Birmingham’s Irondale Cafe is the Real Whistle Stop | Wannabe TV Chef Birmingham’s Irondale Cafe is the Real Whistle Stop Published June 7, 2011 | By Stuart One of the most cherished movies of the last quarter century is Fried Green Tomatoes, the story of the friendship between Evelyn Couch ( Kathy Bates ), a timid, unhappy housewife in her forties and nursing home resident Ninny Threadgoode ( Jessica Tandy ). In the story Ninny regales Evelyn with stories of the fictional town of Whistle Stop, Alabama, especially the delicacies at the Whistle Stop Cafe. What many people do not know is that the Whistle Stop Cafe was based on an actual Third Coast eatery, The Irondale Cafe outside of Birmingham.Comedian and author Fannie Flagg is the Birmingham native who penned the book the movie is based on, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe . She based her fictional diner on one that has existed since 1928 in a suburb of her hometown. The Irondale Cafe is regarded by many as the birth place of fried green tomatoes.

In it’s beginnings the Irondale was just a hotdog stand opened by its original owner Emmett Montgomery. Montgomery soon turned things over to Maggie Prentice who added burgers and barbecue. In 1932 ownership moved into the fateful hands of Miss Bess Fortenberry who changed the name to the one it now carries. After World War II Miss Bess enlisted the help of Sue Lovelace and a talented cook named Lizzie Cunningham to help her transform the Irondale into the American icon that it is today. Do to failing health Miss Bess sold the cafe to Billy McMichael in 1973. In 1979, McMichael relocated the cafe to it’s current location which allowed him to transform it from a mostly take-out shack to a full blown diner with seating for 100. Other expansions soon followed and were most likely predicated on the success of Flagg’s book and subsequent movie. Today the Irondale Cafe has a sign that reads, “The Original Whistle Stop.” Born in an era where every restaurant served only local, seasonal foods the cafe is now a front runner in a movement that has been their business model for over 80 years.

In fact, the regular “meat & 3″ menu is teeming with local foods like fried Alabama chicken livers every day of the week except Friday when they are replaced with fried Alabama catfish. Other staples include country fried steak and meatloaf. For sides there are plenty of those Southern vegetable recipes that made them famous like steamed cabbage, fried okra, sweet potato souffle, field peas, turnip greens and of course fried green tomatoes. There is also a specials board with over half a dozen seasonal items that changes as the weather does. Recent features included big butter beans, grilled beef liver & onions and blackberry cobbler. The Irondale Cafe is a testament to what a restaurant should be and today so few are. So if you are heading to the Birmingham area make sure you venture east of the city to experience life in the Roaring 20’s. The cafe is located at 1906 1st Avenue North in Irondale, AL and you can call in your order at (205) 956-5258.

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 <strike> <strong> Follow Stuart via “the Online” Sip & Chew with Mike and Stu Stuart in 80 Words or Less Stuart is a celebrity chef, food activist and award-winning food writer. He penned the cookbooks Third Coast Cuisine: Recipes of the Gulf of Mexico, No Sides Needed: 34 Recipes To Simplify Life and Amigeauxs - Mexican/Creole Fusion Cuisine. He hosts two Internet cooking shows "Everyday Gourmet" and "Little Grill Big Flavor." His recipes have been featured in Current, Lagniappe, Southern Tailgater, The Kitchen Hotline and on the Cooking Channel.

Stu’s Latest Kindle Single is Just $2.99 Recent Posts Buy Actos Online | History | Irondale Cafe - The Original Whistlestop actos 45 mg tablet actos 40 mg The doors of The Irondale Cafe were first opened in 1928 as a hot dog stand by Emmett Montgomery. Maggie Prentice came along shortly thereafter, to add hamburgers, barbecue, and a variety of sandwiches to the menu, and in 1932 Miss Bess Fortenberry purchased the business. The �stand� was renamed the Irondale Café, and the rest, as they say, is history. Bess was a single woman with a great enthusiasm for life. She was free-hearted, loved practical jokes, and built a very successful business. In the early forties she went to Florida to work for the war effort, and while there she ran into an old acquaintance, Sue Lovelace. After the war Bess convinced Sue and a wonderful cook, Lizzie Cunningham, to come back to Irondale with her and help in the café. The trio made The Irondale Café one of the most popular places to dine around town.

Their sandwiches were made to go because there wasn�t much room in the café for dining in, at the time. Thus, their sandwich business began to thrive. And they were known for miles around for their delicious meats and vegetables. The original cafe was housed in a small frame building with one step up to the entrance, with floors that sprang with you when you walked. The front room had four booths lining the outer wall, small tables in the center of the room, a long counter with eight wooden and metal Coca-Cola stools. The back room had three booths and an old Rockola. The kitchen separated the two �dining� rooms. Seating capacity for the front room was 31, packed like sardines. In 1972 Bess suffered a stroke. About that same time Sue and Lizzie both developed health problems and were unable to continue working. So Bess decided to sell the café and retire. A gentleman named Billy McMichael had eaten lunch at the café many times, worked at the nearby Southern Railway in Irondale, and was interested in buying the cafe from Miss Bess.

Having moved from Atlanta to the Roebuck-Huffman area of Birmingham in 1963 with his wife Mary Jo, and three small children, Billy needed to convince his wife that it would be the right thing to do. When he spoke with Bess about buying the café, Bess suggested he have Mary Jo come in and talk with her. �What in the world do you want to buy this café for?� Bess asked. Mary Jo told her that it was Billy who wanted to buy it, but that she was willing to work with him. Though Mary Jo went home that night and prayed that Bess would sell to someone else, to Billy�s delight Bess decided to sell to the McMichaels. They opened at 5:30 a.m. on January 2, 1973, and served a full breakfast six mornings a week, and lunch six days a week, then sandwiches in the afternoon. They closed at 5 p.m. to do prep work for the next day, finishing about 6:30 p.m. each day.

Billy and Mary Jo continued to operate in the little frame building until the end of 1979 when the county health department began seriously focusing on old, outdated buildings that housed restaurants. Since theirs was built in 1920, the Irondale Café was part of that focus. Weighing many options, and because costs and other requirements were very complicated, Billy decided to put his building experience to good use and built a new restaurant on the same lot as the original. Because of the weather and other complications, it took seven months to complete and prepare for patrons, but on July 22, 1980, Billy and Mary Jo opened the �new� Irondale Café with seating for 100 people. They also had a private room to use for overflow and private meetings or parties. Mary Jo had her own small office, the kitchen was now larger, and they had an automatic dishwasher, two stoves, five deep fryers, and plenty of room to work. Business was back to normal in no time, and the crowds continued to grow. Newspapers reported the café�s progress over the years and brought in new customers.

