A few weeks ago, I had a crazy craving for tater tots. You know, those crispy, crunchy, golden brown, salty little bites of joy that you used to eat in the elementary school cafeteria? So, I did what any logical pregnant woman that is amped up on hormones would do and told my husband, the Boy Scout, that he should bring some home if he knew what was good for him. Then I did the next logical thing a pregnant woman on hormones would do and Google Mapped Sonic Drive In. Because tater tots – well, cheese tots – can only come from Sonic Drive In…
Did you know that the nearest Sonic Drive In is 16 MILES AWAY in Creedmoor?! That’s it. I’m moving back to where I came from – where every town east of I-95 has at least one Sonic with cheese tots and half-priced cherry limeades. Just kidding. I wasn’t ready to abandon Durham that quickly as I have come to love it so.
After splashing cold water on my face and pondering what life would be like without a Sonic (a fry daddy as a permanent fixture on my kitchen counter came to mind), I came to my senses and Googled around a bit using the search term “Durham tater tots.” Clever, I know. It didn’t take long before I found this on Urban Spoon.
Thank you , John Shadle, whomever you might be, for writing a fantastic review of Dain’s Place on Urban Spoon and for specifically mentioning the tater tots. You saved the Boy Scout’s life.
A day later, the Boy Scout and I had dinner at Dain’s. I ordered a garden salad that was chock full of veggies and yummy homemade(?) croutons that was big enough to share and the cheese tots. The cheese tots were almost perfect. They were crispy and salty and just how I remembered them from back in the days of parachute pants. (The cheese was the runny kind, not the melted slice kind so it made some of the tots a little soggy.) The Boy Scout ordered one of the famous burgers with some kind of saucy stuff on it. He said the burger definitely lived up to its Internet reputation of being a great burger.
Dain’s Place is located on the Charlie’s end of 9th Street and has old neighborhood dive decorations superimposed on top of freshly painted walls and somewhat new looking interiors. Perhaps its most important attribute of all is that it is SMOKE FREE! I’ll take Dain’s over Charlie’s any day. You better believe that we’re going back, and soon, so that I can stave off the night terrors and shakes with more tots.
-
- Dain’s Place – home of most awesomest tater tots – 9th Street, Durham
