Today, I finish up Prestonsburg with my final stretch of places. If I have missed anything, I will come back to them in a later post. If you need a recap of how this post is organized, click here for the link to the first part of this series. Now, let's get through this last section.
- Dairy Queen, current location, DI: When Dairy Queen moved, they got a much larger location. The dining area lobby was divided into multiple sections, and the parking lot had many more spaces than the few surrounding the sides of their first place. I've only been to this location once, as the final stop on my short-lived tradition of going to Prestonsburg on the Saturday of Hillbilly Days in Pikeville, back in 2019. We decided to stop here because I was interested in a special promotion they were having. The place was so busy that they had to bring the order out to the table. Unfortunately, they got the wrong dish, as they brought out a regular chicken strip basket instead of the chicken and waffles that I ordered. They brought out the missing portions quickly. I still didn't care too much for the mix of savory and sweet, but it was a nice change of pace. At least I was able to get cherry-vanilla flavored Dr Pepper, even if it didn't taste as good as the original one. (I finished the overcast day by checking out some car dealerships, although I wouldn't wind up buying one until that fall.)
- Pizza Hut, previous location, TO/DI: The first reactions I had to this Pizza Hut was with take out, I think. (My mom may have brought home some cheesy breadsticks before this.) Since I would be in late working as an election official one year, she brought home a pizza. However, she asked for it not to be completely baked. The mess ended up looking horrible one it was finished. I almost didn't want to eat it. (My mom thought I would have had a problem eating a reheated pizza. However, it is just about the one type of food I can stand as a leftover. More on that in a later post.) I would later get to dine in later one. I felt that the restaurant was kind of tight-spaced, but the overall presentation was good. The restaurant would later close at their original location, and open a Pizza Hut Express as part of the new Food City center. I believe that Giovanni's may have moved here. However, I so rarely go this far north on Route 321, so I can't be sure. The same can be said for the rest of the locations mentioned in this post.
- Arby's, DI: This was the 2018 stop in my short-lived tradition. I had had a fairly good experience at other Arby's (which I will go over in later posts), so I really wanted to try this new location, near where Pizza Hut was once. I had the chicken sandwich. I don't like the typical breaded sandwiches so much, but it was descent. Strangely enough, the place was fairly empty at the time. I may have ate lunch a little early compared to my usual times. I would spend the rest of the afternoon shopping in Paintsville. It was the only one of the three trips with good weather. (There is also a second McDonalds in the same area as well. I haven't been there, but there is a small chance my mom stopped there once.)
- Subway, DEL/DI: Wait, did I just use "delivery" for the first time? Way back in the mid-90s, when I had my only job for a total of four weeks (I won't mention the details, but it was a totally wrong fit for me.), one of my co-workers suggested getting subs delivered, during my first week. She talked me into getting a meatball sub, but I didn't really like it, probably because it may have had pork in it. Years later, Subway would be one of the monthly stops with my mom. (I don't think I ever told her about the first time before that moment though.) I again had the meatball sub, and I felt about the same way about it, although I had some sort of chips and a drink this time around. It would cause me to create my own version of a meatball sub, though. I used my standard meatball recipe, which I gave an abbreviated version in a blogcast post from two years ago which you can find here. I made the balls slightly larger, as I didn't want too many on the bread. I usually used just jarred spaghetti sauce, to cut back on time, but I'm sure I used my full sauce recipe at least once. I split a refrigerated French bread loaf into smaller portions before baking to use a rolls. I split the rolls in half and stuffed them with the meatballs and sauce, slapping some mozzarella and maybe a dash of Parm on top. I stopped making them after a while, as making large meatballs was time-consuming, compared to the slightly quicker smaller ones for spaghetti and meatballs.
- Dairy Cheer, DI/maybe TO?: I don't really remember much about my earliest trips to this Dairy Cheer, but I don know that I had to go there on a couple of occasions. Even the few times I went as an adult aren't that memorable. I believe I had my first ever cheese curds from here in the 90s. I kind of liked them, but my mom didn't like them as well. I probably had mine with some ketchup at one point of another. (That will be a recurring theme after a bit.)
- Jerry's, DI: This was probably my favorite of all the Jerry's restaurants that I went to. It was so much brighter than the others. The stuffed fish was a little off-putting, but it wasn't that bad. I remember having to get a booster seat whenever I went there as a kid. I would usually get the plain burger from the kids' menu, but I would usually add a club-style cracker from my mom's salad to it. If she didn't have a salad, she would ask for one from the back. It didn't add much flavor, but I loved the added crunch. When I went back to it as an adult, I usually ordered the grilled chicken sandwich. (I was really into chicken sandwiches in the late 90s/early 00s.) I noted that Jerry's had the same fries as Long John Silver's (see next entry). I am not sure if I knew at the time that they were part of the same company. I had already opened my store in Pikeville when I heard the news that Jerry's had closed, well after the fact. Never got a chance to go there again. I heard that an Italian restaurant went in, but I'm not sure what is there now.
- Long John Silver's, DI/TO: I always considered this to be my "home" LJS, even though it wasn't the one I went to the most often after a few years and others opened. I pretty much stopped dining in here as a kid, after I got caught seen by a classmate one time and got ribbed for it a little at school. I pretty much just remember here for the take-out, either mom bringing in after work or as a pick after a long day of shopping out of town. It was take out from here where I actually had a bone in a chicken plank that almost turned me off from eating here ever again, but I did get over it. When I finally went back here to dine in the 90s, I couldn't believe how small it was, and not just because I was about a foot taller since I had actually dined in. (I usually just let my mom go in to get the order while I stayed out in the car for most of the time before then.) I had forgotten how it was the only LJS I had been to regularly that only had one seating section in the lobby. All the others had at least two. It felt so weird. It was from here that I tried the chicken wrap with rice. An unusual combination soon discontinued from here before I decided if I wanted to try it again. It was also from here where I may have accidentally been given the then new popcorn shrimp instead of the chicken. I had a slight allergic reaction, but I ate most of them anyway. (For some reason, I was eating in my car and didn't have time to correct the mistake.) After my sore opened, I had to stop going here. The LJS at Martin was easier to stop at on the way home from shopping trips, and the Pikeville one was closer. It still shocked me when I heard that this LJS was closing/closed, about the same time as Jerry's. Really hated that. I think something else moved in, maybe another seafood place, but I have no idea if it is still there.
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