It's a brisk, somewhat dreary, morning when we set off for Beaver County. We're well supplied with coffee for the 45-minute drive out Route 60 past Pittsburgh International Airport.

	A small army of bug-eyed chocolate Easter rabbits await further decoration at Rosalind Candy Castle in New Brighton. (Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette)

Soon we're on Route 18, winding through quaint Ohio River towns, such as Rochester and Monaca.

We're looking for small businesses that are successfully competing against big-box grocers and chain restaurants for the Post-Gazette's newest Food feature, called Worth the Trip.

By the end of the day, we've found several businesses that have been around for decades and have cult-like followings. Beaver County residents know them well. Now you can, too.

Cinnamon rolls
Anybody can drive up to a gleaming store with a flashing sign that proclaims that doughnuts are hot and ready, but why would you? Not with Oram's Old-Fashioned Donuts in downtown Beaver Falls, sandwiched between an antiques store and the local newsstand, its location since 1965.

William and Lillian Oram opened their shop in 1938, and word spread so quickly that the couple sold out on the first day. That still happens, especially on Fridays and Saturdays.

The Orams' foster son, Tom Bradshaw, took over the business in 1960. He introduced the cinnamon rolls after the Pillsbury company sent a demonstrator to teach him how to make french-fried pastries. Instead, Bradshaw experimented and developed the cinnamon rolls, which are 5 to 6 inches in diameter and weigh roughly 6 ounces.

		FISH SANDWICH: Muse Italian Club along Muse-Bishop Road, Cecil. Phone: 724-745-9878. KIELBASA: Wasilewski Market, 1701 S. Jefferson St., New Castle, Lawrence County. Phone: 724-652-3457. POTATO CHIPS: Ruse?s Roost, 1191 National Pike, Route 40, Hopwood, Fayette County. Phone: 724-437-2796. Web site: www.rusesroost.net. HOMEMADE PIE: The Spring House, Route 136 in Eighty Four, Washington County. Phone: 724-228-3339. Glisan?s Restaurant, 4624 National Pike, Markleysburg, Fayette County. Phone: 724-329-4636. FUDGE: Joyce?s Cooper Kettle Fudge, 820 Mifflin Road, in the Hays section of Pittsburgh. Phone: 412-461-6510. HOT DOGS: Jim?s Drive-In, Pennsylvania Avenue at Reuben Drive in West Mifflin. Phone: 412-466-0832.

"They were a big hit," Bradshaw said.

Today the cinnamon rolls are still the best seller followed by creme-filled doughnuts. For the record, the PG staff tasted several varieties. There wasn't a crumb left. (The writer's personal favorite was a melt-in-your-mouth vanilla cake doughnut: light, not greasy, and delicately flavored.)

After illness forced Bradshaw to close the business nine years ago, Vickie and Jonathan George stepped in to make the doughnuts.

Jonathan, a native of Beaver Falls, couldn't bear to see the doors close on a local legend.

The Georges bought the business and enlisted Bradshaw's help to learn the trade secrets that had been passed on for decades.

"He had nothing written down. It was all verbal," Vickie George said. "Mr. Bradshaw worked with my husband in production for a while and taught him how to do it."

Bradshaw still checks in to make sure the Oram tradition is being upheld.

"I'm real glad they have it," Bradshaw said. "I figure the good Lord brought them to me."

Oram's Old-Fashioned Donuts is at 1406 Seventh Ave. in downtown Beaver Falls (Route 18). The store is open from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. It's best to place your orders by phone a day in advance. Phone orders are taken until midnight. After 2 p.m., you'll get the answering machine. Leave your name, your phone number and the number of doughnuts you want. Phone: 724-846-1504. Web site: www.orams.com

Chocolate
Elizabeth Crudden was just 15 years old when she started foiling chocolates at the Rosalind Candy Castle in New Brighton. At 86, she still goes to work every day, but now she's the grande dame of chocolate-making operations at the company founded by Gust Zachos in 1914.

