodies. If you haven't gone, go. Everyone is super friendly, and you're pretty much guaranteed to find something new, different and maybe a new favorite.

The West Virginia Three Rivers Festival has lived in various forms since its inception - starting as a festival called Septemberfest and lasting just two days. It evolved to becoming a festival celebrating coal and then to river activities. Finally, it has settled upon The West Virginia Three Rivers Festival and has evolved to celebrate the pepperoni roll culture. Considering the pepperoni roll's birthplace is most often credited to Fairmont, it only makes sense to have a festival celebrate it. The WV Three Rivers Festival is as close as it gets. The Three Rivers Festival happened at the end of May, but I haven't had a chance to upload photos until recently.



There are two main pepperoni roll events: the amateur pepperoni roll bake-off and the pepperoni roll eating competition.

The bake-off had 10 entries from area businesses, and a panel of judges (yours truly included) received scorecards and scored each entry according to taste, appearance and texture. Taste counted for double points. The winner ended up being Firehouse Cafe by the judges, and the pageant queens chose Abruzzino's Bakery and Hank's Deli in a tie. Firehouse Cafe gets to hold the trophy until next year. I'm not totally sure which ones I liked and which ones I didn't because it was a blind taste-test, obviously. But I do remember one having a sweeter taste with ground pepperoni that was awesome.

The other major pepperoni roll event is the eating contest. When I was a reporter, I wrote about this event, but I hadn't attended. This isn't an amateur eating contest. No. This is with professional competitive eaters - the best in the world. You know Joey Chestnut? The guy who eats all of the hotdogs? This is the organization he's part of - Major League Eaters. And the guy who is quickly overcoming Chestnut for the #1 ranked eater in the world? That's Matt Stonie.

Stonie broke a world record at this festival by eating 34 Country Club pepperoni rolls in 10 minutes. That's him in the center. Miki Sudo, the #4 ranked eater in the world, to the left came in at 28.5 pepperoni rolls. And Adrian Morgan, to the right, ate 23.

Shepherdstown is home to a number of fantastic restaurants, so it was tough to narrow down the options. If only there were more meals in the day.



The Press Room stood out to me on name alone. Some quick research finds that the restaurant is in the former Independent Building, which house the local newspaper's printing press. The owner named the restaurant in honor of the building's history.


The Press Room has a comfortable, yet classy interior with exposed brick walls and lovely finishes. They have a menu outside the building so you can look over to see if anything strikes your fancy that evening. On this visit, appetizers like house pate, mushrooms stuffed with Italian sausage and mussels with white wine tomato and spinach were available. There are delicious soups and salads on the menu: sweet corn and clam chowder, oyster stew, gorgonzola custard salad, and roasted beet salad, amongst others.

We started out with some bread and butter, which wasn't much of note.

My main entree was grilled sea scallops, with a wild mushroom risotto, green beans and a side of pickled red onion and sweet peppers. I loved these. They were smooth, buttery, and I loved the addition of the mushroom risotto. A little bit more of a sear would have been fine, but the deep earthy flavors of the risotto were perfect with the fresh seafood, and the sweet onion and peppers were a perfect addition.

Tony ordered a grilled hanger steak, which he wasn't crazy about, but found it good enough.

And dessert, oh my god. A brownie with vanilla ice cream, caramel, whipped cream. Easily one of my most favorite desserts.

I might be biased with the history of the building, but between my delicious meal and the lovely atmosphere, I'm very happy this was my selection for dinner the one night I had in Shepherdstown.

Grade: A

Appalachian Distillery is a moonshine maker in Ripley opened by former coalminers. I went in while traveling through Ripley and had a quick tasting (At what point is it a problem to go to a moonshine tasting alone? Asking for a friend.)

They have 10 flavors: straight moon, paw-paw, apple pie, spit fire, peach, strawberry lemonade, orange stuff, caramel apple, strawberry and blackberry. I was pretty set on the paw-paw moonshine, because where else can you get that? It was delicious. The peach was also tasty.

They offer a sampler, which has all of these in it. That's kind of a no-brainer, right? I get to try a little of everything! So that's perfect. If you get a chance, definitely make a special stop for this place. And getchu some paw-paw moonshine.

 

The Mountain State Art & Craft Fair is a giant arts and crafts fair just outside of Ripley. Tons of artisans and vendors set up shop at the Cedar Lakes Conference Center selling wares, goodies and other treats.



Folks like Blue Smoke Salsa were there. I always go for mild versions of their salsas, but sweet peach and sweet onion are both stellar. Robin Hildebrand began the company more than 20 years ago by making salsa recipes from her garden. She had a commercial kitchen approved in the basement of her home, but grew out of it and moved to a facility in Ansted. In 2011, Blue Smoke's future was uncertain, but the West Virginia community gathered around the business via social media. Then in 2012, Blue Smoke Salsa partnered with White House Foods. If you haven't tried the salsa yet, get thee to a grocer and get some.



Thistledew Farm was also in attendance selling honey, beeswax and other bee products. They are a staple in West Virginia, and their honey can be found at various stores.



I hadn't heard of Plain Jane's Country Cookin' out of Clay before, but they had a lot of great products! They had dry seasoning mixes, various jellies and some old-fashioned candies.

There were also many wineries and local organizations selling snacks. The American Culinary Federation, West Virginia Chapter was selling pepperoni rolls that were absolutely delicious. It was like a garlic breadstick but filled with slices of pepperoni. Absolutely delicious.

Mountain Top Fudge was incredible. I had a pecan praline, which had the caramel in the center. So, soooo good.

Overall, such a nice time. And, as I was leaving, I realized there was covered bridge on the property. Not many of those left in the state.

Ripley is known to have West Virginia's biggest celebration for the Fourth of July. I made the trip to see what it is all about and discovered all the goodness of a small town celebration - parades, fireworks, local vendors and fair food.


They had everything from sandwiches to popcorn and everything in between. I didn't really dabble too much, because there was an arts and crafts fair just outside of town I wanted to attend, too. But I did scope out some restaurants to visit soon: The Downtowner, Crabby Patty's and Fratello's.

The sandwich was piled high, with a fried mass at the center. I dug into the fried green tomato, but I mostly could only taste fried. I'm not sure if the tomato wasn't very flavorful, or if it wasn't a thick enough piece to have any of the flavor shine, or if it was cooked too long and turned a bit mushy and melded with the breading - or maybe a combo of all three. Either way, I wish I could taste the tomato itself.

The pimento cheese and slaw were both flavorful, though. Pretty good - but a few tweaks would make it great.


Grade: B