Keene, New Hampshire, USA

Defining Main Street: The Candy Store. Happy Valentine's Day! Did you remember? If not, better head to your Main Street candy shop. Have you noticed how candy stores are re-appearing in those newly-built town centers that are modeled on streets like this? [2009]

Findlay, Ohio, USA

Defining Main Street: The Grocery Store. General stores gave way to more space-consuming grocery stores which came to be located farther and farther from the main intersections of towns. Remember, the generation of stores that developed right after World War II had to be within walking distance of its customers. Cars were not ubiquitous. [2008]

Burlington, Vermont, USA

Defining Main Street: The Tea Shop. Tea brings the world to Burlington. While tea shops are less common than coffee shops on America's Main Streets, they always add a touch of refinement. Still, they can't keep up with the new trifecta of beverage purveyors: breweries, distilleries, and cideries. [2009]

Boulder City, Nevada, USA

Defining Main Street: The Coffee Shop. In the 21st century, towns are judged according to whether they have a coffee shop or not. Cities are judged by how many coffee shops they have. Here's the inconvenient truth, though: Coffee shops were all but dead until Starbucks started to expand in the 1990s. [2019]

Sturgis, South Dakota, USA

Defining Main Street: The Pizza Shop. Even without a full-scale restaurant, most Main Streets will proudly proffer a pizza shop. This one must max out its potential during the Sturgis Bike Rally. But, do you think the breakfast buffet is all-you-can-eat pizza? [2019]

Howell, Michigan, USA

Defining Main Street: The Restaurant. It is hard for suburbs to duplicate the ambiance of Main Street restaurants. Still, in most small towns it will be hard to find more than one or two full-service eateries like this. Does "seafood" capture the essence of place in a setting surrounded by Great Lakes? [2018]

Greenville, South Carolina, USA

Late Sunday morning in Greenville: You could either go to church or the brewery. Notice the same confrontation in your community? Especially with regard to sports events. Nevertheless, it's a appealing blend of outdoor and indoor space, the type of design that more eating establishments should emulate. [2022]

Gate City, Virginia, USA

Do the eye-catchers on Pal's count as mural art? The main menu items seem designed to turn empty wall space into a useful Roadside-America commercial. How many bas-relief murals have you seen? [2012]

Punda, Willemstad, Curaçao

Curaçao may be Dutch in polity, but its food choices are more American: hot dogs and hamburgers. This is not the type of food, or even fast-food, you will find in the tourist promos, which promise a fusion of European, African, and Latin American flavors, including meatballs, stuffed Gouda, gumbo soup, and goat stew. [2017]

Dallastown, Pennsylvania, USA

Every small town needs at least one coffee shop. It's a matter of livability, a place to be seen, and a key to community building. If the corporate sector is not responding along your Main Street, maybe one of the churches will. That's the story of Common Grounds. See the fish swimming around in the cup of coffee? [2019]

Tucson, Arizona, USA

Welcome to Geography Awareness Week: It's time to appreciate maps on the landscape! In this case, by using a map, Arizona pays homage to Texas as the home of the best barbeque anywhere, and "that aint no bull." Maps are ever popular components of mural art around the country and the world. [2018]

Springfield, Massachusetts, USA

The muses abhor empty spaces. As a result, visual art often takes over the outside surfaces of electric boxes. Think of them as mini-murals. "Small changes in your kid's eating habits can make a big difference": a worthy message and nicely designed. [2022]

Istanbul, Turkey

Roasted chestnuts and roastin' ears: Both are for sale on the busy streets of Istanbul. Chestnuts have been a part of Mediterranean culture for hundreds of years, but roastin' ears ("corn on the cob" to most) are a contribution of the Americas, the birthplace of maize. The lesson: Indigenous culture and immigrant culture can complement each other. [2014]

Jeffersonville, Indiana, USA

Outdoor dining, weather permitting, may be the urban equivalent of having a picnic in a bucolic woods. Does that make these parasols (call them umbrellas if you want) equivalent to a tree canopy? [2022]

Yocumtown, Pennsylvania, USA

Look closely. There is a mailbox attached to this out-sized donut. Is it a ploy to make the mailman stop in for a donut a day? Or, maybe it works on every passer-by. Maple Donuts has been a York County staple since the 1940s. [2010]

Blackfoot, Idaho, USA

Does your city or town have a museum that honors local culture? Blackfoot's contribution to the nation has been putting potatoes on the tables of Americans nationwide. In fact, that has been the contribution of Idaho, as well. Ergo, the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot. [2020]

Mountain Home, Idaho, USA

Food trucks like Mely's have the power to turn outdoor parks into fair-weather dinettes. Wouldn't it be great if every meal could be a picnic? if every meal were blessed by the elements? if every meal were free of screens? [2020]

Belle Fontaine, Alabama, USA

Before these tomatoes ripened to a bright red, they were green. Some of their brethren were probably hauled off to a frying pan to make fried green tomatoes. In this month's issue of the Food Channel Magazine, which U.S. state was assigned fried green tomatoes as its most representative taste? The answer is in the title to this post. [2017]

Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

 

These berries look a little rough, or raspy, on the surface, and that is probably how they got their name: raspberries. If you find some from Île d'Orléans for sale in Quebec, buy them! Île d'Orléans is known as the Garden of Quebec and has served in that role for centuries. It is located in what geographers would call Von Thünen's inner ring. [2018]

Tel Aviv, Israel

Watermelons were originally known as gourd apples: mēlopepon in Greek. It is doubtful, though, that they looked much like these large, richly-colored, water-engorged hybrids, which were grown in Israel. Why would a desert culture grow something so water-demanding? Because, historically, they could be put in storage and used later to slake all thirst. [2010]