SEC Destinations

[Zepol87 9188]

Don't know much about Baton Rouge but I stopped in at Phil's Oyster and seafood bar yesterday driving back from Destin and it was pretty damn good. Worth checking out imo

[BHMCruiser 1814]

21 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Wow, Egan's closed.  That is sad. I bartended at the Chukker when I was in grad school, and I remember it closing.  Changing the bar opening hours thanks to the "Christians" really fucked over a lot of places in Tuscaloosa.

Well, money from Saban success probably helped a lot, but having to rebuild from that massive tornado in 2011 is also responsible.  That thing was awful. I think my old neighborhood was one of the casualties.

Most of the rebuild was over by 15th Street and McFarland. The downtown area was relatively unaffected, as was most of the school. 

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19101]

Just now, BHMCruiser said:

Most of the rebuild was over by 15th Street and McFarland. The downtown area was relatively unaffected, as was most of the school. 

Yeah, my old neighborhood wasn't far from that.  

But in any case, fuck Tuscaloosa.  

[BHMCruiser 1814]

22 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Yeah, my old neighborhood wasn't far from that.  

But in any case, fuck Tuscaloosa.  

Glad you enjoyed your time there.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19101]

43 minutes ago, BHMCruiser said:

Glad you enjoyed your time there.

It is the worst place I have even lived, and I grew up in Belton, TX.  What made Belton better was the two lakes in town and being an hour from Austin.

[gmr548 16580]

On 7/27/2021 at 9:26 AM, South Austin said:

Baton Rouge seems like a hell hole, but I've been there for two football games (2006 v. Ole Miss and 2007 v. Alabama - both games went into overtime) and they're among the best tailgating experiences I've ever had. 

Baton Rouge is a dump. I'm sure it's fun for a LSU game, was planning on making the trip in 2020 pre COVID, but that's the olnly reason to be there aside from simply driving through.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19101]

5 minutes ago, gmr548 said:

Baton Rouge is a dump. I'm sure it's fun for a LSU game, was planning on making the trip in 2020 pre COVID, but that's the olnly reason to be there aside from simply driving through.

This.  Stay in New Orleans.  Splurge for a car and a driver to and from the game.  Fuck it.  

[billfromlaketravis 11487]

3 hours ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

This.  Stay in New Orleans.  Splurge for a car and a driver to and from the game.  Fuck it.  

While I've never stayed there, my LSU buddies tell me the crowd at the L'Auberge Baton Rouge is pretty rough. 

Out of curiosity Penelope, how much would it cost to hire a driver for the day? Could be a solid move for many SEC towns. Especially Starkville and Oxford. 

Edited August 9, 2021 by billfromlaketravis

[Neonmoon 38129]

I’ve been to a game in Tuscaloosa recently. We stayed in Birmingham and drove up for  the game. Easier to find a hotel room. The campus is nice in Tuscaloosa. They updated with all the Saban money. It’s a small college town. They have a strip of bars a couple blocks from the stadium which is nice. But yeah all the douche popped collar frat culture is loud but I mean they’ve won 10 titles in the past 10 year or so, they’re arrogant for good reason 

[billfromlaketravis 11487]

I’ll probably get negged into Purgatory, but College Station ain’t bad. Short drive to IAH. A lot of new hotels and restaurants trying to keep SEC tourism dollars in College Station. 
 

All of the burb chain options,plus a few local spots mixed in. They’ve come a long way since GattiTown was the best restaurant in town. 

Edited August 9, 2021 by billfromlaketravis

[Smax 3800]

maybe its an age thing (46) or my experience with Georgia fans in the Sugar bowl, I have zero desire to mingle with the white trash southern redneck that makes up the majority of sec fan.

[RollLeft 5045]

1 hour ago, billfromlaketravis said:

I’ll probably get negged into Purgatory, but College Station ain’t bad. Short drive to IAH. A lot of new hotels and restaurants trying to keep SEC tourism dollars in College Station. 
 

All of the burb chain options,plus a few local spots mixed in. They’ve come a long way since GattiTown was the best restaurant in town. 

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19101]

3 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

While I've never stayed there, my LSU buddies tell me the crowd at the L'Auberge Baton Rouge is pretty rough. 

Out of curiosity Penelope, how much would it cost to hire a driver for the day? Could be a solid move for many SEC towns. Especially Starkville and Oxford. 

