Bargain shop — and eat — ‘til you drop: A guide to unexpected culinary gems in this small town

Wayne County, Georgia, doesn’t have the lock on bin stores. But visitors to Jesup could be forgiven for thinking they’d stumbled upon the capital of the craze.

For the uninitiated, bin stores are where middlemen sell the contents of unsorted Amazon liquidation pallets at deeply discounted prices. Typically, the returned, damaged and overstocked merchandise — lumped in giant waist-high bins, as the genre’s name suggests — is sold at a flat per-item cost that drops by $1 each day. In other words, it is both a true outlet and dollar store, and the best place to get a new curling iron for two bucks.

There are bin stores on the outskirts of Jesup in every direction, and bin stores just blocks from its historic railroad depot. When I visited Jesup on a Sunday afternoon, I figured all the cars clustered downtown meant I’d found a favorite after-church lunch spot. Nope: Bin store.

Even if you’re not a bargain hunter by nature, it’s worth checking out a bin store. There’s probably one near you. But should you choose to shop the many bin stores of Jesup, you might want to bring this eating guide with you, especially since many of the standouts listed here don’t look promising from the outside.

After all, as any experienced bin browser can tell you, you sometimes have to dig for the gems.

Bin shoppers aren’t the only big dreamers in Wayne County: Jesup has more than its share of one-person food operations, including barbecue stalls and storefront bakeries that keep hours seemingly compatible with their owners’ other jobs. To keep this overview quasi-useful, only restaurants which open at least three days a week were considered for inclusion.

BREAKFAST: Wayne Memorial

It’s not unusual for hospital cafeterias in Southern rural areas to have some of the best food in town. What is unusual is for the cafeteria to have a separate entrance, so visitors in pursuit of outstanding fried chicken don’t have to pretend like they have a follow-up visit with their pulmonologist.

The cafeteria at Wayne Memorial not only has its own door, but it’s in near-constant use, with locals flocking to the country cooking sanctuary from 7 a.m. onward. If cardiac health really is of concern to you, the cafeteria offers items such as oatmeal and yogurt, but the flap of fatback in my midday greens was bigger than my thumb.

When I ordered my lunch plate, I asked about the homemade desserts on display. Before the employee could answer, a Wayne Memorial regular told me she was privy to the cafeteria’s sweet roll schedule. When I returned another day, per her instructions, the yeasty, buttery pastry demonstrated why she’d committed it to memory.

LUNCH: Jones Kitchen

For a good time, dial 912-427-4129. I’ll wait.

If I were to count the ways I love Jones Kitchen’s menu line, we’d be here all day, so I’ll stick to the top two. First, while I can’t imagine the good folks at Jones Kitchen are taking a principled stand against Meta with their hotline, it’s lovely to encounter a recorded voice in the age of Facebook updates. Second, the message makes clear what many visitors to the buffet miss, at least according to their grouchy online reviews. Namely, vegetables are the main event here.

It’s telling that the backside of the Jones buffet is as bustling as the front at lunchtime, with employees boxing up call-in orders for salty Fordhook lima beans, milk-rich squash casserole, sugary stewed tomatoes, and turnip greens, splashed with vinegar. But the to-go crowd can’t get seconds on rutabagas.

Just make sure to leave room on one of your plates for a biscuit. There’s a bottle of James Crosby’s homemade cane syrup on every folding table.

SWEETS: Watermelon Gumballs

Gumballs are the least of it. Billing itself as a “dessert palace,” Watermelon Gumballs stocks every imaginable type of processed sweet, from rock candy to chocolate-covered bacon.

Still, ice cream is the heart of the operation, spun off from a local pizza parlor. In keeping with its ethos, Watermelon Gumballs’ menu downplays the single scoop in favor of multifaceted concoctions featuring representatives of half a dozen dessert food groups. Fancy ice cream swirled with Dippin’ Dots, threaded with gummy worms, and topped with cannoli? You’re in the right place.

DINNER: Nang’s Thai

Jones Kitchen aside, there has been plenty of justified handwringing across the South that the buffet is an endangered format. Even before the pandemic raised the specter of contagion risks, economics and eating habits forced restaurant owners to reconsider their steam table commitments.

Not so at Nang’s, which is as quintessential a Southern buffet as I’ve seen. The dishes are in a different key from what a South Carolina barbecue pit might serve, but they’re singing from the same hymnal: The cabbage is fried, along with the squash, and just about everyone takes a heaping portion of sweet potatoes. I’d also make a case for the velvety red curry chicken, but what’s kept the restaurant in business for 20 years are Air Elliott’s spring rolls, which his mother first sold out of her seamstress shop.

DRINKS: The Strand Bistro

The Strand Bistro has an ell-shaped wooden bar, furnished with televisions for the sport fan set. But the pro move for cocktailians is to instead buy a ticket to the adjacent movie theater, where drinks from the popular pub are delivered directly to your seat.

First opened in 1924, The Strand was subdivided in 1988 and closed in 2009. A pair of local entrepreneurs, who also operate the drive-in on the edge of town, reopened it in 2016. While the theater’s website touts its suitability for date night, The Strand has wriggled its way into family routines with regular screenings of kids’ movies — and fizzy root beer floats.

This story first appeared in The Food Section, a Charleston-based newsletter covering food and drink across the American South. To learn more about the James Beard Award-winning publication, visit thefoodsection.substack.com.