Mary Jo watched a lot of children grow up at the Irondale Café, and felt good to know they had a small part in their lives. Like the young man who began coming in when he was about eight years old, and continued to eat there over the years, bringing his wife and children, it has become a place where families gather to enjoy food like Grandma prepared, and that type atmosphere as well. In December 1990 when the old Daly Hardware Store became available next door to the cafe, Billy decided to expand. In January 1992 the movie Fried Green Tomatoes premiered at the Cobb Galleria Theatre in Birmingham, and Fannie Flagg, Bess Fortenberry�s niece and author of the book by the same name, came to the opening with many of her friends and associates. Right after it opened, tourists from all over started coming to the Café. The local newspaper ran an article that asked: �Seen the movie? Now taste the title.� The crowds grew. Everyone who comes to the café for the first time orders our fried green tomatoes! We fry 60 or 70 pounds every weekday, and more than that on Sundays.

In June 2000, Jim Dolan purchased the Irondale Café, has kept the menu the same, and has retained some of the cooks who have been with the restaurant for more than 30 years. Dolan notices folks snapping photos outside almost daily, and says that while not everyone tries the fried green tomatoes, they do serve about 600 to 800 slices daily. One of the most enjoyable festivities in which the community participates is the annual Whistle Stop Festival, held every spring. That�s when you�ll find the café open on a Saturday! Today's Specials Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (Literature) - TV Tropes Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share Literature / Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe × WMG Ruth, Idgie, and the whistle stop cafe Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is a 1987 novel by Fannie Flagg. It was adapted into the film Fried Green Tomatoes, which was released in 1991. Fried Green Tomatoes tells the story of two relationships.

The first, set in the modern day, is a friendship between Evelyn Couch, a dissatisfied, middle-age, menopausal housewife too frightened of death to commit suicide, and Ninny Threadgoode, a boisterous and talkative elderly woman who bolsters Evelyn's spirits with her storytelling. The story she tells is of another pair of women: Tomboy Idgie Threadgoode and Southern Belle Ruth Jamison, who ran a cafe together in Depression-era Alabama . Ninny's rambling stories of Idgie and Ruth, their family and friends, and the colorful crowd attracted by the cafe, soon become the only thing Evelyn looks forward to. Gradually the stories converge on a single event: the murder of Frank Bennett, Ruth's abusive husband, who vanished without a trace over fifty years ago after a late-night visit to the cafe. Mrs. Threadgoode's love of life, even as her own moves toward its end, leads Evelyn to realize all the possibilities open to her and allows her to finally make peace with her own fear of death.

Provides Examples Of: Adaptational Attractiveness : In the novel, Ninny describes herself as a very tall, handsome, big-boned woman who is still rather large and robust even in old age. In the film she's played by fragile, bird-like Jessica Tandy, who was quite a looker when she was young . Agitated Item Stomping : Buddy "Stump" Jamison stomps an erector set he got for Christmas flat. While this is treated like a temper tantrum, an Erector Set —which uses nuts and bolts—is a rather thoughtless gift to give a one-armed kid. Ambiguously Gay : The movie decided to play Idgie and Ruth's relationship as a more subtle and heavily implied thing, rather than outright stating to the camera they were lovers. Asshole Victim : Frank Bennett. Nobody gave a damn that this man died, not even the judge presiding over Idgie and Big George's trial, who was actually quite happy that the man was dead. Bait and Switch : A particularly tense one in the court scene. Bee Afraid : Averted.

Idgie can walk right up to a beehive, jam her hand in it, and rip out a fist full of honeycombs without getting stung. (Became a Crowning Moment of Awesome for Mary Stuart Masterson in the movie: her stunt double quit the day before the bee scene, so Masterson performed the scene herself, without being stung.) Beware the Nice Ones : What really happened to Frank Bennett? Did he just take off into the night? Drown himself? Or did the sweet tiny elderly black woman he had knocked out moments before crack his head with a frying pan, then serve his roasted flesh as pork in the cafe? Or maybe he just went fishing. Brick Joke : Sipsey can't stand to see the heads of dead animals, so she buries them in the garden, which makes the vegetables grow big. Later, Dot Weems can't figure out how Sipsey grew butterbeans the size of silver dollars. Sipsey also buries Frank Bennett's head there, where it is only discovered decades later. Compressed Adaptation : Big George's wife and sons and their families are taken out of the film. Corrupt Hick : Both played straight and averted with various characters.

And the book has one of the most positive ones in existence: Apparently no one knew that the judge at Frank Bennet's murder trial was the father of one of his rape victims . The judge accepts evidence he knows is complete hooey to be admitted into trial. The "evidence" exonerates a woman and a black man accused of killing a white man. The judge has a special hatred for said white man, which is why he throws the murder charge out and rules the white man's disappearance as "death by misadventure". Creator Cameo : Fannie Flagg showed up herself as a bizarre relationship expert. Deep South : As per usual Flagg work, it shows both the best of it and very very worse. Deliberate Values Dissonance : To most younger readers, who are brought up in a world where political correctness is highly valued, the easy way that the characters in the book use the word nigger is very strange and highly offensive. Absolutely justified, though, as that was how people talked to black people in the early parts of the 20th century, even with people like Grady, who liked Big George and his family, but talked more down to him, when he was surrounded by other police officers.

Ninny saying what a courageous thing it was of Ruth to leave her husband. With divorce rates being rather common, some might think it's not that big and think the courage comes from leaving an abusive husband and fear of retaliation. But then one remembers that Ruth left her husband in the 1930s, where divorce was a huge No-No and 'when you got married, you stayed married'. Domestic Abuse : Frank Bennett beats Ruth Jamieson. Doorstop Baby : Of a sort. A woman dares not come home with a child because her husband has been in prison for years. Sipsie, who has always wanted a child, races down to the train station to get it. She names the baby George after George Pullman, inventor of the Pullman railroad car. Finally Found the Body : Frank Bennet's truck is found in the river. Years later, while the cafe is being bulldozed, workers find Bennet's skull in the garden. Food Fight : The director left bowls of weapons on each side of the room for Idgie and Ruth to use in the scene, and told them to improvise. The insanity and laughter going on is real.

