10 Southern Food Spots That Anthony Bourdain Swore By

A cooking show should teach you about food. A travel show should convince you to visit a place. Anthony Bourdain's television and writing career managed to accomplish both, and so much more, too. Bourdain loved to showcase aspects of a place you might not otherwise see, eschewing touristy spots and mainstream narratives. He had the chops to wine and dine with chefs on the absolute forefront of contemporary cuisine, it's true. He was arguably more at home, though, in a shack off the side of the road with a barbecue smoker. Or a dive bar where chefs snuck in Tupperware of foie gras. Even Bourdain's love for Popeyes is as much a part of his legend as being the executive chef at Les Halles.

Speaking of celebrating food, what's not to celebrate about Southern cuisine? Highlights, of course, include Southern barbecue and soul food. The South, however, offers a wealth of experiences, and Anthony Bourdain wanted to try it all. Even if it took him too long to venture into a Waffle House, we still trust his opinion when it comes to Southern food. We're putting these spots on our restaurant bucket list.

The first thing to understand about chefs is that they don't live like the rest of us. They keep odd hours and enjoy odd foods, and that's why bars where restaurant workers feel at home are special. Anthony Bourdain highlighted this on his visit to Octopus Bar in Atlanta. Octopus Bar bills itself as part local eatery, part punk rock fine dining. The menu is small but unusual and well-crafted. It's exactly the kind of place chefs go and swap stories.

Bourdain was never one to shy away from nightlife. Sometimes, an episode or segment would end with the host admitting he doesn't remember anything beyond what he just narrated. Whatever you think about Bourdain's boozing habits, though, you can't say that he was going to bars for purely hedonistic reasons. The man was passionate about telling the stories of people on the margins, or at least people who lived less conventional lives than the average 9-5 corporate worker. Places like Octopus Bar are where restaurant workers — and other people whose shift ends in the wee small hours — can go to hang out with like-minded people. In the episode, Bourdain said that going to places like it after a shift is the one thing he missed about working in restaurants.

The Mississippi Delta is one of the true mythical places on the North American continent. Bourdain's trip there for "Parts Unknown" hit a high note in Greenville, MS, at this grocery store-turned-restaurant with roots serving the Black community. Among other things, Doe's Eat Place serves up down-home classics like Mississippi-style hot tamales, a hand-mixed house salad, and shrimp fried in cast iron skillets. There are also plenty of steaks on the menu, and the grease and drippings of those steaks pull double duty as a dip for the hot tamales. We'll take tickets to Greenville, please.

A beautiful thing about places like Doe's is the unorthodox workflow. Bourdain, who famously cut his teeth in French brigade kitchens in New York, gave up trying to understand who does what at Doe's five minutes into his visit. Sometimes, a restaurant can look a little slapdash to an outsider. You know, French fries in a cast-iron skillet, salad made in a bowl that looks like a hand-me-down from someone's great-aunt. More often than not, though, those kinds of restaurants will serve you one of the best meals of your life. Provided you like steak drippings.

You can't talk about food in the South without talking about the influence of Caribbean culture. When Bourdain hit up this Haitian-Creole joint in Miami for a segment on "No Reservations," he got fresh seafood cooked on an outdoor grill. Soup with plantains and Scotch bonnet peppers, red snapper off the grill, and the smell of sea air wafting in — that's good eating, there. The host, somehow not melting in combination of Miami sun and Scotch bonnet broth, managed to drop a little knowledge: Cuisines that originate in warmer climates usually have spicier food, since spices can act as a preservative.

Just like how cuisine in the South is more than pulled pork and cornbread, Miami is more than a playground for rich people cosplaying as Crockett and Tubbs. Bourdain made a point of highlighting the mosaic of immigrant populations on his visit to a city known for being a beachfront paradise. The episode even began with an exaggerated bit about how he didn't want to be dragged away from the hotel pool, before having him pull up to Chef Creole. That's Anthony Bourdain's TV and writing career in a nutshell: Using self-deprecation and his own adventurous spirit to encourage you, the viewer/reader, to also seek out off-the-beaten-path beachside spots. Maybe ones where Haitians play dominoes and fish sizzles over fire.

Anthony Bourdain's visit to New Orleans on his first show, "A Cook's Tour," was full of the kinds of stops off the beaten path that would make his career great. This episode, titled "No Beads No Babes No Bourbon Street," was something of an early mission statement for the budding TV host. At The Harbor, Bourdain sampled true New Orleans soul food. He quipped that while there might not be a lot of tourists there, you could always find him at this kind of place. He chowed down on a plate of ham hocks, collard greens, beans, and cornbread. Not bad for a Yankee traveling down south.

Unfortunately, since Bourdain and crew filmed here, The Harbor has closed. That's a huge bummer, but these types of cafeteria-style restaurants are a fixture of the Southern United States. Soul food, of course, is rooted in Black culture, but the general idea of a "meat and three" restaurant crosses all divides. If you've never experienced the wonders of a meat and three, put it on your bucket list.

The New Orleans spot was featured in an episode of "No Reservations" filmed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Anthony Bourdain was quick to point out how Antoine's, a decades-old French Quarter institution, is the kind of place that's usually lively and crowded. A prime spot for your average food television host to show viewers a good time. When Bourdain visited, however, it was a ghost town. The restaurant was nearly lost in the storm. 

What would have been lost if Antoine's had gone down? Besides some fascinating antique decor, some early 20th-century recipes would've all but disappeared from the culinary landscape. Oysters Foch, a dish of fried oysters and a one-of-a-kind sauce, is a specialty of Antoine's that was showcased on the show.

