Celebrity Status for Regular, Everyday People
The Food
The moderately priced menu
features upscale comfort food, but only enough to showcase the
high-quality ingredients and interesting pairings. The food is fun and
unfussy, as creamy deviled eggs and hush puppies with
jalapeno-marmalade prove. Appetizers, like plump "barbecued" mussels
spiced with cubes of smoked pork and chilies, and juicy game sausages
with pickled jalapenos, are Southern in theory only, but they sure
taste great. But it's the barbecue that really impresses: Pulled pork,
though nothing like Carolina's versions, is chunky, chewy, with just
enough smoke, while spice-rubbed and sauce-slathered ribs (best enjoyed
as a sampler) feature fat-streaked, mostly tender pork and beef.