South Of The Border!! A road food classic

Perhaps one of the Granddaddies of Roadfood is that institution just south of the North Carolina border in Northern South Carolina: SOUTH OF THE BORDER. I remember going there in the early 50's when it was on Route 1,I believe. Now it's off the Throughway,I95.The gimmick was,and still is,they advertized on giant billboards for hundreds of miles..."only 495 miles to South of the Border" "only 377 miles to South Of The Border"....."Pedro says..." etc. You could count the miles and hours down 'til you got there. Mostly junk for sale and roadfood...then...and still now. They've added pretty good fast food of their own...motels ..in door games...etc....but it defined roadfood(or at least a roadstop in the 50's and so it gets my vote for the Roadfood Classic award. Its advertizing gimmick can be copied...but it's the original! I bet anyone who has driven down I95 to Florida has a South Of The Border story. Let's hear them....How about other nominees for a Roadfood Classic award.
leethebard

They are certainly glitzy with their advertising. You see their signs for miles. Unfortunately the stop is not as great as you expect. I think that at one time, they might have been very good but it seems that their time has come and gone?

I have stopped there several times.

I could not help it.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

See..that's the gimmick...you can't help yourself...they hook you hundreds of miles back...when you finally get there you have to stop...and since you're stopped...might as well eat!!!
leethebard

Well, what is the best place to eat "South of the Border"?

I remember stoping there as a kid on the way to Disney World. We did go to a mexican restaurant, but I dont' remember it being that good. Maybe the fare has improved since 1984.

South of the Border restaurants are not Roadfood...............they serve crap!

Back in the 60's and 70's, there were a lot of cars in the boroughs of NYC with bumper signs (fastened with wire) for South of the Border. I finally got to stop there back in November, 2002. Being off season, a lot of the facilities were closed. Everything was delightfully tacky. The food there did not look particularly interesting. We obtained the names of some great Carolina BBQ places for that trip, and so did not eat at SOB. Founder Alan Schafer died a while back and I don't know if anyone is continuing his marketing genius.

We always stopped there to buy fireworks never ate none of the food

quote:

Originally posted by Greymo

South of the Border restaurants are not Roadfood...............they serve crap!

I think you are thinking of On the Border, a Mexican chain.

http://www.ontheborder.com/index.asp

quote:

Originally posted by Sundancer7

They are certainly glitzy with their advertising. You see their signs for miles. Unfortunately the stop is not as great as you expect. I think that at one time, they might have been very good but it seems that their time has come and gone?

I have stopped there several times.

I could not help it.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

We stopped there once when I was a kid in either the late 70's or probably early 80's. Bad food, even as a kid I remember that, and a big overall disappointment. I don't think there was ever a heyday.


However, I still looked forward to seeing the signs throughout NC, and I think there was even one or two in VA south of Richmond.
"Pedro sez..."

quote:

Originally posted by kland01s

quote:

Originally posted by Greymo

South of the Border restaurants are not Roadfood...............they serve crap!

I think you are thinking of On the Border, a Mexican chain.

http://www.ontheborder.com/index.asp

No, I am speaking of the restaurants at the tourist stop called "South of the Border" on the border of South Carolina. We have to stop there everytime we go north or south on 1-95.The signs entertain the kids so much that we stop for them to buy a piece of junk in the main gift shop and take the elevator (when it is not broken down) to the top of Pedro's sombrero to look out at drab view. But we would never ever consider eating there and I doubt that many people do.

Pedro sez You never Sausage a Place!

Pedro sez " Chile Today, Hot Tamale!"

I was driving cross country last year and encountered Wall Drug ... Same hypnotic mind control ... Had to stop. Would never have eaten.

Wasn't there a place called Little America at one point in time?

Little America is in Wyoming. It is a very big Truck stop. It brags on having a huge number of gas pumps available. We've stopped, but the most we purchased was gas, a bag or two of chips, and some soda, then back on the road we went.