Anthony Bourdain was not afraid to shine a light on places that had recently gone through upheaval. There's the famous Beirut episode, where he and his crew got caught in the middle of a warzone. The man was obsessed with Cambodia and Vietnam, which led to a lifelong hatred of Henry Kissinger. Traveling to New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina to show people living, working, and eating together in spite of tragedy was right in line with Bourdain's television mission.

To hear locals tell it, people are willing to drive across the city and wait in hour-long lines to eat at Burns' Original BBQ. The Houston, TX spot was featured on two of Anthony Bourdain's shows: A 2004 episode of "A Cook's Tour" and a 2016 episode of "Parts Unknown." The first time Bourdain visited, founder Roy Burns had been smoking brisket and ribs for three-plus decades. In the episode, Roy endorsed the ribs as both his specialty in the kitchen and plate of choice, and Bourdain chowed down on sampler platters, including brisket, ribs, and a mustard-based potato salad.

By the time Bourdain returned in 2016, Roy Burns had passed away. Fortunately, the business stayed in the family, with Burns' son and grandchildren now tending to the smokers. The Burns Original BBQ website boasts about the rib sandwich and loaded baked potato, both of which are shown in the episode, too. Make sure you watch on the biggest screen you have, to fully appreciate how loaded they get the potato.

While in Atlanta for an episode of "The Layover," Anthony Bourdain drove down Buford Highway in a fiery red Ford Mustang until he reached El Taco Veloz. When you think of Atlanta, GA, a few things come to mind: OutKast, some of the U.S.'s best chicken wings, and traffic are maybe the top three. Bourdain knew to probe the city further, though.

Taco trucks are one of the great features of any American metropolis. Atlanta, though, has a bit more sprawl than your New Yorks or Chicagos, so Bourdain found his tortilla-wrapped gold in a strip mall off a highway. He ate in the driver's seat of his car before taking off again. Like anyone with good taste, Bourdain ordered lengua tacos, discreetly informing viewers that lengua means "tongue" before taking his first bite. If you ever get the chance to try lengua tacos, don't let the fact that it's tongue put you off. The meat is usually diced, so that the exterior gets charred and crispy while the interior stays luscious and soft. It's a one-of-a-kind taco filling, and if you want to be like Bourdain? Wash it down with a horchata.

Southern food really sings when you cook with local ingredients. The region has fertile soil and a good farming climate, and Husk Restaurant in Charleston, SC, makes a point of using local ingredients. On one episode of "Parts Unknown," Anthony Bourdain got to hang out with Chef Sean Brock, who opened Husk and was executive chef there until 2018. The pair of chefs joined actor Bill Murray for a meal. Bourdain would assert that Husk plays a big role in making Charleston a food lover's paradise. Chef Brock, for his part, highlighted the importance of learning to cook your grandmother's recipes. Murray worried that the food being so good would attract too many transplants (like him) to Charleston.

While Bourdain may have lauded Husk as emblematic of Charleston's good taste, the restaurant has not stayed contained. Appetites for Husk's contemporary take on Southern cuisine have spread, and the restaurant has also opened locations in Nashville, TN, and Savannah, GA. Whether the exposure that "Parts Unknown" brought to Charleston was enough to make Bill Murray's overcrowding fears come true or not is up to residents of Charleston to decide, but there's no doubt that Husk benefited.

Whole hog barbecue. Three words that, when put together, should get people running in the direction of smoke. Anthony Bourdain heard this siren call and visited pitmaster Rodney Scott at his restaurant, Scott's Bar-B-Que, just outside Charleston, SC, for an episode of "Parts Unknown." Scott's whole hog pulled pork smokes for 12 hours, and the episode features a series of luxurious shots of the basting mop waxing the pig like it's Dom Toretto's Dodge Charger. Do not watch this episode when hungry. Do take away the lesson that you need a basting mop if you're smoking pork.

The advantage of smoking a whole pig is that the resulting pulled pork will feature many different parts of the pig. Typically, pulled pork only uses shoulder, sometimes called butt — a tender, mild cut that falls apart when slow-roasted. Honestly, pulled pork made with shoulder does not require improvement. Come on, though, life isn't about sticking to requirements. Mixing in a little pork belly, ham, and loin adds multiple extra layers of flavor. That's what sets Rodney Scott's sandwich apart. How could a process and product like that not be featured on an Anthony Bourdain show?

What's a list of Anthony Bourdain's favorite Southern spots without the inclusion of Waffle House? Waffle House is an institution, so if you're going to eat in the South, you'd better love it. Especially if you love your late nights, like Anthony Bourdain did. If you've never been to Waffle House? Here's one way you don't want to be like Bourdain: Make sure you get to Waffle House before you reach the age where you need reading glasses.

When Chef Sean Brock finally wrangled the globetrotter into a Waffle House for an episode of "Parts Unknown," Bourdain called it "marvelous" and invoked Kurt Vonnegut's maxim of "everything was beautiful and nothing hurt" (via YouTube). The whole resulting scene was pure poetry. Chef Brock reminisced about how watching Waffle House cooks work when he was a kid was part of what made him want to be a chef. Bourdain got confused by Waffle House's hash brown terminology. Dramatic violins scored a montage of Waffle House cooks preparing a pecan waffle. At one point, Bourdain claims that Waffle House is better than Thomas Keller's legendary Napa Valley institution, The French Laundry. That, right there, might be the finest feather in any Southerner's cap.