"We use the best of everything," Crudden said. "We don't use substitutes."

Zachos, a Greek immigrant, first opened the store in Freedom, and he held a contest asking customers to help him name his candy shop.

There were two winners, one who suggested Rose Land and the other who suggested Candy Castle. Zachos melded the names, turning Rose Land into Rosalind, and designed boxes to include a rose and a castle.

By the time Crudden went to work, Zachos' business and reputation had grown, and the factory was on Third Avenue in New Brighton. It's now on Fifth Avenue.

Zachos died in 1955, but by then, Crudden and her sister, Lucy, who also worked at the Candy Castle, had married fellow employees John Crudden and Med Zaluska. In the last years of Zachos' life, the foursome ran the business.

"They all worked for him," said Jim Crudden, who is now president. "It was a natural thing to buy the business."

In Gus' day, the most popular chocolates included nuts, fruits and creams, and at Rosalind, his original recipes are still used to produce luscious confections.

"The formulations he came up with, the recipes are proprietary to what we do," Crudden said.

At Rosalind Candy Castle, chocolates are still hand-dipped by women who sit at marble-covered work stations. The chocolates are hand-decorated, too.

"We cook our creams. We do things from scratch," Jim Crudden said. "It's very labor intensive."

Consider that Feb. 13 and 14, employees dipped 15,000 fresh strawberries in chocolate. For Easter, they'll make between 10,000 and 12,000 1-pound chocolate eggs, in addition to 25,000 rabbits, peeps and ducks. In the fall, look for peanut brittle.

Rosalind Candy Castle Inc., is at 1301 Fifth Ave. in New Brighton, which can be reached via Route 18. Hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays. Phone: 724-843-1144. Orders by Web site at www.rosalindcandy.com.

French Fries

If you head out of New Brighton and cross the Beaver River, you can make your way to Jerry's Curb Service in Bridgewater, where rain or shine you can pull your car into a parking space, flash your lights and order in true 1950s drive-in style.

Definitely get the french fries.

They're hand-cut and deep-fried in peanut oil, a rarity in this world of fast food. What you'll get is an overflowing boat of golden crunchy fries with just the right amount of salt.

By the time Jerry's opens at 10:30 a.m., Sean Sontag has already spent more than two hours preparing pound after pound of Russett Burbank Idaho potatoes -- the only kind that Jerry's buys.

(On an average day, the restaurant uses 600 to 800 pounds of potatoes; in the summer, 1,200 to 1,400 pounds.)

A machine spins and peels the potatoes, which are put in buckets of cold water until they're ready to be cut.

When it's time, Sontag moves at rapid speed placing one potato at a time into an old-fashioned slicer and pulling the handle up and down.

"As fast as he can move, he can cut them," says assistant manager Jared Wentzel.

Once the potatoes are cut, they're deep fried in peanut oil until they are half-cooked so they're soft on the inside, crisp on the outside. They are fried a second time -- called finish frying -- as orders come in.

Jerry and Donna Reed opened Jerry's Drive-in on Sept. 29, 1947. Back in those days it was a tiny building, much like the drive-ins of old, with waitresses who took orders the old-fashioned way.

Today, the entire drive-in has been renovated, there's a covered bay of parking spaces that provide a shield from the weather, and the waitresses carry palm pilots, transmitting orders to the kitchen instantly. The Reeds have since passed away, and their son, Bruce, founder of Bruster's Real Ice Cream chain, oversees the business. He hopes to franchise the drive-in, so you may have one in your neighborhood someday.

Until that happens, though, it's worth the trip to Beaver County for some fries. Feel free to take your dog along for the ride. Jerry's Drive-In has a mutt burger on the menu for $1.05. It's a chopped-up burger for your favorite pooch.

"A lot of people seem to bring their dogs," says waitress Dana Jankowski.

Jerry's Curb Service is at 1521 Riverside Drive in Bridgewater, which intersects with Route 51. It's open from 10:30 a.m. to midnight Sundays through Thursdays, to 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Phone: 724-774-4727.