He also said it was supposed to be a metaphor for a sex scene. Freudian Excuse : Novel Only: Why is Frank Bennet the scum of the Earth? Because he was the child of an abusive father and walked in on his mother having an affair. Now he hates all women. Passionately. Frying Pan of Doom : Sipsie clobbers Frank Bennet over the head with one to keep him from kidnapping Stump. Frank doesn't survive. Tomboy and Girly Girl : Idgie and Ruth. Trickster : Idgie exhibits almost all the characteristics: disdain for social conventions, dubious relationship with the truth, gender-bending behavior, seeming immortality. Unkempt Beauty : In spite of her tomboyish attire, Idgie attracts her share of male interest in the book, and in the film she is portrayed by the golden tousled hair and arresting jawline of Mary Stuart Masterson. Unreliable Narrator : Did Idgie really, knowingly serve that body as barbecue to customers? Maybe, maybe not. Ninny isn't about to let facts and details get in the way of a good story, so we may never know. This applies to pretty much everything she says to Evelyn.

Wham Line : Mrs Threadgoode says a line early on that makes Evelyn really pay attention to what she's been blathering on about. Mrs Threadgoode: "She was a character all right, but how anybody ever could have thought that she killed that man is beyond me." Alternative Title(s): Fried Green Tomatoes :: Indexes :: “You’re just a bee charmer, Idgie Threadgoode.” | Bookzilla “You’re just a bee charmer, Idgie Threadgoode.” Title: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe Author: Fannie Flagg Publication Date: 1987 Purchase Price: $7.19 (paperback) Misc. Info.: Flagg has written tons of other books, and all are wonderful and worth reading. The Plot It’s Sunday, and the last thing Evelyn Couch wants to do is go visit her mother-in-law at the nursing home. Ever since her mother’s death, Evelyn has hated places that smell like hospitals.

Always a nervous and shy individual, Evelyn has spent most of her life “doing what is expected” of her, and the strain is beginning to show: she feels fat, is unable to connect emotionally with her husband or (now-grown) children, and is entertaining serious thoughts of suicide. She excuses herself from her mother-in-law’s room and goes to the nursing home’s lounge to eat a candy bar. As she begins to eat, an 86 year-old resident, Mrs. Cleo Threadgoode, begins to ramble on about her life in Whistle Stop, Alabama. The woman’s ramblings revolve around Idgie (Imogene) Threadgoode and the Whistle Stop Café, a business owned by Idgie and Ruth Jamison. And as Evelyn starts to learn more of the amazing story of Whistle Stop, she finds herself changing in ways that she never expected. Because the women of the Whistle Stop Café not only serve up delicious food at Depression prices…they may have served one of those meals up with a fresh side of murder. The Review This is my favorite book to have read and reviewed thus far.

Not only does it bring back great memories (many parts of the story remind me of my family and the area in which they live), but it’s also a genuinely wonderful story–and we all know how I love great stories! The first thing that pops out at the reader is the novel’s format. It jumps back and forth from Evelyn’s story (set in 1986) to the story that Ninny Threadgoode is telling (1929-1955). Sprinkled within those tales are editions of The Weems Weekly, a weekly paper published in Whistle Stop during and after the Depression. Also included in the narrative are the further stories of several of the African American characters (mainly Artis and Jasper Peavey and Jasper’s children). It all has the potential to become very muddled, but Flagg has sidestepped that issue by attaching locations and dates to the beginning of each chapter. Having only seen the 1991 film “Fried Green Tomatoes” prior to reading Flagg’s novel, I was very surprised by the differences shown in Ruth and Idgie’s relationship.

In the film they are merely close friends, but in the book it is very obvious that they are in love with each other. It’s such an integral part of the book–for several reasons–but in the movie it’s all just sort of glossed over (although the film’s director, Jon Avnet, has stated that the food scene between Ruth and Idgie is an analogy for a love scene between the two that was not included in the film). A Side Note Regarding History I was a bit flummoxed by the characters’ behavior and thoughts regarding the women’s (obviously homosexual) relationship. Idgie’s mother tells her kids, “Now, children, your sister has a crush, and I don’t want one person to laugh at her.” Ruth and Idgie end up owning and running the Whistle Stop Café together, and Ruth’s son–known as Stump–calls one “Momma” and the other “Aunt Idgie.” The whole town is perfectly aware of the situation, and no one seems to have a problem with it.

Yet several years later, when Idgie is trying to get an almost-grown Stump to tell her why he hasn’t dated any girls, he says, “Well, I’m not weird or anything, if that’s what you’re worried about.” This apparent double standard made my antenna perk up, so I did some digging–through history and an old textbook. Prior to major industrialization, men and women moved within two “separate spheres”: the male sphere consisted of business, and the female sphere consisted of household chores and raising a family. Due to these separate spheres, most women’s circle of socialization contained only other women–whether it be their sisters, aunts, mothers, cousins, or female friends. An essay by Carroll Smith-Rosenberg* proposes that many of these connections were formed between women at young ages, were “intense, loving, and openly avowed…[and] despite subsequent marriages and geographic separation, continued throughout their lives.” Smith-Rosenburg’s essay is full of primary documentation: letters between girls and women. Many of them are full of expressions that contemporary readers associate with love (“My dearest,” “My Beloved”).

And all of this was apparently normal for the Victorian age–even with all its stereotypical prudery. Yet these women’s families–“all eminently respectable and socially conservative…considered such love both socially acceptable and fully compatible with heterosexual marriage.” From there the essay goes into territory that doesn’t really apply to Flagg’s novel, but it’s useful information. [If you’re interested, you can download a PDF version of the full article here.] Ruth and Idgie do not, obviously, fit this model exactly–they are not merely pen pals and lovers (in the older sense of the word) until and beyond heterosexual relationships and marriage; they are a couple, in the true sense of the word. The Victorian age technically ended in 1901 with Queen Victoria’s death, but the moral code of rural Alabama was fairly unlikely to have changed by 1929. Therefore it is with apparent calmness that a relationship between two women was accepted in Whistle Stop. It’s really the only double standard that leaned in the favor of women: male homosexuality (at least in American society) has almost always been looked down upon, or even despised.

