Twice a year, every year, for the past ten years, we drive 850 miles from New York to South Carolina to spend a week at the beach. Itโs a long drive. With two kids in the back, singing Adele a capella, itโs a really long drive. We try to do it in one shot with just one stop: Sally Bellโs Kitchen, two minutes off the highway in Richmond, Virginia. Their famous lunchboxes, which theyโve been packing since the โ50s, are almost worth the trip alone. We buy four, then walk to a park nearby to sit in the sun, stretch our legs a bit, and eat.
Inside each box is a happy meal from another, better time: a Smithfield ham-and-iceberg sandwich on a roll, a paprika-dusted deviled egg wrapped in parchment paper, a two-bite cupcake (You get three choices: chocolate, almond, or caramel) that is frosted on three sides, a cheese crisp, a packet of Dukeโs mayonnaise and, best of all, a small paper cup filled with super-eggy potato salad and topped with a lone sweet pickle chip. Hot damn!
While the girls love the salty ham with mayo and the novelty of a cupcake thatโs more frosting than it is cake, itโs the whole packageโand the act of unwrapping of itโthat blows their small minds. The white cardboard boxes, tied with bakery twine and lined with checkerboard tissue paper, are prizes theyโve earned by enduring four hundred miles lashed to their booster seats, watching I-95 roll by, and being force-fed Dadโs music. The food is real and great and they love it, but they also love what it represents: the trip is halfway done, and the next time we stop, theyโll be in vacation land, with all its attendant promise.
Occasionally, we try to replicate the lunchbox at home. The tangy potato salad in particular is a mainstay at our summer barbecues, and goes perfectly with a well-cooked burger and a salad. The kids eat up a (slightly less eggy) version as eagerly as ever. For them, itโs a little taste of vacation โ but from the comfort of their own home
This is our โProvidersโ column from the May 2012 issue (The Travel Issue!) of Bon Appetit โ on newsstands today. Please head over to their site for theย Eggy Potato Salad with Pickles recipeย and to access the entire Providers Archive.ย Photo by the amazing Marcus Nilsson for BonApp.
I LOVE Sally Bellโs Kitchen! Itโs just down the street from my office and I just walked to get a boxed lunch there yesterday! Youโre so right about how wonderful the lunches are to unwrap and how real and good the food is. Thank you for bringing some national attention to one of the wonderful restaurants in our great city of Richmond, VA!
We make the same drive to Pawleyโs every summer from PA. However, we miss all of the good places to eat, we pack the four kids into the car at 11:00 pm and drive overnight.
If we ever do a day run, we will have to hit Sally Bellโs Run. We are always looking for somewhere new and good to try.
I am a Richmond girl and am so glad you have discovered the wonderfulness of our Sally Bellโs! It is a truly special place and their chocolate/chocolate cupcake is heaven.
Love the mental picture of your girls delight over a โreal foodโ happy meal โ we need more Sally Bells!
Thanks for the potato salad recipe too โ looks delicious. Fun to see you featured in Bon Appetit!
Ooohโthis reminds me of the lovely lunches in โBread and Jam for Frances.โ Tell me the boxed lunch comes with a doily and a tiny vase of violets!
As a Richmond transplant to Brooklyn, I love and miss Sally Bellโs! When Iโm at my parents we often get boxed lunches and have a picnic. We make that 7 hour drive often, although we bypass 95 and go 301 (slightly slower but WAY better sights and food along the way). Love the thought of starting our trip home to NYC with a Sally Bellโs lunch, brilliant!
This is the best kind of happy meal. ๐
Donโt your kids have any issues with all those eggy parts? I mean, deviled egg, eggy potato salad, this is quite a lot for 2 egg haters!
nancy โ yes, thatโs why theirs is the โslightly less eggyโ version. I donโt think they know that there is egg in there. for them, the egg issues are more about a runny yolk or a slippery, jiggly scramble.
Thanks for posting this! Weโre moving to Richmond next month, I canโt wait to check this out.
โI read your newsletter, do I win the Jane Marvel tote?โ
Ah Sally Bells! A box lunch may need to be lunch today. The ladies get there at 3 or 4 AM and make everything, even the mayo, from scratch each day. I love the sandwiches, the potato salad and cupcakes but the cheese wafer with the pecan half on top, priceless.
Made this last night and it truly was the yummiest potato salad Iโve made, and simple to boot. Love the creamy texture and the perfect balance of tangy sweet, salty goodness. Iโm tossing out all my other potato salad recipes.
Just a thoughtโฆ.next time youโre passing thru Richmond, order the jello salad (it has canned fruit in it) instead of the potato salad for your kids. It might appeal more to their tastes. I order it from time to time and love it.
Also, instead of the cupcake, next time try one of their pecan tarts. They are out of this world delicious and huge (big enough for two people to share).
And while I am making suggestions, you and your kids would have a grand time having your picnic at Maymont Park. There is a childrenโs farm, wildlife exhibits and a nature center. This place is absolutely breathtaking and worth a stop (and only a five minute drive from Sally Bellโs).
We make the trip from DC either UP 95 (to CT) or down 95/26 to charleston. I just wanted to comment on your potato salad. I used the recipe from the DALS book. oh, wow! Big hit for our Memorial Day celebration!!