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Saloon
Montreal, Quebec |
Curly’s Vegetarian Lunch
New York, NY |
Dish
Charlotte, NC |
Casimir
New York, NY |
Chai
Brooklyn, NY |
Peasant
New York, NY |
Pat’s King of Steaks
Philadelphia, PA |
The Abbey Food and Bar
West Hollywood, CA |
Bar 89
New York, NY |
Restaurant Globe
Montreal, Canada |
8 Minute Dating
New York, NY |
Hamburger Mary's
San Diego, CA |
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| Dish |
1220 Thomas Avenue
Charlotte, NC
704.344.0343 |
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 Having long ago run out of people to complain to in NYC, I slunk down to North Carolina to bitch about dating (or lack therof) with fellow misanthrope and BHP contributor DJ DanK. I didn't intend to review the down home restaurant Dish, where we swung by for southern food and commiseration, but the unhappy couple at the next table presented an opportunity.
We passed them as we were seated, and I won't pretend the reason I knew something was wrong was because of a special gift for sniffing out relationship dysfunction. My suspicion had more to do with the fact that the woman had her face in her hands and was gently sobbing, and her male companion wasn't exactly looking supportive. They were pretty quiet about it at first, as we scanned our menus and took in the space.
Dish is like a comfortable eat-in kitchen, albeit an excessively large eat-in kitchen with a couple more connecting large eat-in kitchens that all together could seat upwards of a hundred and fifty people. It's not just the cute space, low ceilings, home-style cooking, and relaxed atmosphere that make it work, a lot of Dish's spirit comes from the super warm and laid-back staff. The server who took our order was chatty and friendly, and seemed to have a limitless amount of patience for the sobbing wreck at the next table.
We started off with iced tea, specifying "unsweet tea" as they say in the south, to avoid getting the default iced tea beverage known as "sweet tea", which tastes more like liquid sugar with a splash of tea flavor and hurts your teeth upon first contact with your mouth. We also split an order of Black Bean Nachos ($4.95 for one person, $6.95 for two). The order was huge and heavy, but all ingredients were fresh and made for great nachos that we would've finished if we had two more people at the table. This was the point I realized the portions here were bigger than I was used to: I told the server we probably should've gone with the single order of nachos, and he informed that actually this was the single order.
 While we were picking at endless cheesy clumps of black beans and tangy salsa, the couple at the next table were heating things up a bit with increasingly raised voices. She had apparently finished indulging in the sobbing victim role and was moving on to volleying aggressive return comments. Our food arrived as the argument level was still at the point where you can just fool yourself into believing nothing unpleasant is happening less than ten feet away.
I had the Chicken and Dumplings ($7.50) from a homemade recipe, which includes a biscuit, deviled egg, and a side – I chose macaroni and cheese. I wasn't familiar with this style of chicken and dumplings; it was more like a gumbo, a thick bowled soupish entrée with strips of pulled chicken and bits of chewy dumpling in a roux base. It had the light flavor of a good homemade chicken soup, a little peppery, but so subtle it was almost a little bland. The server told me most folks added hot sauce, which I tried, and which aligned with the flavors very nicely with just a little kick.
 The macaroni and cheese was the real thing, also light on flavor but that subtlety is true to southern-style mac and cheese. The fresh buttermilk biscuit was full-flavored and perfect, and I loved the deviled egg, which had a great spiced flavor and conjured the flavor of a country picnic.
DJ DanK had the spicy Cajun Meatloaf and roasted garlic Mashed Potatoes ($7.95), served with gravy, biscuit, and deviled egg. The meatloaf was thick and heavy, yet melted in your mouth because of its composition; finely ground almost like a pâté. It had the kind of nice, sharp spice to it that got progressively hotter with each bite. The garlic mashed potatoes were a nice compliment, mashed with skins on, creamy and very garlicky.
 The exchange at the next table was getting more shouty and uncomfortable, the only good thing about it was that the loud part was very brief and ended when she stormed out, him followed almost immediately after. Not sure what it was all about but it seemed to involve either attending or not attending the big NASCAR race that weekend. The friendly and intimate atmosphere crumbled for a moment under the weight of this unwelcome intrusion, but slowly regained its footing in the absence of any further verbal brawling.
As someone who's made a public scene in several restaurants, it struck me for the first time that all my scene-making destinations had one thing in common; I always chose venues for which I had some degree of contempt, where I wouldn't mind disrupting what I found to be an already-unpleasant atmosphere. The wait staff at Dish is comprised of a great bunch of warm people in a friendly, laid-back environment. If you're going to demand attention and be disruptive, I say take it to a bunch of snotty waiters and glory-hound diners who deserve it. But don't take it to Dish. |
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| chumwater |
| May 27, 2005 |
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