FOD FOR THE SOUL
By Steve Blount
Photos Greg Johnston
Down home, Crackro-American, soul food, whatever you call it,
it’s damn good.
If you grew up in the South, as I did, there are tastes that you just can’t live without: cornbread, black-eyed peas, smoked pork in all of its guises, banana pudding .... trust me, it’s a long list. Oh sure, there are times to swoon over a schnitzel or covet a cassoulet, and I have plenty of ethnic and fusion favorites. But while I can take or leave most foods, I can’t live without regular infusions of Hoppin’ John or chicken perloo. Fortunately, I don’t have to.
While Orlando has become a cosmopolitan mecca largely inhabited by folks from elsewhere, there are a few bastions where the old recipes and old dishes live on. Many are soul food restaurants, run by African-Americans and located in traditionally black neighborhoods.
Which isn’t surprising. What might be called Crackro-American cuisine – the foods of the Florida Crackers that I grew up eating – is exactly the same as soul food. After the Civil War and Reconstruction, the South was plunged into an economic depression that didn’t fully end until after World War II. Rural Southerners – black and white – had to make do with the same limited variety of inexpensive foods. Their tables may have been on different sides of the railroad track, but the food served on those tables was identical. Some of it was made with ingredients that weren’t the first choice of affluent diners: hog maws (used for flavoring); oxtail stew, chitterlings (pronounced “chit’lins”), which are hog intestines; and the green leaves of turnip plants left over after the more commonly eaten root bulb has been detached.
But for every “I don’t think I could eat that,” entry on the Southern menu, there’s a “can’t do without it”: fried chicken, yams, pulled pork, short ribs and rice, cornbread, barbecue ribs and greens, and – did I mention sweet potato pie and banana pudding? I loved that so much my mother would make a big bowl on my birthday and stick the candles in it instead of a cake.
There are places in North Florida and South Georgia where you can’t drive a mile without tripping over a great Crackro-American or soul food palace. Our choices are more limited, but their food is still terrific.
JOHNSON’S DINER
This is an Orlando institution and, being that it’s in a gentrified block of Church Street within walking distance of the new arena and City Hall, it’s a good place to start. You have to look hard to see the entry as it’s in a line of shops, but once inside, you know right away you’re in the right place.
The neat rows of tables are covered in white fabric and the obligatory clear plastic overwrap to protect against drips of gravy and drabs of red velvet cake topping. Art on the walls pays tribute to Ray Charles – who played Orlando a lot in the early years – and Wynton Marsalis, and there are original oils by Everett Spruill.
The story’s pretty well known. The Diner was founded in a nearby location by Lillie Johnson in 1983. Lillie’s daughter, Earlean Taylor, took over the stove a few years later. The Diner made the move to Church Street three years ago and is now operated by the family, with son Clarence Taylor and daughter Andrena Daniels taking the lead and doing the cooking.
Clarence was cooking the last time I was in and pretty soon, we had a stream of dishes coming to the table. I did ask for chitterlings (long-simmered snippets of hog intestines served over rice). They’re not for everyone, – including Clarence, “I never eat them” – as the taste is a little gamey, but they did have that real slow-cooked goodness.
Clarence sent out short ribs next. These are the short ends of beef ribs, braised and simmered, then served over mashed potatoes with a side of green beans. Good short ribs are tender without being cooked to pieces, and these still had enough texture to hold to the bone and tasted divine.
He added a side of mac and cheese – which was very fluffy and not at all oily – and some collard greens flavored with pork that had been simmered until they were just tender.
“Johnson’s is a community gathering place,” Taylor said. “You’ll see everybody in here. Look outside and you can see a Jaguar parked out front alongside a shopping cart, and they’re all our customers.”
The day we visited, Congresswoman Corrine Brown was there eating with aides Chester Glover and Hope Bryant and friend Laverne Kelly. Even though she’s from Jacksonville, the Congresswoman has a long association with Johnson’s.
“My momma and the Johnsons were cousins,” she revealed. “The family’s from near Cordele, Georgia, and they brought good Southern cooking down here, so it’s family to me.
“It’s also a political hangout. You can get a meeting in a minute when you call somebody and tell them you’re at Johnson’s. They come to the meeting, but they really come for the food.
“Today I really wanted the chitterlings, but I was good and had the healthy turkey instead. But I think I will have a slice of red velvet cake to finish it off!”
Johnson’s Diner, 595 W. Church St., Orlando, 407-841-0717.
QUEEN BEE’S
There’s another potent political connection on Orlando’s soul food scene, this one at Queen Bee’s, which is just off John Young Parkway in the city’s Washington Shores neighborhood.
The restaurant was founded by Eloise Reddick, wife of Florida Representative Dr. Alzo Reddick and the original Queen Bee.
At first glance, the building gives few hints of the quality food inside. Just inside the door is a large room devoted to an open kitchen fronted by a steam table heaped with food and a counter for take-out. But step past the counter into the rear dining room and you find a virtual museum of black history. The walls are covered with framed posters and documents – letters from Abraham Lincoln, maps of the Civil War campaigns, musical legends – and there’s even a baby grand piano.
Robert Brown recently took over the management of Queen Bee’s.
“Mrs. Reddick is in her 70s. She’s getting up there, so they asked me if I could come in and run the restaurant,” Brown said. “My main chef now is PeeWee Waite, but the food is still Mrs. Reddick’s recipes.”
