Surry Business

Jane and Michael Stern, the nationally known authors of “Roadfood,” the best-selling guide to America’s top-notch diners, hot dog stands, ice-cream parlors, and uniquely regional restaurants, rank the Snappy Lunch pork chop sandwich among their 100 favorites in a new book, “Roadfood Sandwiches: Recipes and Lore from Our Favorite Shops Coast to Coast.” The book includes Charles Dowell’s own recipe for pork chop sandwiches.

Snappy Lunch at 125 N. Main has been a Mount Airy institution for more than 80 years. It became nationally known through “The Andy Griffith Show” — Griffith grew up in Mount Airy and fondly remembers buying hot dogs at Snappy Lunch — and has become a popular tourist destination. You can read more about Snappy Lunch here, here (includes pork chop sandwich recipe), and on the Sterns’ own web site.

Michael Stern says, “A pork chop sandwich at Snappy Lunch is one of the great meals of the South. A boneless, tenderized loin chop is dipped in sweet-milk batter and fried in a shallow pool of oil until golden crisp. The finished cutlet has an irresistibly luscious character, moist and porky in some areas, crunchy in other areas where the pork is thin but the batter is thick. As created at Snappy Lunch, this lovely piece of food is far too broad for bread or bun, but it is sandwiched in a bun nonetheless, along with a battery of condiments that include a slice of tomato, chopped onion, mustard, cole slaw, and proprietor Charles Dowell’s special chili sauce.”