What we know of as the South is as much an attitude as it is anything else. It’s a way of looking at the world, it’s a way of responding to other people and it’s a way of eating. Two very different dining experiences highlighted the continuity of the southern diet in very different ways. One churns out tradition for mass consumption. The other modernizes southern food norms and showcases, through impeccable preparation and taste, how soul food can heighten its excellence while staying true to its roots.
Waffle House is nearly as ubiquitous as MacDonald’s in Georgia, it’s state of origin. For northerners, the chain’s unassuming glass wrapped boxes dotting the landscape are points of curiosity. Uniformly non-descript and always clad in brick, they neither look inviting nor discouraging, which adds to their mystery. Their parking lots often testify to their popularity and it’s clear what the specialty is under those wraparound awnings.
A recent trip to the Stonecrest area of suburban Atlanta provided an opportunity to check out one of the restaurant’s more than 2500 locations. Although Waffle House has made some incursions north of the Mason Dixon line, the overwhelming majority blanket the South. It’s 11:15am, and according to the waitress, the restaurant was just coming off a busy period. The modest exterior gets a lift when you step inside. A few two person booths are directly opposite the door, and a line of cushioned yellow stools stand along a reasonably welcoming countertop. Along the west wall, three more larger booths, spare and utilitarian, wait for the next guests. The tone is light and relaxed with an underlying assumption that if you’ve walked through the door, you know exactly what to expect.
Of the twenty people in the restaurant, several of them are waiting for to-go orders. You don’t intuitively think eateries specializing in breakfast would do a brisk take-out business, but this one does. Open 24 hours a day, some of the menu options shouldn’t as surprising as some might find them. Waffles can be topped with pecans, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips or blueberry nougats (candy). Each for just 50 cents extra. Hashbrowns get a similar treatment and can be doubled, arrive blanketed in sauteed onions, cheese, jalapeno peppers or chunks of ham. The realities of these additions don’t exactly live up to expectations. Small squares of diced onion are barely visible on the hashbrowns and the cook’s sauteing method doesn’t allow for even a hint of browning on the onions. Both the standard waffles and the hashbrowns are bland affairs. Bacon slices are generous and well cooked, impressively well to be honest. But the scrambled eggs ordered as an afterthought verged on the insulting with every ounce of flavor cooked out of them. On the up side, anyone who likes their coffee bold and bracing, should make Waffle House a place of pilgrimage. A few sips will have you standing up will straighter than a guard at Buckingham Palace.
Even with their impressive take-out hustle, Waffle House is much more about convenience than quality. A part of the southern culture since 1955, it’s been around long enough to become a reliable go-to after a late night at the bar or a dependable and casual breakfast option for the family. For lots of people below the Mason Dixon line, it’s a place of familiarity and history that brings a sense of comfort and rootedness to the community. If service in Stonecrest is representative, the waitstaff makes a conscientious effort to ensure customers get what they want or need with attentiveness and cordiality. That alone goes a long way in pushing the satisfaction meter into the positive zone.
Four hundred miles north in Louisville, Kentucky, a completely different culinary adventure awaits at Dasha Barbour’s Southern Bistro. Tipped off that the restaurant might fill the bill for a satisfying meal after a long day on the road, the recommendation proved comically understated. That the restaurant specializes in soul food initially caused some concern. Many times, eateries standing on the three pillars of the soul food tradition, collard greens, fried chicken and macaroni and cheese; quickly succumb to complacency. The fare too often becomes so rote that it might as well be steam table food; where nothing tastes particularly fresh or loved. Those concerns disappear at Dasha Barbours. Opened in 2013 by a husband-and-wife team, Dasha Barbours makes soul food fine dining without being overly fancy or by pushing the boundaries of what soul food is to outlandish degrees.
Originally establishing itself in Louisville’s Buechel neighborhood, the restaurant moved on up to the big time in late April by taking over a choice space downtown. Because its loyal fan base was continually growing and because they needed a walk-in cooler, the restaurant moved to Main Street with the help of funds intended to promote the development of black owned businesses.
The restaurant bears the name of the chef, Dasha (Tumeka) Barbour. The quality of her food makes you want to know a lot more about how she became so accomplished at what she does. Mrs. Barbour’s technique doesn’t seem to merely copy one that was handed down her. There’s a skill level evident in the food she prepares that places her leagues above anyone else filling the soul food niche. Barbour’s mastery of soul food classics (and beyond) should be enough to place the restaurant she and her husband operate on any foodie’s destination list. Oddly, there’s been very little written about them. Why neither Food & Wine or Bon Appetit has profiled the restaurant is a little befuddling. Both magazines are trying to diversify their appeal and putting Dasha Barbours under their limelight would remind readers that dining excellence can be found in mid-size cities like Louisville. Chicago may boast Virtue but having another restaurant on the caliber of Dasha Barbours in the rotation would elevate the city’s dining profile dramatically.
Tight and well-considered, the menu is shrewdly select. Each of the base members of the triumvirate is so delicious a riot would ensue if their quality faltered or if any of them disappeared. Because of the stellar quality of their standards, you’d easily be tempted to extend the adventure and explore the rest of the menu. There’s a fried green tomato sandwich, fried pork chops, sweet potato and broccoli cheese casseroles. The apple pecan salad of mixed greens, granny smith apples, grapes, candied pecans with goat cheese and bacon with maple bourbon vinaigrette will stop time. Dasha Barbour’s also displays clever inventiveness. Who’d expect a soul food restaurant to dabble in pasta. By plating buttery grilled salmon on a bed of creamy pasta sporting spicy Jamaican influences, the eatery shows a knack for true innovation. There’s also an entrée that sounds suspiciously like ravioli. This one is stuffed with cheese and swims in Alfredo sauce. With a bourbon pecan pie and milk cake, desserts stick closer to home.
If only all dining escapades could be as rewarding as this one.
Dasha Barbours Southern Bistro
217 East Main Street
Louisville, KY 40202
dbsbistro.com
