Breakfast, Brooklyn, Brunch, Dining Out, WilliamsburgKerry Alaric CheeseboroMay 11, 2014Belgian, bell pepper, Breakfast, Brooklyn, Brunch, Carolina, Cheddar, cheese, cured, Dining Out, dry rub, egg, eggs, grits, hash, paprika, peppers, poached, pork, potato, potatoes, sauce, scallion, scallions, shrimp, smoked, soul, soul food, southern, syrup, waffle, waffles, Williamsburg1 Comment

Savoring "Sweet"

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YES, I'VE BEEN REMISS IN covering the ever-burgeoning food culture in NYC's largest borough: BROOKLYN. Well, that guilt finally overwhelmed me enough that I first asked some Facebook friends—including present Brooklyn denizens—what place should I try out.

Armed with a fresh website list a Facebook friend sent me of the new "must-try" restos in King's County, I, Sunday morning, found myself on the 6 train, then an L train, then coming up from underground on Bedford Avenue—yes, in the heart of WILLIAMSBURG—to walk just a few steps to one of the restaurants on that list, southern food-themed Sweet Chick, already abuzz with an eager and patient BRUNCH crowd even before noon.

I was easily impressed by the variety of customers, the presentation of the plates coming out of the kitchen, and the homey (yet not overly-done) décor and relaxed ambience of the space, even from the bar where I eventually would be seated for my meal.

Sweet Chick

Surprised that at only 11:30 a.m. I still had a half hour wait for a single spot at the bar for brunch, it gave me time to peruse the brunch menu and to ask more Facebook friends for their opinions of which two of the brunch entrées I should try.

Many friends suggested the chicken & waffles—a dish famously, yet inaccurately, epitomizing the oeuvre of soul food. (It was never on the tables of any homes I pleasured eating in when I grew up, and my last attempt to enjoy them—at the highly regarded AMY RUTH'S—was so utterly disappointing that I never even wasted the energy to post about them.)

So instead, I ordered first a bowl of their shrimp & grits, then followed that up with the smoked pork hash.

Sweet Chick Shrimp 'n' Grits

Sweet Chick Smoked Pork Hash

At first presentation I though my shrimp & grits dish might have had way too much sauce. It did not, once I stirred the copious amount of creamy, slightly cheese grits underneath from the bottom of the bowl throughout. Impressively, the seasoning was spot-on—did not need my default addition of black pepper or hot sauce—the sauce added layers of flavor to the grits without watering them down, and not a single shrimp suffered from over-cooking and managed to still showcase their sweet, fresh taste.

The smoked pork of the hash was properly juicy and tender, and finished with great—and very Carolina-style—vinegar brightness. The seasoning was pronounced without being bold (I did add hot some to this dish), and may have suffered slightly from over-salting between the rub for the pork and the seasoning of the otherwise properly skillet-baked potatoes.

In both dishes the eggs were skillfully poached (if the yolks look more set than runny, that is because of the extra few minutes it was still cooking while I snapped these photos) and worked fine as a finisher for each dish, rather than a main component.

Of course, many other diners ordered the chicken & waffles, including the young gentlemen next to me. He may have been a tourist, or at least new to the concept of "chicken & waffles" as he ate all of the fried chicken first before having one bite of the waffles. (Ideally for me, a drizzle butter, then syrup, then hot sauce over the whole stack, then "go to town"!) But they do look very appetizing when they come out.

Manhattanites like myself have our own probably skewed opinion of Brooklyn and its inhabitants. More so the few square blocks around the Bedford Avenue train station while we watch every near stereotype of "hipster" and tourist meander about.

I suggested to the diners to my left—who shared with me their thoughts of opening up their own soul food restaurant somewhere in the five (really, four) boroughs—that their southern-style joint should either be a soul food fusion place, where they could bring people's perception of soul food to that "next level", or be a real "country" soul food place (that serves the likes of pig's feet, chitlens', and think slab bacon with the rind still on the edge) to re-root self-titled foodies in soul food's real roots.

And kudos to Brooklyn—and Sweet Chick in Brooklyn—for not only making me forget, for a few delicious moments, that I was in Brooklyn, but for making me realize what I might actually still be missing in Brooklyn.

Bun Apple Tea!

KACNYC

Kerry Alaric Cheeseboro