If you’ve ever been to the Tricities, you can’t have missed the Pal’s restaurant chain that is our local favorite for tea, chili buns, and the best french fries ever.  For one thing, Pal’s restaurants are unmistakable.  I still remember the first time I saw one.  When I came to this area for college, we drove by one of the restaurant locations and I was a taken aback by the huge hot dog on top of the robin egg blue building.

Back in those days, Pal’s let you get a free refill of sweet tea when you brought back your huge styrofoam cup.  The cup holds 32 oz of ambrosia.  It’s more like a bucket.  Once you get used to drinking sweet tea in these cups, drinking from a normal-sized cup seems like you’re on a diet.   For a poor college kid, getting TWO huge drinks for the price of one was a bargain.  Not to mention that I attended a pretty conservative Christian college, so drinking sweet tea was about as wild as we got.

Once you leave the Pal’s area, you have to stop by again whenever you’re back in town.  My father in law doesn’t feel complete unless he’s purchased a chili dog while he’s here.  Pal’s currently has a contest to help those transplants to come home.  If you know someone who loves a Big Pal with Cheese, but lives too far away to get one, enter them in the Come Home to Pal’s contest.  The contest began on October 1 and runs through November 15.  One lucky winner and a guest will receive airfare for 2 from anywhere in the continental US, PLUS a catered Pal’s Party for up to 25 people.  Who needs the holiday ham when you can have Big Pals all around?!

If you’ve never visited Pal’s you don’t know what you’re missing!!  What’s your favorite local dive?

(I received no compensation for this post.)