Ben Steelman, Wilmington Star News

Each entry not only gives the exit number but careful driving directions once you're off the ramp.

State Books of Greensboro has just released a new edition of Interstate Eateries by D.G. Martin [should be $6.95] ($5.95 paperback). Martin, the longtime University of North Carolina executive and host of North Carolina Bookwatch on North Carolina Public Television, offers brief reviews of non-chain, local-flavored eateries just beside the off-ramps on major Tar Heel highways. "Down-home cooking along North Carolina's interstates" is how the subtitle puts it.
Check out I-40, for example (Martin's entries run west to east), and you'll find plugs for The Country Squire in Kenansville (exit 364), The Country Kitchen Buffet in Wallace ("Local people stop by just for 'Miss Ruth's' hand-chopped barbecue"), Paul's Place at Rocky Point (Martin's careful to guide readers to the "original" location on U.S. 117) and Leon's of Ogden ("One of my favorite home-cooking places"). Each entry not only gives the exit number but careful driving directions once you're off the ramp.
Our State's Cathy Kelly says copies of Interstate Eateries (Second Editon) are slowly filtering into stores. In the meantime, you can order online from www.ourstate.com.
Note: Our State Books also recently released the new book from Columbus County's own Bill Thompson: Backyards, Bow Ties and Beauty Queens.