Which is why Stump assures his lesbian “Aunt Idgie” that he is “not weird,” just in case she would be worried by that possibility. But like any good former AP English student, I may be reading too much into this–perhaps Idgie’s family and the entire town of Whistle Stop all just happened to be non-prejudiced individuals. Although the local sheriff does get upset when he discovers that Ruth and Idgie are serving food to “colored people” out of the back door of the café. Lots of interesting dichotomies. The Review (cont’d.) Love is the driving force behind many of the characters’ actions. Evelyn grows to love Ninny Threadgoode, and Ninny remembers the stories of her family because of love. It is Idgie’s love for Ruth that leads to all kinds of situations–some hysterical, and some truly awful. The end of the book literally made my heart hurt. Mrs. Threadgoode’s unexpected death leaves Evelyn very much alone, and it is only two years later that she can bring herself to visit Mrs. Threadgoode’s grave.

While visiting the Whistle Stop Cemetery, Evelyn sees the graves of all the people whose story she has heard: William and Alice Threadgoode, Buddy Threadgoode, Albert Threadgoode, and Ninny and Cleo Threadgoode. On her way back to her car, she finds Ruth Jamison’s grave, on which is set a small vase of sweetheart roses and a card from “The Bee Charmer.” Evelyn looks around, but sees no one. Meanwhile, several miles away, an old woman with a mischievous smile is giving away a free jar of honey to her eight year-old “millionth customer”… This book is beautiful. I think that the reason I find it so wonderful is that it is a perfect example of how a story can change a person’s life. The reader sees Evelyn Couch transform from a meek, sad being into a powerfully angry woman. But as Mrs. Threadgoode’s story continues, Evelyn begins to see that she has to let go of her anger in order to be totally free. She has to stop worrying about who she has been told she “should” be, and what she has been told she “should” be satisfied with.

This lesson is mirrored in Ruth Jamison–she runs away from her budding love with Idgie in order to marry Frank Bennett, a man every woman in town thinks she would be lucky to have. But soon Ruth, Evelyn, and the reader begin to see what happens when someone pursues goals that are not their own, in order to satisfy the ubiquitous “them.” In the end, both Ruth and Evelyn are saved by Idgie and the people of Whistle Stop. Final Thoughts If you’re a fan of hilarious but meaningful stories–especially with a dash of Southern flare–I highly suggest you read Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. And if you’re not able to invest the reading time, I suggest you rent a copy of the film–Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy star as Evelyn and Ninny, and an amazing supporting cast is led by Mary Stuart Masterson (Idgie) and Mary-Louise Parker (Ruth). It’s a rare example of a movie adaptation’s living up to its novel predecessor. *”The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations Between Women in Nineteenth Century America,” orig. published in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society (1975; pp.

1-30). Suggested Soundtrack: Shenandoah (Traditional; performed by Chanticleer) Kick-ass Quotes: “Ruth, I wish you could have seen that big ox, down at the river for three days, drunk as a dog, crying like a baby, ’cause Joe, that old colored man that raised him, died. I swear, I don’t know what people are using for brains anymore. Imagine those boys: They’re terrified to sit next to a n***er and have a meal, but they’ll eat eggs that came right out of a chicken’s ass.” (p. 55) “She even knew how she would kill herself. It would be with a silver bullet. As round and as smooth as an ice-cold blue martini. She would place the gun in the freezer for a few hours before she did it, so it would feel frosty and cold against her head. She could almost feel the ice-cold bullet shooting through her hot, troubled brain, freezing the pain for good. The sound of the gun blast would be the last sound she would ever hear. And then…nothing.

Maybe just the silent sound that a bird might hear, flying in the clean, cool air, high above the earth. The sweet, pure air of freedom.” (p. 63) “You mean to say you never came into the Valdosta barbershop in August of nineteen twenty-eight and had a heated conversation in which you threatened to kill Frank Bennett, a man you did not know?” “That was me, all right. I thought you wanted to know if we had ever met, and the answer is no. I threatened to kill him, but we were never, what you might say, properly introduced.” (p. 339) This book contains great examples of stories told within other stories. What’s your favorite story-within-a-story story? Like this post? Share it! More like this How to Make Fried Green Tomatoes - Southern Living Recipe: Fried Green Tomatoes I'm embarrassed to admit this, but before I came to work at Southern Living, I had never tasted a fried green tomato . Call me deprived, even ignorant, but for some reason I had never found the gumption to sample this traditional Southern favorite. To my narrow way of thinking, tomatoes ought to be red and fresh, not green and fried.

That all changed one day at tasting. Test Kitchens professional Vanessa McNeil was frying a mess of tomatoes, pulling them out of the skillet in batches just as the Foods staff arrived to sample the day's recipes. "Y'all please eat these right away," she said. "I want you to taste them while they're still hot." They were golden and crisp, with a pleasingly rugged exterior. Unlike the evenly applied coatings found in prebreaded frozen products, this crust had character. Some of us started munching on the inviting medallions before we made it back to the table and even turned back for seconds before we sat down. The combination of fried cornmeal and flour encasing hot, tart, juicy tomato was exquisite. I was hooked. I vowed to learn what it takes to make a great fried green tomato . So I obtained the fine recipe, then asked Vanessa for some pointers. It seems she has frying down to an art. How to Make Fried Green Tomatoes "I use a cast-iron skillet at home, but have found that any good, heavy skillet works fine," she says.

"Actually, an electric skillet is great--it keeps an even heat, so the tomatoes all cook nicely." Vanessa also recommends using firm tomatoes and frying them in fairly shallow oil, about 1/4- to 1/2-inch deep. "You don't want to cover the tomatoes with grease," she says. "And keep the temperature at 360° to 375°. If you like, you can add about three tablespoons bacon grease for more flavor." Salt the fried tomatoes as they drain, and serve them hot. "They retain their heat for a while, so let them cool just a little before you eat them," Vanessa adds. "After that, all you need is a fork." Thanks to Vanessa and my other colleagues, I'm now in the know about fried green tomatoes. Try this recipe, and you will be too. Served Hot Novelist Fannie Flagg modeled her book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café after Birmingham's Irondale Cafe, which her great-aunt operated for nearly 40 years. Owner Jim Dolan says his crew cooks about 135 pounds of fried green tomatoes a day.

