listnorthcarolinabusinesses

Photographs by Peter Taylor

Shishito & Goat Cheese Biscuit
Wentworth & Fenn
Even without the alliteration, Biscuit Saturdays at Wentworth & Fenn are a worthy complement to Taco Tuesdays. Chef-owner Samantha Allen, one of the city’s premier names in pastry, spotlights both sweet and savory biscuits. During a recent visit, the gorgeous Shishito & Goat Cheese Biscuit ($6) on the counter was a surprise, even if Allen is known for her flavor combinations. The shishito is an East Asian pepper that’s milder than a jalapeño—a superb partner for a biscuit infused with goat cheese, garlic, and onion compound butter. Just writing this has me counting down to Saturday. —Andy Smith

Sticky Biscuit
Lincoln’s Haberdashery
Going out for breakfast does not excite me. Skillet scrambles, pancakes, and waffles are easy to make at home, and my blessed weekend days tend to deflate when my belly is stuffed and wallet drained before noon. But the Sticky Biscuit at Lincoln’s Haberdashery has wiled its way through my defenses: The biscuit, a cumulus cloud of cheddar, is filling but not overly so; the ham and honey-butter toppings deliver the ideal savory-sweet ratio; and at just $8, the opportunities to splurge later remain deliciously abundant. —Allison Braden

The Vicious
Vicious Biscuit
Vicious Biscuit is open only until 3 p.m. each day, but the fast-casual eatery still has a cocktail menu. Once your food arrives—in this case its namesake, The Vicious—the concept becomes clear: This is hangover urgent care. The Vicious ($12) is a fried chicken breast in a jalapeño and cheddar biscuit, smothered in maple sausage gravy, and topped with candied jalapeños, aka “cowboy candy.” If you grew up on Bojangles, the airy, ciabatta-like consistency of The Vicious might surprise you. Pair it with a Southern Sunrise (bourbon, fresh orange juice, basil, and honey) and you’ll be primed for a solid nap that will hug that hangover away. —Amanda Pagliarini Howard

Sunny’s Special
Sunflour Bakery Co.
This homey, small batch bakery serves the most addictive chocolate chip scones and lemon poppyseed muffins in town, but it’s also a premium spot when you need a savory carb fix. You can get any one of their six breakfast sandwiches on sourdough, multigrain bread, or a croissant, but the correct move is a Sunny’s Special (the No. 6; $8.95) on one of Sunflour’s mammoth cheddar biscuits. Sunflour layers this cheesy mound of edible bliss with egg, sausage, arugula, and a swipe of tomato pesto (you can also substitute bacon for sausage). It’s hearty without being too heavy, and it pairs nicely with a dirty chai if you require a sweet bump of caffeine in the morning, too. —Taylor Bowler

Biscuits & Gravy
Dish
Biscuits and gravy is a sawmill workers’ meal from the days when laborers needed cheap, high-calorie meals thrown together from whatever was handy. In North Carolina, that meant flour, milk, butter, and pork. Dish, the humble and beloved Plaza Midwood eatery, has the right idea: two open-faced biscuits covered in creamy, slightly runny white pepper gravy for $4.29; with chunks of pork sausage in the gravy, $5.25. The biscuits strike me as, for lack of a better term, “cornbready,” more dense than dainty. That’s unintentional, says Amanda Cranford, who took over primary ownership of Dish in June; the heat and humidity from the small kitchen “makes it harder for us to make a biscuit that rises properly.” It’s OK. The biscuits crumble easily, the better to mash everything together and spoon it into your maw. —Greg Lacour

Biscuit French Toast
Early Girl Eatery
I’m a Southern gal who’s eaten a lot of biscuits in my 27 years. (God bless my arteries.) Homemade, restaurant-made, from a bag, from a can. Plain, with any filling you can imagine, smothered in gravy, on top of pot pie, made into a pastry, used as pizza dough. This, though, was my first biscuit French toast. Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit—this is worth getting out of bed on a Saturday for. Early Girl mixes cinnamon into its scratch-made buttermilk biscuit batter and tosses it on the griddle. The evenly browned cakes ($13.95) are more like arepas than French toast, and the biscuit dough means they’re only slightly sweet, which leaves room for the house-made whipped cream, organic Vermont maple syrup, berries, and heavy dusting of powdered sugar that adorn the plate. My only complaint: I left covered in powdered sugar. And, really, that’s nothing to cry about. —Tess Allen