First up was a plate of baked fish, rubbed with seasoning and cooked moist and tender in a lemon-butter sauce. Brown cooks salmon, whiting or flounder for this dish, but most often he uses tilapia.
The slight spiciness of the seasonings gave the firm but tender fish just enough punch to be interesting without overwhelming its delicate natural flavor.
Meatloaf, another local favorite, was firm and had a strong tomato flavor. Served with gravy and succotash (corn, okra, tomatoes), it was very tasty. And of course, there was red velvet cake, banana pudding and – on this day – blueberry cobbler.
“Eloise Reddick is very famous for her cooking,” Brown said. “She comes by all the time and still makes our cakes and bread and banana pudding.”
Mrs. Reddick has no worries about the reputation of her restaurant, and Brown is bringing in a few extras: vegan menu items, a fish fry on weekends and a big outdoor drum smoker to make pork, ribs and chicken on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Queen Bee’s Soul Food, 3214 Orange Center Blvd., Orlando, www.queenbeesrestaurant.com, 407-299-1001.
C&W BBQ PIT
The smallest and least formal place on our itinerary was C&W BBQ Pit in Oviedo. Cora White came down to Orlando from Pineview, Georgia decades ago and started her open-air restaurant in 2003. Located in a cinderblock house to which a large smoking pit has been added, you order at the counter just inside the door and eat at picnic tables outside.
The pit is a large fireplace with space for the oak wood she burns below and grates for slow-smoking the pork above.
“The pork and ribs are the most popular,” White said. “I get here just about 7 am every morning and stay until 7:30 pm. It takes 8 hours to smoke the meat.”
The ribs were tender and smoky, and eating outside under the oak trees was really down-home. Two cats strolled underfoot. They weren’t exactly begging for a handout, but they did gaze at my plate longingly from time to time.
“I get about 300 people through here on the weekends,” White said, “and I do catering, too.”
C&W BBQ Pit, 298 Geneva Dr., Oviedo, 407-366-0495.
LOWE’S GOOD EATON
All of the restaurants we visited were good choices. But if I had to pick a favorite, I’m going with Lowe’s Good Eaton, located about a mile east of 17-92 on Kennedy Boulevard in downtown Eatonville.
The building is a former pool hall and has housed a soul food restaurant for years, but it was taken over by Shea Lowe in March of last year.
“I always wanted to get into business,” he said. “I love to cook, so this seemed natural. Eatonville – which is the oldest incorporated black township in the United States – seemed like the right place to start.”
Lowe’s “right hand and left hand” man is Thomas Sinclair, and the two childhood friends make the place hum.
Service is cafeteria style with a steam table at the back heaped with smothered pork chops, meatloaf, rice, potatoes, greens, cabbage, yams, black-eyed peas and – on Fridays – barbecue ribs.
“Oxtail stew is our biggest seller,” Sinclair said. “We call them ‘slap yo momma’ oxtails, because they’re so good they make you want to slap your momma, but of course you won’t,” he joked. “We do our oxtails Caribbean style, which means we slow cook them in a cast-iron pot with carrots and peppers.”
Lowe’s wife is from Jamaica – he learned the recipe variation from her family – and he’s planning to add curry chicken and goat to the menu, too.
Lowe cooked in a variety of restaurants before he opened Good Eaton, and his experience is evident.
“We tried some pastas, alfredo and so on, when we opened, but it was the soul food that the customers wanted,” he said. “My aunt has a restaurant in Williston, near Gainesville, and she came down and contributed some of her recipes, too.”
One thing you won’t often find on the menu here is chitterlings, because Lowe doesn’t eat them. Occasionally his aunt makes a guest appearance and will cook up a batch.
The smothered pork chops here are to die for. Meaty, tender without shredding and swimming in thick, juicy gravy. You pick your own sides, but you can’t eat smothered chops without cornbread to mop the plate clean and of course mashed potatoes, and Lowe’s are creamy and fresh.
The black-eyed peas are cooked from fresh peas – not the mushy canned things you get at the supermarket – and instead of flavoring them with pork, Lowe uses smoked turkey. The taste is just as good, but with less fat.
But it’s the ribs that keep me coming back for more.
“Ribs take a long time,” Lowe observed. “I buy them a day ahead, then trim off the excess fat and rub them with a blend of spices. I refrigerate them like that overnight, then we come in at 6 am the next morning and start grilling.”
The ribs aren’t cooked in a closed smoker. Instead, Lowe slow-roasts them over a charcoal grill out back. This gives them a little crust on the exterior, but leaves the meat inside tender and juicy. Sauce isn’t added until you put it on at the table. The taste is superb, meaty and smoky without the mushy texture you can get from ribs cooked ahead and then broiled.
“Our two-year anniversary is coming up and we’re going to do some renovations in here,” Lowe said pointing around the restaurant, “But my goal is to start a franchise of soul food restaurants. The recipes I’ve developed are simple and any competent cook can make them with a little training.”
If nothing else, Lowe’s ribs have got real legs, and if he does decide to franchise, I wouldn’t bet against him. I’m just going to need a complete list of locations to carry with me when I travel.
Lowe’s Good Eaton, 429 E. Kennedy Blvd., Eatonville, www.lowesgoodeatonsoulfood.com, 407-647-7955.
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