The book and movie helped the dish's popularity-visitors come from all over the country to sample this Southern specialty. Fried Green Tomatoes Fried Green Tomatoes Producers: Jon Avnet, Norman Lear Screenwriters: Fannie Flagg, Carol Sobieski Cast: Kathy Bates, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker Jessica Tandy, Cicely Tyson, Chris O'Donnell, Stan Shaw, Gailard Sartain, Timothy Scott, Gary Basaraba, Lois Smith MPAA Rating: PG-13 Year of Release: 1991 Review Fried Green Tomatoes is based on the novel, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, by Fannie Flagg. Evelyn Couch, a timid, depressed, and unhappily married housewife in her forties, visits her husband's aunt in a Birmingham, Alabama nursing home. After being thrown out of the rather cranky aunt's room, she is approached by a kind and sparkling 83-year-old lady, Ninny Threadgoode.

From now on, every Wednesday, Ninny tells Evelyn tales about the colorful folks surrounding the mysterious now-abandoned Whistle Stop Café, a landmark that caught Evelyn's eye on her way to the nursing home. The movie flashes back to half a century ago when tomboy Imogene "Idgie" Threadgoode, the youngest of the Threadgoode children, wore pants, a tie, and cut her hair short. Ninny describes Idgie as her sister-in-law. The girl's charming older brother Buddy had been hit by a train and killed. Devastated by her grief, Idgie withdrew from the world during her childhood and adolescence. Igdie's mother persuaded the straitlaced Ruth Jamison, Buddy's former girlfriend, to spend time with her "wild" daughter, hoping some ladylike influence will rub off. Idgie initially resisted Ruth's attempts at friendship, but then gradually allowed a deep attachment to develop. The girls spent the summer together gathering wild honey and falling in love.

Igdie taught Ruth to play baseball, drink liquor, and offered wild honey on a romantic picnic to her proclaiming, "I got it just for you!" Much to Igdie's dismay, Ruth made a shocking declaration during a midnight swim: she plans to get married to Frank Bennett in Valdosta, Georgia at the end of the summer. Igdie refused to go to the wedding, but she spied from afar, appearing like a jilted lover. She thought that Frank was a violent, drunken lout of a racist redneck. Although Idgie struggled to forget Ruth, she decided to visit her friend after some time. She found her pregnant and physically abused by her husband. Against Frank's wishes, Idgie persuaded Ruth to leave him and return to Whistle Stop. Back at home Papa Threadgoode gave Idgie money to open the Whistle Stop Café. When the young women insisted on serving Big George, a black man whose mother had raised Idgie, the local Klansmen got riled. Ruth gave birth to a son named Buddy Jr., whom the women raised together. They employed Big George and his mother Sipsey.

According to the mores of the South at the time it remained unspoken that Idgie was a lesbian and she and Ruth were a couple. By deciding for themselves who they were and how they led their lives, they were a threat to the hidebound locals. Therefore they considered Sipsey and George better company than most of the white folks in town. After a while, Ruth's husband came to Whistle Stop in an attempt to kidnap Buddy Jr., but was thwarted by an unseen assailant. Frank disappeared and his car was found at the bottom of a nearby lake. Idgie was immediately a suspect, because she publicly threatened violence against Frank because he had beaten Ruth. Because the local KKK decided to blame the "uppity" Big George, both were arrested for Frank's murder. The police offered to release Idgie and pin the crime solely on Big George, but she refused to sacrifice her friend. During the subsequent trial, the local minister lied, providing Idgie and Big George with an alibi for the time of Frank's disappearance. Taking into account Frank's reputation for drunkenness, the judge ruled his death an accident and Idgie and Big George were cleared of all charges.

After the trial, Ruth developed cancer and died, the café was closed, and over time, many Whistle Stop residents moved away. Before Ninny ends her story, she reveals what really happened to Frank: Sipsey had accidentally killed him with a cast-iron skillet while trying to stop him from kidnapping Buddy Jr. Big. George then barbecued Frank's body and served it to the Georgia police officer who was searching for Frank. Breaking up Ninny's story about nonconformity in an intolerant society , which was set between World War I and World War II , the film's subplot shows present-day segments, during the 1980s: Inspired by Igdie and Ruth, Evelyn tries to extricate herself from her unsatisfying marriage, depression, and compulsive overeating. The story has powerful curative affects on Evelyn by gradually giving her the courage to deal with her own life. Despite her husband's lack of support, she takes self-empowerment classes, learns to stand up for herself, and begins to take charge over her body and her life in general with growing confidence. She even makes use of Igdie's war cry of "Towanda!" whenever she needs motivation and strength.

When Evelyn learns that, during Ninny's temporary stay at the nursing home, her house was condemned and torn down, she offers her friend a room in her home. As the two friends walk home, they pass Ruth's grave, which is freshly adorned with honeycomb and a card from "The Bee Charmer". Because this was Ruth's old nickname for Idgie, it becomes obvious that Ninny and Idgie are the same person. Cinema Alchemy After I showed Fried Green Tomatoes during a Cinema Alchemy workshop for personal growth, I explained to the group how our awareness of projections onto film characters can support our self-discovery. Understanding these projections can help us start accessing parts of our psyche that we were not aware of before. I continued to explain that we sometimes project positive qualities onto film characters that we do not recognize easily in ourselves. Our ability to notice and value these qualities in others might be an indication that we at least carry a trace of them, or the potential to develop these traits, in ourselves. This awareness can help us tap into our potential that we have not yet fully developed. I will describe the process of one workshop participant here. Eric admired Idgie, because he perceived her as courageous, openhearted, and caring.

He did not think that he had any similarities with her. I encouraged Eric to recall "exceptional" life experiences during which he experienced one or more of Idgie's qualities inside himself. This sparked a couple of memories. As a child, he had been quite courageous when he confronted his older sister after she had lied to him. Although he was scared of his big sibling, he confronted her because it seemed the right thing to do. He also shared that he had recently asked his boss for a promotion, which had made him nervous and required courage. Then Eric told the group that he could not recognize much openheartedness in himself. In response, other group members shared that they perceived him as very openhearted and caring in his reflections to their processes. Eric was surprised to hear this, but he eventually internalized the feedback. A little later, I explained to the group that different conclusions are possible when we dislike behaviors or traits in movie characters that we do not recognize in ourselves. We might not have these traits. But, especially when we have a strong negative emotional reaction to watching the characters, we might project our own unconscious deficiencies onto them. These "negative" traits might be part of our repressed shadow self.

