I’m sure everyone has at least one Ninfa’s/Tio Javi’s party story. Cinco de Mayo or just a stray Wednesday night that made Thursday very, very difficult, but this is about the food. Very high quality Tex/Mex. The tamales are shredded roast pork rather than ground pork. Almost like carnitas coated in masa. The beef enchilada was made with fajita steak and both enchilada sauces were very good. The chile releno was top notch as well and the rice and beans lived up to the rest of the plate. Crispy taco gringo to round out the Presidente combo. Two kinds of salsa and fresh, hot chips as well.
The bar staff always knows what they’re doing. The decor isn’t particularly special, but they do have a couple of shrine-like niches filled with mementos. Good place to hang, just easy to forget it’s over there on Constitution.
I thought it might be a good idea to hit Doe’s for lunch and give their hamburger a try. Very good call. Good beef and bun, fresh cut condiments, and the house fries were some of the best I’ve had. Super crisp. They have a lot of poboys and plate lunches to round out the lunch menu, and I’m pretty sure everyone already knows about their steaks and shrimp and tamales. After all, they’ve been in town awhile now.
I was pretty intrigued by the Mississippi origin of Doe’s, since I just got back from a trip to Natchez (Vicksburg is next up on the list) and I’ve always liked the combination camp/old home feel of the dining room and the speak-easy cosiness of the attached bar. Doe’s is probably the first place I encountered that took high end product and dressed it as down home fare. The paper towels on the table mark a clear divergence from the path taken by places like Ruth’s Chris and J. Alexander’s. I’m probably headed back real soon to see what kind of job they can do with their country fried steak, hamburger steak, and spaghetti and meatballs. And I’m interested in trying their debris poboy, yet another link between Mississippi and New Orleans. Also the history posted on their website is worth a look. Very enlightening entry in the muddy back story of Mississippi race relations.
The lunch specials at King’s Wok are a whole lot of food for not a lot of money. In fact, add an extra egg roll (or two) and there’s plenty to share with a friend (or two) if you can agree on what you want to eat. The shrimp lo mein was fine, as was the pork fried rice. The egg roll was actually a notch above most places. Seemed a bit fresher and the insides crisper than I’m used to at these mostly grab and go Chinese take-outs.
But I was there because I’d read great Yelp! things about their won ton soup. Unsurprisingly, I was misdirected. A whole lot of noodle in scalding chicken broth with just a hint of minced pork and green onion.
Place was clean, the family was nice, if this is your neighborhood or you find yourself in the area at lunchtime, the food is definitely better than P.F. Chang’s, even if that’s not a very high bar. I did see one thing in the store I’d never seen before. This piece.
Here’s a really interesting spot in riverside Natchez that had excellent wood-fired flatbreads and really good local drafts. The bartender was from NO, actually he once managed the House of Blues down there, and at one point in the evening, he answered another guest’s question with an in depth rendition of the origin of both the Sazerac and Old Fashioned cocktails. History is big here in Natchez, and this place in particular. They’ve kept as much of the feel of a late 1700’s tavern as they could while remaining within the fire code. I’m pretty sure the food now is much better than it was then. People like to romanticize the cuisine of the past, but really, in an era where salt was prized, how good could it have been compared to the incredible availability of fresh ingredients we have today? And even now, that’s not enough for some establishments to put out superior fare.
When I’m on the road I’m always on the lookout for a place like Louie’s, but alas, those are not easily found. I’ll do the hotel breakfasts of grits, scrambled eggs, and sausage with the DIY waffle makers and pantry style toast or biscuits, but I’m almost always better off just finding a Waffle House and bolting down the All-Star before gassing up again and hitting the road. I missed out on a Shony’s in Natchez for various reasons, but I had high hopes for this place when I found it on my phone when I was preparing to leave Huntsville to return to Natchez, then BR. Probably should have just ordered some cake.
The place tried hard to look the part of a fifties diner with a lot of neon lighting and Elvis pics and who knows, maybe the watery grits and tired omelet were authentic to that period, but we can do so much better now, and it is disappointing when people don’t live up to what’s possible with the easy access to fresh produce and local dairy. I guess I was mainly miffed because they had biscuits and sausage gravy on the menu and just could not produce a quality product. Not saying there should be sausage and gravy police, but how do you stay open if you can’t cut it in that most basic area of the Southern breakfast menu?
I really hate to dog a place like I’m doing now, but I was really disappointed that this was the start to a six hour drive. The staff was nice and the place was clean and the dessert display looked really good–but if you are a restaurant, diner, taqueria, or even just a bar with bar food, you need to get the menu right and hire people that can make the food happen the right way. Bottom line, that is what it is all about.
Maybe it’s because the university is so close, or the Space and Rocket Center, but I’ve never seen such a string of ethnic restaurants as I encountered packed in a four hundred yard strip of Jordan Lane in Huntsville. Viet Cuisine was the one I chose, but I was torn because there was a Korean joint, an Indian place, and two taquerias right there as well. Huntsville isn’t a small town. They have a Whole Foods and a Chuy’s, and I did not realize that it is located in the Appalachian foothills until I left Natchez to go visit the Saturn 5 at the Space and Rocket Center. I hate not being able to check out the other places in that strip, but I was only there for one day so, Viet Cuisine. I at least walked a bit out of my lane and ordered the wonton soup and the seafood clay pot. Both very good moves.