Don’t go to Starkville.   It’s awful.  I be;I eve Oxford is a pretty cool experience.  On the NOLA Baton Rouge, I’d assume you could get a nice Uber Black SUV to do it for 100 an hour or so.  If you get 4 or 5 folks and offer a grand, payable on return to NOLA, I bet it could be arranged.  Worth it IMO.

[WBT 20580]

13 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

While I've never stayed there, my LSU buddies tell me the crowd at the L'Auberge Baton Rouge is pretty rough. 

L'Auberge is the nice casino in BR.  If they think it's rough, don't let them onto the Belle.

[Capt. Squints 176]

17 hours ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

It is the worst place I have even lived, and I grew up in Belton, TX.  What made Belton better was the two lakes in town and being an hour from Austin.

You must have missed the river that borders the campus, or the numerous lakes (some quite nice) just a few miles west of town.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19101]

19 minutes ago, Capt. Squints said:

You must have missed the river that borders the campus, or the numerous lakes (some quite nice) just a few miles west of town.

No.  I remember them.  It is still in the middle of fucking Alabama.  

[TornACL 7698]

2 hours ago, WBT said:

L'Auberge is the nice casino in BR.  If they think it's rough, don't let them onto the Belle.

Yeah I think they had their places mixed up. L'Auberge was fine. I think you're required to be on bath salts or crack to enter those places downtown. 

[billfromlaketravis 11487]

On 8/8/2021 at 4:00 PM, Zepol87 said:

Don't know much about Baton Rouge but I stopped in at Phil's Oyster and seafood bar yesterday driving back from Destin and it was pretty damn good. Worth checking out imo

Juban’s is pretty good. Not sure if they survived Covid. I’d say it Brennan’s level Creole dining. 

[gmr548 16580]

I’ll probably get negged into Purgatory, but College Station ain’t bad. Short drive to IAH. A lot of new hotels and restaurants trying to keep SEC tourism dollars in College Station. 
 
All of the burb chain options,plus a few local spots mixed in. They’ve come a long way since GattiTown was the best restaurant in town. 

Yeah, when you lead with the easy drive to somewhere else and the plethora of suburban chain options it really says a lot about the place

[RDCanecutter 26446]

On 8/8/2021 at 3:37 PM, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Wow, Egan's closed.  That is sad. I bartended at the Chukker when I was in grad school, and I remember it closing.  Changing the bar opening hours thanks to the "Christians" really fucked over a lot of places in Tuscaloosa.

Well, money from Saban success probably helped a lot, but having to rebuild from that massive tornado in 2011 is also responsible.  That thing was awful. I think my old neighborhood was one of the casualties.

Whoa, 1 degree of separation from Kevin Bacon.

I am surprised Egan's lasted as long as it did. My first visit there I was an underage aspiring drunk who was scared of the evil older crowd in there. Last visit, I was old and evil. I remember every few years, more of the original booths had disintegrated like the wreck of a Spanish Galleon falling apart on a reef.

Last time I was in the Chukker was the 90s.

I remember so far back as when The Booth had food, and we would foolishly eat it. Always had a wet sock smell to it. Years later they did some renovations, and there was a hidden basement under it that came to light, full of 8 feet of fetid water, dead rats, sewage, who knows what.

Even without tornadoes, there's a good chance that any funky old student neighborhood anybody remembers in Tuscaloosa is gone. In the 80s you could zip unseen down alleys and through ticky-tack firetrap construction to get anywhere. Last time I looked, it was all monoliths on stilts.

[thrillhammer 683]

my family is from the south, so i'm looking forward to a few road trips.   sure they are shit towns, but so is ames, lubbock, waco, manhattan, etc.   my two cents is they will be greener and with better looking chicks.  also more of a deliverance vibe, but i can overlook that for a weekend.  the only sec destination ive been to is opelika.  the three i am looking forward to most are athens, columbia, and nashville.

[DonkeyCigars 143]

Here is my POV:

Been to The Grove a couple of times and every time it was epic. I went to a tailgate where they hired servers with white gloves to serve lobster. Of course, I fell asleep in a port-a-potty and missed half the game, but that's show business, baby! Definitely stay in Memphis and party hard on Beale St. the night before and then just drive the hour to Oxford the next day. Pack a tie.

