South
The Grits Belt is an unmarked but undeniable demarcation of American culinary cultures
The United States continues to be a house divided. The so-called Grits Belt lays it bare.
Political borders are well-defined, the line on the map matching the “welcome to” sign on the road.
On the other hand, cultural borders are undefined and unmarked — yet their existence is undeniable. The Grits Belt, largely a phenomenon in the eastern half of the country, is a perfect example.
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It does not appear on a map, AAA guide or smartphone app. Yet it’s as obvious as the delicious joy that comes with eating the creamy ground corn drenched in butter and love.
“The Grits Belt is a real geographic phenomenon,” Matthew Zook, a professor of geography at the University of Kentucky, told Fox News Digital.
Shrimp and Grits, made with Andouille Sausage Tomato Gravy and Crispy Garlic, at Benne On Eagle in Asheville, North Carolina. (Tim Robison for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“But like all cultures, it has porous and diffuse borders.”
The Grits Belt separates an America in which grits are at best a novelty from an America in which grits are gloriously abundant.
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Grits are rare in New England, the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest.
But during a drive south, New Yorkers will, without notice, enter the Grits Belt.
They will know only when they pull over at the country café and find grits on the menu with their sunny sides, shrimp or fried chicken.
University of Kentucky professor Matthew Zook, and other scholars, used social media geotags to map the Grits Belt — which they published on the website floatingsheep.org. (Courtesy Matthew Zook/Floatingsheep.org)
Road-trippers from South Carolina, conversely, will at some undetermined point leave the Grits Belt.
They will know only when they look at a menu and find that meals come with some sort of potatoes: home fries with their eggs, French fries with fried fish, mashed potatoes with chicken dinner.
“A relatively small number of coastal localities in the Low Country … have the strongest connection to grits.”
Zook and other scholars mapped the Grits Belt in 2014 on the website floatingsheep.org, by surveying geotagged posts on X (formerly known as Twitter).
“The South in general demonstrates a general preference for grits over the rest of the country,” they wrote.
Beef with grits served on the farm, Conowingo, Maryland. (Edwin Remsberg/VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
But, they noted, it “is actually a relatively small number of coastal localities in the Low Country that have the strongest connection to grits through social media.”
The Southeast is the heart of the Grits Belt, said Zook.
But “it shifts as people travel and preferences change.”
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Erin Byers Murray of Nashville, Tennessee is the author of “Grits: A Cultural and Culinary Journey Through the South” and editor-in-chief of The Local Palate, a South Carolina magazine devoted to Southern food culture.
“I don’t know where the line is, but I think it’s pretty firmly in Virginia,” she said, while agreeing that the border of the Grits Belt moves with time, tastes and trends.
Frank Stitt, owner and executive chef of Highlands Bar and Grill in Birmingham, Alabama. He’s one of the high-profile chefs currently devoted to Southern cuisine and to elevating humble grits. (Maranie Staab/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
She is far more certain about the history of grits — and its gritty name.
Corn is native to the Western Hemisphere and its ground, softened form was a staple of the Native American diet.
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European settlers arriving in coastal Virginia in the 1630s, she notes, adopted it from indigenous culinary culture. The texture of the corn porridge was similar to the grist mashed from grains known to Europeans.
The name quickly evolved into grits.
The Breakfast Klub’s catfish and grits with sunny side up eggs and biskit. Photographed on Monday, Aug. 15, 2016, in Houston. (Nick de la Torre/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
“This moment launched the official archive of grits: written accounts, and trackable moments of a now named dish that could be etched into historical records,” Murray writes in her book, “Grits.”
“Through that naming process, grits, the term and the dish, were then permanently tied to what was about to become the southeastern United States.”
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She listed several high-profile chefs devoted to Southern cuisine and to elevating humble grits: Sean Brock in Nashville, Frank Stitt in Birmingham, Alabama, and Dominic Lee in New Orleans, Louisiana.
“These are the folks who are doing grits fancy right now,” said Murray.
For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle.
It’s been a month of extremes for Poorvesh Thakkar.
The India-born, Dallas-based developer was slapped with a lawsuit trying to eject him from a Midtown Manhattan office building he bought in 2024.
The legal challenge comes amid unseasonably sunny days for Thakkar, who recently reached a milestone in his Mustang Square development. That’s notable, because, despite launching his real estate development company in 2016, his development chops are still largely untested, as his pitched projects have mostly been delayed or aborted.
Thakkar recently sold a 3.5-acre slice of the mixed-use project in Plano to an entity tied to Carrollton-based Madewell Spaces. The buyer said its plans to build 13 “standalone luxury office condominiums. D.R. Horton bought a swath of homesites at the project.
Thakkar claims the project is “almost fully sold out and developed.”
It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the project, because Thakkar’s legal trouble in New York seems more indicative of his success as a developer than this Plano project.
The saga of the Midtown Manhattan office tower starts with an almost incomprehensible bet on the part of Thakkar:The largely untested developer struggling to get projects off the ground in his hometown of Dallas bought an office building in New York City with plans to turn it into a residential property, a tricky maneuver even for a seasoned developer.
The only thing that can explain the move is the price tag. Thakkar bought the 23-story building at 135 West 50th Street on auction site Ten-X for $8.5 million, a 97 percent discount to its 2006 sale price.