The cilantro and green onion with the pork broth and minced pork stuffed wontons was wonderful, and I am immediately upon my return going to search for the best wonton soup in BR. Always good to gain a new focus in life. The seafood clay pot was very satisfying and although I ate it straight up, there were a number of condiments on the table I could have used to dress it up a bit if I so desired. The staff was quick and friendly. I either had two servers or a server and host/manager. Hard to tell, but they were both very polite and considerate. The store looked like it might have been a repurposed Burger King or some other chain, but they owned it with the decor.
The real beauty of driving two-lane asphalt highways across Mississippi hill country to reach the Interstate that takes you into the Appalachian foothills of northern Alabama is that hills mean ravines, and changes in elevation produce magnificent vistas as you pass through the many national forests on this route. Even headed to study the fruits of one of this country’s most astounding technological achievements (the Saturn 5 rocket), I could not dismiss that niggling ambivalence regarding the European discovery of this beautiful continent. As invasive as kudzu and carp, European culture and religion and avarice and disease remade this land. One has to wonder who we could have been if the genocide brought about by disease had not preceded European immigration. What if the cultures and beliefs and practices that were already here had merged with the new ideas instead of those communities having already been decimated by smallpox and syphilis to name two enemies of the people. Some would argue that it’s pointless to speculate. It is what it is. But without dreams and imagination, would there be a Space and Rocket Center to visit? We re-examine. We re-imagine. And we move on. Another delightful aspect of the drive was the number of mimosas I could see from the highways. Invasive, yes. Also lovely.
This is a nice little spot close to the Grand Hotel where I was staying. Tablecloths and black garbed waitstaff cooly reciting the specials when they returned with whatever drink you had requested. Like a lot of places, Cotton Alley emphasizes their New Orleans connection with their menu and they are both river towns. What distinguishes our northern neighbor though, is the emphasis on desserts. When I looked in and saw this, I had to take a table.
I can’t think of many places in BR or NO that aren’t bakeries that have a dessert display case in the dining room. Dessert carts are pretty rare as well, but it is a thing up here and also in Huntsville, Alabama, the next leg on my journey. Here’s a pic from the City Cafe Diner up there.
So how about we skip to the chase and look at the house made chocolate eclair I had for dessert (fancy name for Mississippi mud pie) , then circle back to the beginning of the meal?
Yes, it was delicious. This one had a graham cracker crust, and you can see the s’mores resemblance. Not really anything like an eclair, but tomato, tomahto. The house salad dressing was a very brisk and interesting garlic/sour cream concoction, and the house pasta was a bechamel with tomato, artichoke, and capers. I do love the kick capers bring to everything from smoked salmon to pizza to pasta sauces. I got them to sub shrimp for the grilled chicken it normally comes with.
Part of the elite funkiness that every operator in downtown historic Natchez ascribes to is splashes of local art on the walls, and sculpture where there’s room for it. I, of course, am all in. Anyone who gives local artists an opportunity to display their work scores points in my book. Everything at Cotton Alley Cafe was a positive, and I enjoyed it very much, but it doesn’t really rank as can’t miss. If you are in Natchez and something else catches your eye then by all means check that one out, but if you are casting about for a place to just chill and have a good meal then linger over coffee and dessert or an aperitif before taking a stroll along the river, Cotton Alley Cafe will always be there for you.
I’ve been having really good luck with bbq lately, first with Hannah Q Smokehouse in BR and now at Pig Out Inn in Natchez. Great atmosphere, great potato salad and baked beans, and really good bbq. Nice smoke flavor, not dry at all, and no need for any sauce. I finished the chicken off first again, and I’m starting to think after all these years that I like my chicken more than pork ribs or brisket.
I started the day taking the nature walk in Bluff Park right on the riverfront. Very interesting being that close to the river without a levee. You could see the levee structure on the Vidalia side, and there is a path even closer to the water that was submerged with the water so high. Lot of antebellum homes about as well.
Beautiful drive up to Natchez. At one point, looking out on the horizon from atop one of the highest hills, it felt like I was seeing the land before DeSoto showed up with all his syphilis and small pox. There’s a lot of undeveloped land on the Vidalia side as well as the Natchez side of the river. That sense of timelessness is very liberating. Downtown historic Natchez is a bit like a movie set. Lots of empty storefronts. Signs saying businesses have moved or closed. Got a haircut and my barber said they were trying to revitalize, but that there were still over five hundred homes for sale in the area.
I was thrilled to discover Planet Thailand. Of course you can find all sorts of places on your phone nowadays, but when you walk up to a place like this, you do still get that feeling of finding something intensely unique. From the sidewalk plants, to the offering plinth and stone garden, the water feature inside the restaurant, the traditional family portraits, and the super nice teapot and excellent garni (my personal plural for garnish), Planet Thailand makes it more than a transaction, something all too few restaurants still care enough to attempt. When you put in that kind of effort, you raise the stakes. It’s about more than money. It’s about the total experience. It’s about the owner’s reputation and standing. And it’s about you, the guest, not you, the customer. A subtle but real distinction.
I am a tremendous fan of pan-Asian restaurants. The ability to combine elements from different cultures is very alluring. I ended up going with spring rolls and shrimp pad thai, but after a visit to Huntsville and the Space Center Saturday I will be coming back through Natchez and I’m tempted to return and try the sushi since this meal was so fresh and well executed. (Unfortunately, they were closed Sunday when I came back through, not permanently, just on Sundays, thank goodness, because this will be the first place I head when I come to Natchez next time).