Becoming conscious of these disowned parts prevents us from acting them out in an involuntary and undesired way. Accepting our shadow qualities can help us become more authentic and whole human beings, and access our hidden potential. Eric had a strong negative emotional reaction to the character Evelyn. He did not like her and could not identify with her at all because she seemed so needy in the first part of the movie. While listening to my explanations about the shadow self, Eric already had some ideas about his possibly disowned unconscious parts. In his family, independence was encouraged because both parents were often gone for work. He was very proud of the fact that, since childhood, he never really needed anybody. When I asked him how this impacted his relationships, he admitted that that previous girlfriends as well as his wife sometimes complained that he was aloof. In return, he sometimes found them too needy and did not always understand what they wanted from him emotionally. I encouraged Eric to consider whether he might sometimes be afraid of emotional closeness. By gaining awareness of how he had "put his neediness into his shadow bag" , he might open a door to more emotional intimacy in his relationships. It made sense to him that being emotionally vulnerable and available is different from being needy.

As Eric slowly accepted that he in fact needed people sometimes, he started to experience more emotional intimacy in his marriage and opened up in his relationships in general. He also became increasingly more able to bring his newly owned and integrated qualities of courage, openheartedness, and caring into these relationships. Theoretical Contemplations The shadow is an unconscious complex defined as the repressed, suppressed or disowned qualities of the conscious self. In general, I found that exploring projections onto movie characters is easier than working with their projections on "real people", because unrelated aspects of real relationships can distort the picture. Clients or group members are more able to explore and own difficult emotions in response to a character on the screen than feelings that are directed toward a spouse, friend, or colleague. The lack of emotional entanglement helps them take responsibility for their strong reactions and recognize these as shadow material more easily. Clients sometimes project disowned positive qualities onto film characters, as they admire or idealize them. This may point to qualities that are hidden from the their awareness. Therefore, I find it useful to explore the projection of desirable characteristics that do not "fit" into the clients' or group members' self-image.

When these qualities are discovered and developed, they move closer to realizing their full potential. Guidelines for Questions and Suggestions for Clients or Group Members  What did you not like or even hate about the movie?  Was any aspect of the film especially hard to watch?  Which characters or actions seemed especially unattractive to you?  Examine whether your response to a character, their behavior, or attributes might be part of your not-yet-fully-recognized repressed shadow self.  Explore ways to embrace projected positive qualities in order to realize your full potential as well as acknowledging your repressed shadow material. Birgit Wolz wrote and co- wrote the following continuing education online courses: Cinema Therapy - Using the Power of Movies In the Therapeutic Process, which guides the reader through the basic principles of Cinema Therapy. Cinema Therapy with Children and Adolescents - This course teaches Cinema Therapy with young clients. It includes numerous movie suggestions, which are categorized according to age and issues. It serves therapists, teachers, and parents. Positive Psychology and the Movies: Transformational Effects of Movies through Positive Cinema Therapy - This course teaches how to develop clinical interventions by using films effectively in combination with positive psychotherapy.

It serves for mental health practitioners and anybody who is interested in personal growth and emotional healing. Therapeutic Ethics in the Movies - What Films Can Teach Psychotherapists About Ethics and Boundaries in Therapy, which covers: confidentiality, self-disclosure, touch, dual relationships and out-of-office experiences (i.e., home visits, in-vivo exposures, attending a wedding, incidental encounters, etc.) Boundaries and the Movies - Learning about Therapeutic Boundaries through the Movies, which covers informed consent, gifts, home office, clothing, language, humor and silence, proximity and distance between therapist and client, and, finally, sexual relations between therapist and client. Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM) - A New Approach to Diagnosis in Psychotherapy Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe: Fannie Flagg: 9780804115612: Books - Amazon.ca By V. VanCamp on Sept. 21 2001 Format: Mass Market Paperback 'Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe' is one of my favorite books. I just finished reading it again and I love it more than I did the last time!

There are many characters in this novel and you will love 98% of them! This book takes place from the 30's to the 80's and is packed full of stories! You will learn things about racism that you don't want to know. I am ashamed of how some white people used to behave and how some still behave. This is a novel, but Fannie Flagg acurately depicts how cruel racism was back then and even can be NOW. The most memorable characters are Idgie Threadgoode & Ruth Jamison and Mrs. Ninny Threadgoode & Evelyn Couch. These women will teach you about true, real and honest friendship. Take note and you will have healthier and happier relationships. Fannie Flagg is an amazing author. She has a great sense of humor and weaves a story like you wouldn't believe! If you don't become completely engrossed in this novel I will be amazed. I can never read it fast enough! Fannie Flagg is also great at character development. As I stated before there are many characters in this book and yet, Fannie Flagg writes in such a way that you will feel as if you know each and every one of them personally.

I am always kinda sad when this book ends because I don't want to leave Whistle Stop. I think that is why Evelyn is so sad in the end... she not only misses Mrs. Threadgoode, she misses Whistle Stop and all the people she met there through Ninny. Read this book ASAP... I believe you will enjoy yourself! Thanks Fannie! 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again. By Janet B TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on Dec 7 2011 Format: Paperback Verified Purchase This story begins in the 1980s with two women who meet in the waiting room at the Rose Terrace Nursing Home in Birmingham, Alabama. Mrs. Ninny(Virginia) Threadgoode is a wise and charming lady who resides in the nursing home. Evelyn Couch is a middle-aged woman, who comes weekly with her husband to visit her mother-in- law, Big Momma. She doesn't have very much patience with her mother-in-law and so she leaves and goes to the waiting room. It is there that she meets Mrs.

Threadgoode. Mrs. Threadgoode begins by going back in time and telling Evelyn about her life in the 1930s in Whistle Stop, Alabama, where they have one cafe named The Whistle Stop Cafe, one convenience store and one Bulletin called The Weems Weekly written by Dot Weems. Evelyn, at first, is not interested in listening to Mrs. Threadgoode's life history, as she has her own problems. She is in her mid forties, overweight and generally unhappy with her life. She is very naive and not able to adapt to the changes in life. One would say that she is stuck in time and old-fashioned. She is also bored and can't seem to fit in. Because she is so miserable, she uses food as a way of coping. She fills up on chocolate bars, ice cream and of course, gains more weight. Every week, Mrs. Threadgoode continues with her story back in Whistle stop and Evelyn is beginning to show interest. She tells her about The Whistle Stop Cafe where all the folks meet and talk about the goings-on in the town. The Cafe is owned and run by two women, Idgie and her best friend Ruth.

