Southern Cooking at its finest
Sweet Potatoes is truly about sweet potatoes. They are everywhere in the menu: sweet potato fries, chunks of roasted sweet potatoes in the Stephanie salad, sweet potato cornbread dressing and so on. I never have been much of a fan of southern cooking beyond the fried chicken with all of the sides. But the cooking here is a step above that. Soulful food that rarely uses sweet potatoes as the showcase but as a supporting character giving the dish it is paired with an authenticity of southern cooking but allows for a look forward with a New South type of cooking.

The decor is bright though the subdued lighting for dinner did not reveal it to be so. The walls are showcases for local artists and paintings are rotated on a regular basis. On this visit, massive paintings of jazz artists, Ella Fitzgerald and local hero Fantasia Barrino were on the wall. The atmosphere was lively but not crowded allowing us to be seated right away.

One of the biggest beefs I have with restaurants today is that when you order sweet tea, you generally get a watery weak drink where the sweetness is applied after the fact. Not so here: full bodied tea with a sweetness that can only come from sugar syrup boiled with the tea.

We started with the Red & White Fries, sweet potato and russet potato fries drizzled with white cheddar cheese and bacon. The fries were meaty and crispy on the outside. Then we sampled the Fried Green Tomato and Okra dish. Normally, I stay away from okra and its slimy feel when cooked but coated with a crumb breading and deep fried, it was a delectable mouth popper. The tomato was done to perfection with the sourness tempered by the tang of buttermilk and fried in a crispy cornmeal coating.

The Stephanie salad is a heaping concoction of ham, roasted sweet potatoes, white cheddar, and tomatoes on baby greens. It was a meal made for two.

Ma's Meatloaf featured two large wedges of a flavorful meat mixed with a good balance of spices and fillings. I would not be surprised if a sweet potato puree found itself in the dish. Sitting on a bed of mashed potatoes and topped with crispy onion strings, it would put any roadside diner meatloaf to shame.

The Pork Chop dish had two heft sized boneless chops sitting on a sweet potato cornbread dressing with the combination drizzled with sweet apple brandy gravy. The pork chops were moist and the dressing was superb with a good mix of textures and flavors but the gravy was a bit too gelatinous and did not added much to the dish. Roasted potatoes available as a side would have been also be a good choice.

There are numerous sides of a distinctly Southern bent available to order such as grits, fried okra, and candied sweet potatoes.

So if you need to reestablish your southern bona fides with regional cooking, Sweet Potatoes in Winston should be your first choice.    [16 Oct 2005 13:55:30]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: Fried Green Tomatoes, Pork Chops

     ­Brian Leon   brianle at brianleon dot com

Wonderful
A very small place with a great atmosphere, and eclectic food, on Trade street in the Art district. Treat yourself.    [13 Aug 2006 14:45:04]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: Sweet potatoe fries

     ­Clarke