Safehold, which owns the land beneath the building, claims Thakkar’s firm failed to pay $9 million in property taxes that were due Jan. 1, 2025, and has since racked up almost $28 million in unpaid taxes, interest and other penalties.
After Thakkar failed to meet repeated extension deadlines and forbearance agreements, Safehold notified the firm that it was terminating the ground lease and demanded it surrender the building, according to the lawsuit. Thakkar refused to vacate the property, and the land owner is now seeking their immediate ejection, according to the complaint. He dug his heels in further with a countersuit in which he claims the ground landlord iced him out of his planned conversion project.
Thakkar could win his case in New York and completely sell out Mustang Square and he’ll still face question marks as a developer, thanks to the litany of lawsuits he’s faced, with allegations ranging from loan defaults to EB-5 fraud. The legal trouble appears to have peaked with real estate offering fraud charges filed by the SEC in February.
Austin’s Ayn Rand Museum
In case you missed Elon Musk’s recent embrace of Austin, the summer isn’t the only thing that’s hot in Austin. So is libertarianism. As war-tech startups set up camp in nearby Proto-Town, libertarian icon Ayn Rand is getting a museum built in her honor. The foundation dedicated to preserving the manuscripts of the Russia-born philosopher famous for her “Objectivism” theory is building a $30 million monument to Rand in the form of a library, exhibition room, office and “higher education classroom spaces.”
Fifth Third ditches Downtown Dallas
Dallas’ beleaguered downtown is still smarting from the news that anchor tenant AT&T is moving to Plano. To add insult to injury, Fifth Third Bank is ditching downtown, too, after its merger with Comerica Bank. Fifth Third is leaving a 200,000-square-foot vacancy in Comerica Tower. While the Ohio-based bank won’t settle into the still-under-construction site at 8300 Douglas Avenue until late 2028, it will leave its 200,000-square-foot lease at the 60-story Comerica Bank Tower at 1717 Main Street before the end of the summer.
Meet Poorvesh Thakkar, the Dallas owner Safehold is trying to eject from a Manhattan tower
It’s official: Fifth Third Bank will exit Downtown Dallas Comerica Tower after Comerica merger
Austin in line for $30M of libertarian development devoted to Ayn Rand
Read more
Pinecrest Police are investigating after a car burglary and chase unfolded early Sunday morning.
The department said an officer was conducting a proactive crime prevention detail around 2 a.m. and saw a suspicious gray BMW parked on the wrong side of the road with its lights turned off near Southwest 66th Avenue. The officer remained in the area to monitor the car, and shortly after saw multiple people dressed in black clothing and wearing ski masks run from a nearby home’s yard to enter the car.
Investigators said they initially believed the suspects had burglarized a different car that was outside of the home. Officers said this was later confirmed, learning the suspects entered the unlocked car as the residents slept inside the home.
Pinecrest Police said the officer tried to stop them, but the driver allegedly backed the BMW into the officer’s marked police car, hitting it before speeding off and prompting a chase. The officer was not hurt.
The department said the suspects sped north on the Palmetto Expressway, and the chase was ended near the Sunset Drive area after officers lost sight of the BMW. However, the car eventually crashed in Hollywood in Broward County. One person, who has not yet been identified, was taken into custody as the other people inside ran off.
Pinecrest Police said while they have identified the registered owner of the BMW, the owner is reportedly not cooperating with law enforcement. The BMW was not reported as stolen, nor was it rented.
“This incident serves as an important reminder for residents to remain vigilant during holiday weekends,” the department said in a statement. “Many families travel during Memorial Day weekend, leaving homes and vehicles vulnerable to opportunistic criminals. Residents are encouraged to lock their vehicles, remove valuables from plain view, activate exterior lighting and security cameras when available, and report suspicious activity immediately.”
The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with more information is asked to call Pinecrest Police.
Justin Brown (aka @therealfoodstalker) recommends several metro Atlanta barbecue restaurants and the dishes that make them stand out.
A barbecue platter is filled to the brim at Disruption BBQ in Henry County. (Justin Brown for the AJC)
By Justin Brown – The Real Food Stalker
6 hours ago
With the arrival of barbecue season, I visited several of my favorite spots around metro Atlanta serving great smoked meats and some wild side dishes.
I visited Texas-style brisket pitmasters setting up shop next to gas stations, family-run spots cooking low and slow and Korean-Southern mashups that’ll rewire your thoughts about what barbecue can be. The smoke is hanging heavy from Stockbridge to Mableton.
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TwinCookz BBQ serves up smoked oxtails that will completely change how you view comfort food, and ground beef is mixed into their baked beans. (Justin Brown for the AJC)
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.moc.ltazkoocniwt .zkooCniwT ,daoR .ainohtiL notgniriaF 8795 ,1997-785-404 A sampler platter from Heirloom Market BBQ features kimchi slaw (clockwise from top left), collard greens, Korean sweet potatoes, mac and cheese, cucumber radish salad, a spicy Korean pork sandwich and various other meats. (Chris Hunt for the AJC 2020)
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The smoked chicken wings from Owens & Co. come in lemon pepper and sassy seasoning. (Justin Brown for the AJC)
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TwinCookz BBQ
Heirloom Market BBQ
Owens & Co.
TrucKINGS BBQ
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