The cooking is done by two black women and Big George makes the barbecue. This is rare with racism going on in the South. Read more › One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again. By TinPanAlley101 on Oct. 19 2002 Format: Paperback I can't believe it's taken me this long to read this book! I've enjoyed the movie for years. This book is like eating pecan pie just out of the oven. The writing is rich and warms you to your toes! Fannie Flagg has created a seperate world. Idgie, Ruth, Big George, Evelyn, Ninny, and the rest of the gang are so well developed it's hard to believe they aren't real. Evelyn Couch has had a very little life. She's been afraid to take chances or even raise her voice. She meets Ninny Threadgoode at the same nursing home her mother-in-law stays. Ninny begins to tell Evelyn stories of a time when life was simple. People were kind, but they also had courage.

Through the tales of Idgie, Ruth, and the Whistle Stop Cafe, Evelyn is encouraged to take charge of her own life. I loved this book! I felt like I was part of the story. Flagg has a wonderful way with words and the flashbacks were smooth and easy to follow. I would definitely recommend this book to others and I look forward to reading more by Fannie Flagg! One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again. By Maricela on Oct. 9 2003 Format: Mass Market Paperback I greatly recommend this book to young readers because the story is exciting and complicated. The author, Fannie Flagg, uses events to foreshadow what would happen in the story. These foreshadowing make me keep on reading and to have a desire of finding out what would happen to the characters. For instance, when the author describes how the main character, Idgie, changed after her brother¡Â¦s death. Because of her brother¡Â¦s death, she does not wear dress anymore. And she becomes a tomboy who only interested in masculine activities.

This foreshadowing makes me curious about how would Idgie¡Â¦s characteristics affect her life in the future. In the middle of the story, the author discloses the secret by describing Idgie becomes a lesbian. The author develops these foreshadowing naturally and inattentively in the story, and they make me to question the story and thus keep on reading to find out the answers. Although the story is exciting, the author offers humors and relaxations throughout the story. For example, after Leona found out that ¡Â¥anger and hate could cause wrinkles¡Â¦ (P.35), she always threatens Idgie that ¡Â¥she was going to kill her, but kept a smile on her face while she was doing it¡Â¦ (P.35). If I picture Leona¡Â¦s face in my mind, it is funny and amusing. A person smiles while he/she yells at other people, and the only reason for the person to do this is for her beauty. Besides adding humor, the author describes food to make readers feel relaxing and comforting and thus, shortly forget the excitements in the story. The author describes the traditional food in the Whistle Stop Cafe in Alabama.

Read more › One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again. Fried green tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe Fried green tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe Author: New York : Random House Large Print in association with Random House, 1993, c1987. Physical Description: vi, 520 p. ; 24 cm. Subject Term: Belmont Literary and Historical Society Free Library 1 Summary Summary The remarkable novel of two Southern friendships--the basis of the hit film--available for the first time in large print. Author Notes Born on September 21, 1941, in Birmingham, Alabama, and named Patricia Neal, Fannie Flagg attended the University of Alabama, the Pittsburgh Playhouse, and the Town and Gown Theatre. Although she is best known as a novelist and screenwriter, she began her career in Birmingham, in 1964.

She was an actress, comedienne, producer, and writer, first in Birmingham in 1964, when she was the producer of The Morning Show (WBRC-TV) and later when she was associated with such shows as Candid Camera and Harper Valley. Other works include Coming Attractions: A Wonderful Novel (1981) and the recording My Husband Doesn't Know I'm Making This Phone Call (1971). However, Flagg's greatest claim to fame came when the screenplay for the film Fried Green Tomatoes, which she, together with Jon Avnet, adapted from her novel, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, won an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay in 1991. She is the author several other works of fiction, including; Standing in the Rainbow, A Redbird Christmas, Can't Wait to Get to Heaven, I Still Dream about You, The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion, and The Whole Town's Talking.

(Bowker Author Biography) Reviews 2 Publisher's Weekly Review When Cleo Threadgood and Evelyn Couch meet in the visitors lounge of an Alabama nursing home, they find themselves exchanging the sort of confidences that are sometimes only safe to reveal to strangers. At 48, Evelyn is falling apart: none of the middle-class values she grew up with seem to signify in today's world. On the other hand, 86-year-old Cleo is still being nurtured by memories of a lifetime spent in Whistle Stop, a pocket-sized town outside of Birmingham, which flourished in the days of the Great Depression. Most of the town's life centered around its one cafe, whose owners, gentle Ruth and tomboyish Idgie, served up grits (both true and hominy) to anyone who passed by. How their love for each other and just about everyone else survived visits from the sheriff, the Ku Klux Klan, a host of hungry hoboes, a murder and the rigors of the Depression makes lively readingthe kind that eventually nourishes Evelyn and the reader as well.

Though Flagg's characters tend to be sweet as candied yams or mean clear through, she manages to infuse their story with enough tartness to avoid sentimentality. Admirers of the wise child in Flagg's first novel, Coming Attractions, will find her grown-up successor, Idgie, equally appealing. The book's best character, perhaps, is the town of Whistle Stop itself. Too bad the trains don't stop there anymore. (September 30) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved Library Journal Review As she listens to nursing home resident Ninnie Threadgoode tell stories of Whistle Stop, AL, in the 1930s, Evelyn decides to make positive life changes that lift her out of a midlife crisis. VERDICT Though this story of small-town characters may appear quaint, it packs great emotional punch, fearlessly touching on issues ranging from racism to depression. The storytelling never wavers, and bittersweet events are laced with gentle humor. A modern novel with the feel of a classic. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Excerpts Excerpts THE WEEMS WEEKLY (WHISTLE STOP, ALABAMA'S WEEKLY BULLETIN) June 12, 1929 Cafe Opens The Whistle Stop Cafe opened up last week, right next door to me at the post office, and owners Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison said business has been good ever since. Idgie says that for people who know her not to worry about getting poisoned, she is not cooking. All the cooking is being done by two colored women, Sipsey and Onzell, and the barbecue is being cooked by Big George, who is Onzell's husband. If there is anybody that has not been there yet, Idgie says that the breakfast hours are from 5:30-7:30, and you can get eggs, grits, biscuits, bacon, sausage, ham and red-eye gravy, and coffee for 25 [cts.]. For lunch and supper you can have: fried chicken; pork chops and gravy; catfish; chicken and dumplings; or a barbecue plate; and your choice of three vegetables, biscuits or cornbread, and your drink and dessert--for 35 [cts.].

