Hampton Roads, VASouthern

The Grey Goose has anchored downtown Hampton since 1982, first as a tea room and now as a casual Southern kitchen the Epsteins have run for years, a run VEER Magazine marked at its 40th. Brunswick stew and buttermilk ham biscuits are the reasons regulars keep coming, alongside chess pie and house baked goods. Order a bowl of Brunswick stew and a ham biscuit, add a chess pie to go, and come at lunch when it is busiest.

BoBo's Fine Chicken cooks iron-skillet fried chicken on Shore Drive in Virginia Beach, and Coastal Virginia Magazine's feature laid out owner Bo Midgett's Southern plates. The chicken is brined, battered and wet-fried bone-in, served with Granny Wilson's biscuits and sides like Pungo collards. Order the bone-in fried chicken with a biscuit and collards, and save room for the custard ice cream if it is churning. A comfortable Southern room by the bay.

Vintage Tavern sits on a quiet stretch of Suffolk and cooks seasonally Southern, a kitchen Coastal Virginia Magazine has covered for its locally sourced menu. The room aims for special-occasion without stiffness, and the plates change with what is in season. Order the baked flounder over spoonbread if it is on, or the beef tenderloin, and start with the fried oysters. A grown-up Southern dinner spot in the western reaches of the metro.

Pollard's Chicken has fried chicken across Hampton Roads since 1967, a family operation the Virginian-Pilot profiled decades ago for founder Johnny Pollard's approach and pure-oil frying. The Norfolk location keeps the same Southern-plate lineup that made the name. Order a box of the fried chicken with the Southern vegetable sides and a roll, and treat it as the takeout it was built to be. A local institution that predates most of its competition.