Community Was The Heart Of Mary's (updated 05.28.09)

As you can tell by now, Mary's Of Course was all about community, and we hope the same becomes true of Breakfast Of Course too! In our case, that means our fair city, our customers, long-distance supporters, employees and fellow businesses who have a similar mission. This page is here for the express purpose of encouraging you to explore other sectors of our community of like minded friends. For interesting places further afield, visit Mary's Food Blog!

Over the years Mary's employed a number of the residents of the Werehouse here in Winston-Salem (an Art-Commune), and we hope that if you aren't aware of what they have going on over there, you will at least visit Krankies Coffee Bar and Roasting Company online. After all; we get our favorite beans from them...coffee beans that is.

Krankies also has a new Farmer's Market! You may remember fledgling attempts at this for the past several years, but his time it's in partnership with the Triad Buying Co-op. That and the fact that food editor for the Winston-Salem Journal, Michael Hastings, wrote a fat column on it lead us to believe that the third time's the charm! Check the Krankies farmer's Market out Tuesdays 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 211 E. Third St.

Another wonderful organization and like minded business, are our friends out in Julian, NC at Homeland Creamery. They have a healthy head of cattle that provides us with a number of our dairy products; all hormone free. We're so pleased that Mary's Of Course was on of their earliest clients in Winston-Salem, and that so many places in town now use their products!

Though the restaurant keeps Mary quite busy, when she has time for entertainment, two of her favorite spots are The Werehouse, run for the past dozen years by a group of guys who've been together since highschool, and The Garage; run by a husband and wife team for slightly longer than Mary's has been around. Both places are fine spots for a variety of events that can be found on their monthly online calenders.

Ollie's Bakery, was located across the street from the original location of Mary's Of Course! They worked with us to refine and redesign our French Toast bread and introduced sourdough to our menu. Ollie's is still there, and we hope a new cafe is coming to the original loocation of Mary's Of Course, any day now!

Chris Kennedy has been Mary's personal trainer for several years now, and has done a great job of keeping Mary motivated toward better fitness. His Ovation Fitness facility at 321 South Liberty Street is only a block away from her restaurant. If you're interested in addressing strength & endurance training, body sculpting or other issues involving your health, physique, breath control, aging or diet; call 692-0481 for a fitness evaluation.

If you're looking for homemade gifts along the lines of what Mary once offered in a small selection by the counter, we have two beautiful suggestions who sell year round (though the Christmas season is one of our favorite times to visit); Earthbound Arts right here in Winston-Salem and Sadies Herbal Garden in Stokesdale, NC. Each place is independently run and packed with handmade soaps, trinkets, lotions, candles, incense, hand-blended teas, and more fine things than we have room to mention here.

One of Mary's best friends Starr Johnson, had to close her wonderful restaurant in Mocksville. She had plans to move to Winston-Salem, as soon as she'd taken a much needed break, but understandably decided that ownership was not all it was cracked up to be. Starr is very happy working for someone else at Sander's Ridge now, and we wish her all the best! Thank goodness she stayed open long enough to host our wedding reception!. You might be able to keep tabs on any new developments by visiting: Starr's New Southern Cuisine.

Undoubtedly the best Middle Eastern lunch in Greensboro is across from UNC-G in an old 1950's service station. The kind of place that if located in Nebraska or Wisconsin, would be on the National Historic register, but here gets turned into a mom & pop Mediterranean Deli. Jack's Corner has been reviewed a number of times in Greensboro, but we feel it's so good the word should spread outside it's collegiate neighborhood. Mary has found their winning combination of Middle Eastern and Greek cuisines quite delicious. There are two or three platters on the menu that feature a half-dozen different specialties for one low price, and as far as we're concerned, with these you can't go wrong. It would be a travesty for us not to mention their marvelous handmade desserts, which are mainly in the cookie category. If you're near Jack's take a moment and enjoy yourself! By the way, this picture isn't Jack's but it looks nearly identical, and it had to do until we snapped our own; which you can find on the Greensboro entry of Mary's Blog!

Winston-Salem finally got our own excellent Middle Eastern spot called Mooney's! The food is delicious, and the service is great! They're located downtown at 4th and Liberty Streets, and we hope to have more to post about them in the future!

We'd also like to recommend the most creative and authentic family-run Mexican eatery in Winston (yes, we're biased); La Botana on Hanes Mall Boulevard. Rigo, his family and his crack staff will do you right, whether you like authentic tacos, chicken soup or pistachio mole! Well, it's been about 3 months and Rigo has yet more surprises on his menu that can't be denied! The lunch menu now has a half-dozen brunch items featuring huevos! Here's Albert cracking us up while ringing us up.

Sampan Chinese Restaurant has been here in Winston for a dozen years and we love to have a relaxing dinner from the Extended Authentic menu accompanied by a massive pot of hot tea (or two). There are any number of seaweed, soup or wonton appetizers to try, but we usually go straight for Eggplant with garlic sauce, Portugese Tofu or the always comforting Chicken Wonton soup; just like your imaginary Chinese grandmother made for you! As opposed to the endless chain of "Chow Mien" houses with identical menus and atmosphere, Sampan is lowkey and homey; especially if you get to know the friendly owner.

Finally (for now at least), we recently discovered Turmeric, and found ourselves getting a "food high" from the appetizers before the entree's even hit the table! Every major style; North, East, Central, West & Southern is covered. For those who enjoy exploring Indian fare; this is the place for you!

Of course, we have dedicated an entire page of our site to Clark Whittington's Art-O-Mat, because he has been a supporter of our location longer than we've even been here! That, and he's one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet and by our estimation; the most successful entrepreneur artists we know.