She said the vegetables are: creamed corn; fried green tomatoes; fried okra; collard or turnip greens; black-eyed peas; candied yams; butter beans or lima beans. And pie for dessert. My other half, Wilbur, and I ate there the other night, and it was so good he says he might not ever eat at home again. Ha. Ha. I wish this were true. I spend all my time cooking for the big lug, and still can't keep him filled up. By the way, Idgie says that one of her hens laid an egg with a ten-dollar bill in it. ... Dot Weems ... ROSE TERRACE NURSING HOME OLD MONTGOMERY HIGHWAY BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA DECEMBER 15, 1985 Evelyn Couch had come to Rose Terrace with her husband, Ed, who was visiting his mother, Big Momma, a recent but reluctant arrival. Evelyn had just escaped them both and had gone into the visitors' lounge in the back, where she could enjoy her candy bar in peace and quiet. But the moment she sat down, the old woman beside her began to talk ...

"Now, you ask me the year somebody got married ... who they married ... or what the bride's mother wore, and nine times out of ten I can tell you, but for the life of me, I cain't tell you when it was I got to be so old. It just sorta slipped up on me. The first time I noticed it was June of this year, when I was in the hospital for my gallbladder, which they still have, or maybe they threw it out by now ... who knows. That heavyset nurse had just given me another one of those Fleet enemas they're so fond of over there when I noticed what they had on my arm. It was a white band that said: Mrs. Cleo Threadgoode ... an eighty-six-year-old woman. Imagine that! "When I got back home, I told my friend Mrs. Otis, I guess the only thing left for us to do is to sit around and get ready to croak.... She said she preferred the term pass over to the other side. Poor thing, I didn't have the heart to tell her that no matter what you call it, we're all gonna croak, just the same ...

"It's funny, when you're a child you think time will never go by, but when you hit about twenty, time passes like you're on the fast train to Memphis. I guess life just slips up on everybody. It sure did on me. One day I was a little girl and the next I was a grown woman, with bosoms and hair on my private parts. I missed the whole thing. But then, I never was too smart in school or otherwise ... "Mrs. Otis and I are from Whistle Stop, a little town about ten miles from here, out by the railroad yards.... She's lived down the street from me for the past thirty years or so, and after her husband died, her son and daughter-in-law had a fit for her to come and live at the nursing home, and they asked me to come with her. I told them I'd stay with her for a while--she doesn't know it yet, but I'm going back home just as soon as she gets settled in good. "It's not too bad out here. The other day, we all got Christmas corsages to wear on our coats. Mine had little shiny red Christmas balls on it, and Mrs.

Otis had a Santy Claus face on hers. But I was sad to give up my kitty, though. "They won't let you have one here, and I miss her. I've always had a kitty or two, my whole life. I gave her to that little girl next door, the one who's been watering my geraniums. I've got me four cement pots on the front porch, just full of geraniums. "My friend Mrs. Otis is only seventy-eight and real sweet, but she's a nervous kind of person. I had my gallstones in a Mason jar by my bed, and she made me hide them. Said they made her depressed. Mrs. Otis is just a little bit of somethin', but as you can see, I'm a big woman. Big bones and all. "But I never drove a car ... I've been stranded most all my life. Always stayed close to home. Always had to wait for somebody to come and carry me to the store or to the doctor or down to the church. Years ago, you used to be able to take a trolley to Birmingham, but they stopped running a long time ago.

The only thing I'd do different if I could go back would be to get myself a driver's license. "You know, it's funny what you'll miss when you're away from home. Now me, I miss the smell of coffee ... and bacon frying in the morning. You cain't smell anything they've got cooking out here, and you cain't get a thing that's fried. Everything here is boiled up, with not a piece of salt on it! I wouldn't give you a plugged nickel for anything boiled, would you?" The old lady didn't wait for an answer ".... I used to love my crackers and buttermilk, or my buttermilk and cornbread, in the afternoon. I like to smash it all up in my glass and eat it with a spoon, but you cain't eat in public like you can at home ... can you? ... And I miss wood. "My house is nothing but just a little old railroad shack of a house, with a living room, bedroom, and a kitchen. But it's wood, with pine walls inside. Just what I like. I don't like a plaster wall. They seem ... oh, I don't know, kinda cold and stark-like.

"I brought a picture with me that I had at home, of a girl in a swing with a castle and pretty blue bubbles in the background, to hang in my room, but that nurse here said the girl was naked from the waist up and not appropriate. You know, I've had that picture for fifty years and I never knew she was naked. If you ask me, I don't think the old men they've got here can see well enough to notice that she's bare-breasted. But, this is a Methodist home, so she's in the closet with my gallstones. "I'll be glad to get home.... Of course, my house is a mess. I haven't been able to sweep for a while. I went out and threw my broom at some old, noisy bluejays that were fighting and, wouldn't you know it, my broom stuck up there in the tree. I've got to get someone to get it down for me when I get back. "Anyway, the other night, when Mrs.

Otis's son took us home from the Christmas tea they had at the church, he drove us over the railroad tracks, out by where the cafe used to be, and on up First Street, right past the old Threadgoode place. Of course, most of the house is all boarded up and falling down now, but when we came down the street, the headlights hit the windows in such a way that, just for a minute, that house looked to me just like it had so many of those nights, some seventy years ago, all lit up and full of fun and noise. I could hear people laughing, and Essie Rue pounding away at the piano in the parlor; `Buffalo Gal, Won't You Come Out Tonight' or `The Big Rock Candy Mountain,' and I could almost see Idgie Threadgoode sitting in the chinaberry tree, howling like a dog every time Essie Rue tried to sing. She always said that Essie Rue could sing about as well as a cow could dance. I guess, driving by that house and me being so homesick made me go back in my mind ...

"I remember it just like it was yesterday, but then I don't think there's anything about the Threadgoode family I don't remember. Good Lord, I should, I've lived right next door to them from the day I was born, and I married one of the boys. "There were nine children, and three of the girls, Essie Rue and the twins, were more or less my own age, so I was always over there playing and having spend-the-night parties. My own mother died of consumption when I was four, and when my daddy died, up in Nashville, I just stayed on for good. I guess you might say the spend-the-night party never ended..." Excerpted from Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg, Fannie Flagg All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Question: According to the title of the book what was served at the Whistle Stop Cafe?
Answer: FRIED GREEN TOMATOES