When Black History Month started, NBC 5's Food Guy Steve Dolinsky took a closer look at a South Side barbecue tradition. With the month ending, he turns his attention to another Southern tradition: home cooking. And he says one restaurant in Hyde Park takes a deep dive into Southern traditions, while avoiding the usual soul food clichés.
He says the kitchen treats the dishes - passed down over the generations - with the respect they deserve. Steve Dolinsky has the story.
Sitting down to a meal at Virtue in Hyde Park – which has become an incubator for interpretations of Southern food traditions brought here during the Great Migration – is like sitting down to dinner at grandma’s (if she was from the American South).
“Things that maybe our mothers and grandmothers did when we were growing up and didn’t necessarily understand why, and now we’re using a lot of those same techniques and doing research on why they were cooking the way they were cooking,” said executive chef Damarr Brown.
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Chicken isn’t always fried. Neither is catfish, which gets blackened here.
“We think catfish has a really delicate, delicious flavor so we kind of wanted to highlight that and pair it with something like Carolina Gold rice…carrots and carrot puree that would nicely complement it,” he said.
Chef Erick Williams created the menu, but Brown is his day-to-day executive chef, collaborating on dishes.
The Food Guy
“Fire a gumbo split and a biscuit…”
Flavors from New Orleans appear in gumbo, as well as fried green tomatoes topped with a creamy-rich shrimp remoulade. Instead of smothering pork chops or short ribs with thick gravies, they take a different approach to their short rib, which starts with glorious mashed potatoes housing a pool of creamed spinach.
“Then there’s a caramelized onion gravy, which most meat-and-potatoes are served with some sort of gravy. We take our time and cook it for several hours at a very low temperature. We check on it, we baby it,” said Brown.
Even carrot cake gets a revamp with crispy ginger and caramel sauce.
“Try to take a few twists and turns, where it might be a little more interesting, but it’s still very recognizable to the classic,” he said
There’s also a great bar, separate from the dining room, if you want to have a drink and a snack.
Here's where you can go:
1462 E. 53rd St.
773-947-8831