I spent way too much time in Nashville the last couple of years for work; it's definitely an It town now, you can't go wrong by staying in the gulch, but I actually enjoy staying by Vanderbilt where Marriott has like 5 properties within a stone throw (and near the Hattie B's). The Parthenon is stupid and a waste of time, but I guess you have to see it at least once? There is a Bob's Chop House in the Omni downtown and other good higher end dining on that side of Broadway. Overall Nashville has an "Old Austin" vibe and energy before Austin sold out and sucked. I will say that Nashville has a big problem with homeless people and stoop sleeping and tents in the city center during the warmer months, so the mini-Austin moniker cuts both ways.

College Station sucks.

Starkville, Lexington, Missouri, Gainesville, etc. no clue.

Athens is an anachronistic college town. It's probably one of the few college towns that still exist as a pure play and there is a charm and fun to that. I've been to a few others and I guess it reminds me the most of maybe South Bend but more live music/artsy/college bars. It's requisitely small and dingy in a lot of ways. A great experience I'm told by my UGA friends, to live and go to school in, sounds like what Austin was like for half the board here who went to UT in the 70's or 80's.

Nowadays I spend a lot of time in Knoxville due to a consulting project with a Haslem-owned organization not named the Browns. I like it the best of all the SEC towns I've visited and if you can get past all the "we are the REAL UT" jokes from all the Haslem MBA guys, I find Tennessee grads to be very likable, down to earth, smart and competent people. There is no better city to wear a UT needlepoint belt, which, by the way, since we are in the SEC now, is as mandatory as croakies, boat shoes, higher inseam shorts, and Masters polos/hats. Here you go: https://smathersandbranson.com/product/texas-light-khaki-needlepoint-belt or https://www.jtspencer.com/collections/belts/products/university-of-texas

Lastly, my experience is, nowhere above I've been to during COVID-19 is wearing a mask really a thing for anyone living TN (Nashville and Knoxville) unless you are in an office. YMMV.

Edited August 11, 2021 by DonkeyCigars

[RDCanecutter 26446]

2 hours ago, thrillhammer said:

 also more of a deliverance vibe, but i can overlook that for a weekend. 

From my experience, the cooler towns have a broken-down Faulknerian feel to them, with the Deliverance vibe held at bay in the distance. For the less desirable, Deliverance creeps up closer and possibly even overruns the main square.

Except for College Station. That's A Boy and His Dog territory.

[HeHateMe 886]

I grew up in Florida, my old man won an ACC championship ring at South Carolina.  Yes, ACC, it was 1969.  Needless to say I’ve been to Columbia more times than I can count over multiple decades.  I’ve also been to games at UF, UTenn, UGA, Auburn, Vandy, Kentucky, and Ole Miss.  I played in games at Auburn, UF, Alabama and UGA.  I took officials to Auburn Vandy and UK.  I have a fair amount of knowledge of a lot of the OG SEC towns.  Maybe we should start a sub forum and people with intimate knowledge can write something up about the different towns.  Where to eat, drink, where to stay, where to tailgate..etc.  Just a thought, but it might be nice to have a resource all in one place to help plan road trips.  I never plan on going to CS or Starkville.  Ever.  

[Chopper 17236]

My wife grew up in Columbus, MS (her father served at West Point and that's where they ended up) about 45 minutes from Tuscaloosa and 25 minutes from Starkville. I'd avoid Starkville--total dump--and stay a night in Columbus either the night before or the night after a game in Starkville, it's pretty pleasant, has interesting architecture and a couple very good local restaurants. But yeah, the second night I'd head for Memphis, NOLA or B'ham, or Oxford or Natchez, depending on whether I flew or drove to the game. 

It's been at least 25 years since I've been in Tuscaloosa. I only knew it for the original Dreamland bbq (ribs), whose quality has certainly gone down over the years as its branched out, and one of the original Krispy Kreme shops. Just an arm pit.

Edited August 12, 2021 by Chopper

[billfromlaketravis 11487]

We stayed in Tunica for the Ole Miss game in 2012. If you like gambling, it might be a better option than Memphis. It is a longer drive. The Harrah's closed years ago, but the Gold Strike is pretty nice. 

We wanted to fly SWA, so we flew into Little Rock. Gigantic pain in the ass. Very long drive early in the morning. I strongly recommend flying into Memphis.