As noon approaches, there’s an uptick of activity at a chalky clapboard house in the Pee Dee town of Darlington. While the tightly wedged vehicles in front seem to say “used car lot,” the neon light in the window with a “Joe’s Grill” sign invites one and all to come in for a different kind of ride.
Slide into a seat, take a menu and loosen that belt. You’re about to experience a tried-and-true Southern dining adventure at a “meat and three.”
The same scenario plays out each day across South Carolina. From obscure backroad dives to well-known highway diners, when hunger calls, folks obey the dictates of time-honored tradition to not just seek sustenance but to acquire it in the most rib-sticking, delicious and familiar of ways.
Nothing says “comfort” to a Southerner more than good home-cooking and plenty of it.
The meat-and-three equation
While “meat and three” is used as a descriptive for meals of a main course plus three sides, the term is also a synonym for the establishments serving them. Whether by necessity or nuance, it really is its own thing. Historically speaking, a true meat-and-three plate is defined by the sum of its parts: one meat plus three sides.
As a dining concept, it cannot be disassociated from the gifts it delivers: hearty nourishment, social communion and rich variety. A fixed-price rotating lineup, consisting of two or more meats, several sides (which includes vegetables and starches), bread and/or dessert and a drink, is the hallmark of this culinary “genre.”
Plates may be built at a buffet table or served from the kitchen. And the locals are as much a fixture as the hand-written menus, napkin-rolled flatware and bottles of pepper sauce on the table.
But distinctions also extend to composition. Consider that “blue plate special,” “plated meal” and “meat and three” often are used interchangeably to denote a meal consisting of a protein, at least one vegetable and, perhaps, bread. The origins of the meat-and-three concept, however, indicate the division of its components was both logical and deliberate.
Thoughts on an eating style
But beyond the folksy anecdotes in which politicians and farmhands say the blessing then get chummy over fried chicken lunches, there’s a complex meat-and-three history closely tied to trends in economics, politics, science, agriculture and labor.
Rooted in the cuisine of enslaved West Africans and, subsequently, farm-to-table meals forged over generations in country kitchens, the meat-and-vegetable plate is a readily recognizable symbol of Southern life. But mapping out culinary diasporas and sourcing food traditions can be murky business. The meat-and-three concept is no exception.
John T. Edge, author of Southern foodways book The Potlikker Papers and host of the Southern food TV series, TrueSouth, shared his thoughts while pointing to the land of hot chicken and honky tonks.
“The term ‘meat and three,’ in my experience, is most often used in the Mid-South,” he said. “Nashville is the epicenter of the phenomenon, where Silver Sands [Café] and Arnold’s [Country Kitchen] are standard-bearers. Those sorts of restaurants, which began to flourish as the South urbanized, served urban versions of the rural midday meal long eaten by farm workers.”
Another perspective from David S. Shields, culinary historian, author and host of the forthcoming SCETV program The Savers of Flavor, implicated places further South, beginning in 1935 with Bennett’s Drug Store in Brunswick, Georgia.
But what piqued this movement in the first place?
“During World War I, a general rationing of food took place in Europe and the United States,” Shields said. “This pertained to restaurants and, by regulation, restaurants were compelled to restrict offerings to one meat and three vegetables. Owners of American ‘eating houses’ (as restaurants were called then) saw that restricting the menu didn’t necessarily forfeit clientele but provided more economic insurance if you were running on a modest budget.”
By offering a shortlist of meats and vegetables to build a square meal — one that resembled a homestyle dinner — restaurant owners remained operational and offered customers solid sustenance and a bit of normalcy. There wasn’t much meat to be had but vegetables were abundant, thanks to farmers and a surge in community and home gardening. Soon, the nuts and bolts of the meat-and-three plate became more firmly established.
Enlisting the squads
As WWI led to increased deprivation, there was a growing interest in nutritional science. In response to widespread malnutrition among the working class, researchers recruited “diet squads” — young middle- and upper-class white males who agreed to stick to strictly prescribed diets.
The goal, according to 20th century food historian Sarah Wassberg Johnson, was to determine a calorie count for working class men — a kind of bottom-line number to use as a guideline when planning meals. This would help them maximize their skimpy food budgets, thereby keeping malnutrition at bay.
But how did one go about calculating the calories in a bowl of corn chowder or chicken stew? And could setting such a caloric bar influence employers to keep wages low for workers who could ably subsist off less food?
In the end, home economists adopted a simpler, more equitable strategy that people of all classes could get behind: building a dinner plate from a small portion of meat and three generous servings of vegetables. The number and types of food on the plate were designed to help meet a daily quota of vitamins and minerals — no complicated ciphering or deprivation required.
The formula met the needs of that time and continued to do so — especially in the South, where the post-war years saw a shift from farm labor to factory work.
In the modern South
As farms disappeared, country folk moved to urban areas where they could earn a living and raise a family. The desire for meat-and-three meals went with them. Short workday breaks, however, did not allow for a return home for a hot midday lunch.
In the 1930s, these home-style meals took the leap from the farmhouse to the local diner. Nashville inarguably was a hotbed of meat-and-three-ism. Cities like Baton Rouge, Sarasota and Henderson, N.C. followed the trend, according to Shields. In 1947, Charleston’s Elmwood Dining Room, which operated on King Street Extension, added a meat-and-three option, too.
Most of these restaurants have been relegated to the history books, including Charleston favorites like Kitty’s Fine Foods (1963–2009), Martha Lou’s Kitchen (1983–2020) and Jestine’s Kitchen (1996–2020). Dynamic entrepreneurs still on the scene, like Nigel and Louise Drayton of Nigel’s Good Foods, are working hard to ensure meat-and-threes remain a fixture in the Lowcountry. On the tasty meat menu one day last week: country-fried steak, fried chicken and fried pork loin.
Though a fixed-price meat-and-three plate is not on the menu at local favorites, Bertha’s Kitchen and Workmen’s Café, you can get a meat-and-two or build a meat-and-three plate, a la carte.
Up in Conway, Donzelle’s is among a handful of South Carolina meat-and-threes that have demonstrated remarkable staying power. Opened in 1962 by the late Willard and Donzelle Dickerson, this local landmark still serves customers at its original Main Street address. Also the same: the celery green paint on the walls and wallpaper mural depicting a bucolic Southern scene. But the focal point in the modest dining room is the “wall-of-fame” covered with photos of loyal customers, friends and family, both living and deceased.
“We have a very nostalgic style that has remained the same throughout 63 years of operating,” said Marly Crotts, the Dickerson’s granddaughter and third generation to run the family business. She and her father, Larry, own the restaurant and show up each weekday at 3:30 a.m. to make cornbread, desserts, slaw and more from scratch. Customers are greeted by name and their beverage is often at their preferred table before they sit down.
“I basically have the same customers every day, kind of like the movie Groundhog Day,” Marly said.
It’s a similar story in Darlington, where the Southern 500 isn’t the only cherished tradition. When longtime meat-and-three, Jewel’s Deluxe, closed in 2023, the owner of Joe’s Grill, Olivia Ridgill, saved the day by buying the business and merging the two. Fans of Jewel’s were thrilled to learn they could still enjoy old favorites like chicken pie and baked rice and gravy alongside Joe’s own signature offerings.
But digging into the food is just one-half of any meat and three adventure. For the full effect, you must eat your meat-and-three meal at a real meat-and-three (not a Cracker Barrel).
Pro tips: Return the friendly greetings. Strike up a conversation. Embrace the slower pace. Sop the gravy with your biscuit. Try the sweet tea. And never — ever — skip the peach cobbler.
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