Yes! Tempura okra with sweet and sour sauce. Okra marinaded in olive oil and garlic cooked on the grill. Tiny pods steamed for a few minutes with the stew. Yum.
It is rather warm today, though.
It’s actually spelled Hibiscus esculentus.
It does have those large blooms, doesn’t it? AKA Ladyfingers. Perhaps Mrs. Plant will eat it if I call it “Ladyfingers.” I forgot pickled okra. 
Unless it’s a college town. Seems like students are always looking for a substitute for Mama’s cookin’.
I agree with spoke- about the Cracker Barrel. Shoney’s is not too bad either; and the Popeyes on High Street (not the one on County Line Road!) in Jackson makes a melt-in-your-mouth biscuit. Almost as good as mine. 
Oh! Oh! Have you been to Peaches? It’s incredible! The guy that cooks hot dogs in front of Baldwin Hall on campus works there.
I swear, I’m on the verge of finding my shoes and driving out to Athens right now. I want a biscuit!
Here’s an interesting resource: Meat and Three Restaurants
And (for the OP) their listings for North Carolina.
(Hmm. I need to email them some info on other good meat-and-threes in Georgia.)
hmmmm Peaches and D’s and Wilson’s and JB’s
these are a few of my favorite things.
I went to Detroit to work for a week and was amazed at what the people there ate.
Crapola!
I can’t go two days without some tacoes. This gets intermingled with the soul food. Say what you will, but there some good eatin’s down hyah!
And carnivorousplant, the pickled okras are good, but breaded and fried can’t be beat. They’re easy to grow in the heat in a sunny spot. Try Clemson Spineless, one of the least aggravating types to pick.
I bread them with a tempura batter I was given here on the board. You are probably speaking of the traditional corn meal breading used for something else Mrs. Plant won’t eat, fried green tomatoes.
Now, there are plenty of places to get Southern food in Detroit, only they don’t call it Southern there - it’s ‘soul food’. Especially in Detroit proper, many little neighborhood joints that are diner-style rather than buffet line/cafeteria.
I knew there was good food somwhere… I was stuck out near the Rouge factory and damn well starving to death. It wasn’t until we hit the Mexican part of town that I finally felt happy. I was amazed that two of the girls did not know anyhting on the menu and their entire Mexican food experience was a few trips to Taco Bell. One of them couldn’t work the next day as she experienced… gastrointestinal excitements.
I did a quick search here in Atlanta and found the 2007 Best Meat and Three winners as decided by Citysearch Atlanta. I’ve been to a couple and found them to be delicious AND inexpensive.
There are hole in the wall miracles in some neighborhoods here.
Good stuff!
Looks like my next trip to the big city is gonna be tasty.
They have Southern food in Dearborn…Southern Lebanon. You could have eaten yourself to death on some of the best Middle Eastern fare in these United States a scant few blocks from the Rouge, all up and down Michigan Ave.
Oh, man, I lived in Albany, Georgia when I was a kid until we moved to Texas a few months before I turned 15. Boiled peanuts were my favourite treat, and I haven’t had any since leaving Albany. And we used to go pick wild plums that my mother would turn into jam (about the only thing she could cook well). When I’m craving that style food, I’ll either cook it myself or go to Cracker Barrel. If you’re into cooking, see if you can find a copy of Mrs. Wilkes’ Boardinghouse Cookbook. It’s got recipes for all the good southern cooking that I grew up on.
You’re assuming that I can cook 
Cracker Barrel is alright…but it isn’t the SAME…not even close. It makes me miss it even more by going there.
Oh…and that’s Alllllbeeeeennnny, not Albany. (I’d actually be corrected if I said Albany).
I remember seeing the boiled peanuts the first time and cracked up some locals by asking how to eat them. Like sunflower seeds they said…and it worked. 
Looking at that list, I’ve always considered Mary Mac’s to be overrated. (It’s not bad. Good enough for tourists, I guess.)
Thelma’s used to be awesome in its old location on Luckie Street and was still very good when it moved to Marietta Street. The location on Auburn Avenue, though, is such a dank dive that it’s hard to get past the atmosphere and enjoy the food.
OK Cafe is not really a meat-and-three, at least not a traditional one. (It wasn’t the last time I went there, anyway.) It’s a bit more nouveau.
Son’s Place is just mediocre. Not great.
The Colonnade has by far the best food, but it keeps monkeying with its hours and cutting them back to the point that I never know when it’s open. I think it’s only open on weekends now.
I will have to try some of the others on the list.
Mrs. Plant moved to the South from New Hampshire. One of her new friends pointed out to her that we were living in sin if she did not have a deviled egg plate.
Heh, I believe that’s true. You also need a Tupperware Cake Taker.
No one. Truckers just know the places that are easy to pull in to/out of from the highway.
All is explained.
You asked transplants, not Real Southerners. You want good Southern cooking? Go find someone with an Old Southern Grandma. Get her to make you breakfast.
Either that or you’ll have to go to Waffle House. As immortalized in the song
SpazCat, whose family is from 'round those parts for several generations back and is therefore a Real Southerner. Who misses her grandma’s biscuits.
Edit: I forgot Biscuitville. I always go there when I visit my sisters in the Triad. I believe there are a few left farther down I-85.