Wall Drugs in South Dakota is kinda fun. I imagine the offer of "Free Water" might have been more important to the travelers in the 1940's & 50's. It is far enough from almost anywhere to provide a brief respite from I-90. The Burgers, especially the Buffalo-Bacon Burger, are pretty good. Last stop there was in 2004.

I remember stopping at South of the Border back in the 60's on a family road trip. Back before I-95 existed. Billboards for hundreds of miles sucked everyone in -- I remember it was hard to find a place to park.

Stopped there this past November. Plenty of parking, about half of it shut down. It's all rather tatty now, and certainly not an obvious food choice. Alas, the place is past its day.

But it is a convenient stop for Blenheim ginger ale.

Oh, yeah. Another thing. South of the Border isn't a chain. Why is it in this forum?

I have to agree that South of the Border doesn't really belong in the fast food/chain forum. Of course I'm not sure it belongs in the "food" category at all. It is, however, probably the greatest American Tourist Trap of the 20th Century and in the days before I-95 was completed it was probably the most anticipated landmark in the coastal north-south corridor.

kland01s - SOTB was a "town" of hotels, motels, restaurants, truly crappy tourist attractions, and I believe campground(s) with a mildly offensive Mexican theme built on the U.S. Route 1 at just about its most desolate point. I think other posters have summed up the culinary attraction. At various times the service stations were notorious for cutting fanbelts, puncturing tires and so on and extorting money to get people back on the road.

But there was nothing else for hours around, on a family trip you'd read the signs for two, sometimes three days before arriving, and there was no way around it. I can't believe any of it is left now that the Interstates are a way of life, but it is a true symbol of America in the 50s and 60s.

I have driven past it many times. Each time I pass, it appears to go further downhill. I am surprised that some rich person has not picked it up and brought this landmark back to life. I-95 certainly has enough traffic to support it.

It appears to be a huge piece of property.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Perhaps Frito Bandito, the retired spokesman for Fritos, could bring in some needed capital

quote:

Originally posted by Al-The Mayor-Bowen

Little America is in Wyoming. It is a very big Truck stop. It brags on having a huge number of gas pumps available. We've stopped, but the most we purchased was gas, a bag or two of chips, and some soda, then back on the road we went.

There's also one in Flag. Little America was a welcome sight back when I was an over the road truck driver. Good food and coffee and clean, marble tiled shower rooms with both a large shower and a bathtub for soaking the grime of the road off.

I recall stopping at South of the Border in 1967, and I remember that my entire family was appalled at the absolute crap that they were peddling at that place. A few minutes of walking around the tacky retail area convinced us that we did not want to spend enough time there for a meal, and a glance at the rest rooms confirmed that we did not want to use the restaurant.

And, after reading some of the comments on this thread, it seems that the place has gone downhill in the decades since my visit. That is hard to imagine, but I guess that anything is possible.

Pedro say's the place is a dump.

I remember travelling to Florida in the late 60's with my family to Florida. At that time some of I-95 was done, but you were also travelling on US-301 as well. If I remember correctly just south of DC the billboards started..and went on and on and on. We never stopped at South of the Border, but I remember driving past it, and thinking that I was missing some sort of treasure. I think it's like a strip-tease, what's promised isn't quite what you get!

There seems to be more signs for the place than things I would buy there.

Listen, I used to wait tables at a Schafer-owned establishment; they were okay guys despite the bad reputation and the prison, but there was never a doubt they were after the bottom line, so SOTB was never, and I mean never, known for food or anything other than gift shops full of $1.95-plus crap, and frankly, hate speech, although we didn't call it that then. I remember there being a ginormous fireworks stand.

I would imagine Frito Lay would not dream of going near the place. It would probably be as close to nuclear as you can get for a corporate brand.

I can only imagine how inedible South Carolina highway Mexican food would have been in the sixties. But, I'm spoiled by a lifetime of the good stuff.