Maid-Rite ... Not Quite

I traveled to Greenville on Wednesday to see my girlfriend and I got to visit, finally, one of the legendary landmarks of that little town.

There is a restaurant called Maid-Rite that is the local hotspot for all the surrounding counties. People will drive for over and hour to eat the "hamburgers" there. I call them "hamburgers" because they are not traditional hamburgers. They are the equivalent of "loose meat" sandwiches with the meat having been soaked in beer, topped off with mustard, onions and pickles.

I have been hearing about this place since Tammy and I started seeing each other. According to her, people either love or hate the sandwiches. When her ex-husband took her to the place the first time, he literally turned to her as the car pulled away from the window and asked her to eat the sandwich now in case she wanted him to immediately get back in line for another one.

All I knew was Tammy has gone on and on about these sandwiches since the first time I made the trip to Greenville.

I should also preface the story with the fact that I can at times be a germaphobe. It just sometimes depends on the situation. For example, I don't like to eat or drink after children since they slobber like a leaky faucet.

So we are slowing down on the road and sitting behind a pick up, waiting to pull into the drive through lane and Tammy says, "I guess I should've mentioned this earlier, but I didn't think about it until now. This may gross you out a little."

Probably not the best way to start a conversation when trying to get someone to try new food.

"Do you see the outside wall up there?" I glanced at the speckled wall.

"Yeah," I answered.

"All those little spots are chewing gum. It's a tradition on the building that you stick your chewing gum on the outside of the wall as you go through the drive through."

I think I started gagging when I heard this. I threw up a little on the inside.

As we pulled into the driveway, it looked something akin to this picture, except it covered the entire front and side of the building from the ground to six feet high. This picture is only about a 15 foot section.


I thought I was going to be sick.

I had to shield my eyes from looking at it. According to a link I found online, this has been going on for at least 50 years.

What the Hell is wrong with you people?

I thought I would be sick. Tammy handed me to food as I stopped trying to accidentally glance at the 10,000 pieces of gum stuck EVERYWHERE.

"Sometimes they clean it off with a power washer and it just starts all over again," she tells me.

We picked up her daughter and spent the early evening together when Tammy remembered to tell her where she took me.

Chloe's face lit up. "It's so cool! You go through the drive through and you find yourself searching for the piece of gum you stuck up there before."

I thought I might hurl.

The food was mediocre. It wasn't anything I would drive 54 miles to have.

And the outside decor, while being truly original, was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen next to perhaps a booger wall.

YUCK!!!!!