DDD - The early days!

As I continued to go form place to place, I realized that I may not be good at many things but may I am pretty good at eating!  Throughout the fall and winter of 2008/2009 I continued to travel around and try the more local places that were on the show.  Around Labor Day 2008 I drove up to Baltimore to check out 3 places that were featured.  They were all pretty good and one, Chap's Pit Beef (on the Pulaski Highway) is a favorite.  I have a hard time going through Baltimore with out stopping at Chap's.  The most interesting thing about Chap's is that it really is a shack in the parking lot of a Gentleman's Club!  The Roast Beef and Smoked Turkey sandwiches are phenomenal!  On DDD the Chap's profile had Guy visiting along with "Ace of Cakes" star Duff Goldman.  Bob the owner is always there and loves to talk about his place and all the TV pub he's gotten.  Chap's has been on DDD as well as "Man vs. Food" and "No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain".  I highly recommend it!  Another real fun place in Baltimore is "The Blue Moon Cafe" in the Fells Point area.  It is basically a breakfast joint and is in the lower lever of Chef-Owner Sara Simmington's home.  I got there early so I didn't have to wait and got the specialty dish "Capt'n Cruch encrusted French Toast".  It is worth the trip! 

For my birthday in November 2008 I went to visit a friend in Scranton, PA and as we went into New York City we stopped for breakfast at a place in Jersey City, NJ called "The Brownstone Diner and Pancake Factory".  They have over 31 flavors of pancakes as well as a full NJ Diner menu.  I got the "Meat Pancakes" which are panckes stuffed with bacon and reminded me of breakfast at my grandmas.  On a non-DDD note, for dinner I went to Peter Lugers in Brooklyn, they have the best steak, unbelieveable!

In December I took a roadtrip into the heart of the great Commonwealth of Virginia.  In a day and a half I tried the Virginia Diner in Wakefield, the heart of Virginia's peanut country, Dot's Back Inn in Richmond and Captain Chuck-A-Mucks in the tiny town of Carrollton.  If you head to the VA Diner watch out for speed traps and also go and visit the town of Smithfield which is nearby and learn all about the ham industry and the settling of the Virginia Colony.  Captain Chuck-A-Mucks is hard to find but so worth it!  The Crab Cakes and She Crab Soup is unreal, some of the best ever! 

Ending 2008, I had visited 14 DDD locations and I was just getting started