Chicago's best soul food?

Some time ago I had the pleasure of running the beefathons, an enjoyable series of outings to sample and rate the best Italian Beefs this city (and probably the world) has to offer.

It has been fun to tag along on a series of barbecue tastings organized by others, and some of the -athons, focusing on specific streets and neighborhoods. I even got to tag along on one of Hammond's outings to Maxwell Street (finally - my weekends are usually pretty busy). Each of these things were fun, stimulated some good conversation and usually exposed one or more deserving places that had not previously been on the LTHForum radar.

For a while people asked me how I planned to follow up the Beefathons. I cast around for ideas, and even helped to organize a few west suburban taqueria crawls (enjoyable, but the tacos were not that great for the most part). Nothing excited me.

Recent discussion about Priscilla's, as well as a trip to Savannah have inspired me to take on a new project. It is driven by a few questions.

Is Priscilla's really a great soul food place in Chicago terms, or is it just benefiting from a fortuitous location? To be blunt, is it really good, or just the best that can be found in a (mostly) white suburb? If it is not really good, and I think there are good reasons to think Priscilla's is only great if you have a hankering for that type of food and it is the only available option, then are there really any great soul food places in Chicago at all?

I believe there are, and I aim to find and taste as many of them as possible. To do so, I need a little help.

Anyone have any places they think I absolutely must consider and sample in this search? Please help me generate a list.

Anyone want to join me on my trek, and sample these places? If so, please let me know.

I am not completely certain of the process, but I think we will be limited in how many places we can visit in a day - no more than three I think, because of the nature of the food. Then we probably want to sample a set group of standards (fried chicken, greens, lemon cake, and ???) plus one or two bonus items at each place that look good. One order, shared between three or four people.

In addition to creating a good list of the high quality soul food places I know are out there, I also think this will create great opportunities to find other places in neighborhoods that are not as well covered as they should be. If all else fails, I will just head to Uncle John's, grab some ribs and ask Mac where he thinks I should go next.

So what do you think? If I get enough good leads in response to them, I will work through them on my own regardless of whether anyone wants to join in, but I would love to have some company as well as some additional taste buds to help out.

If the test of time = greatness then Army & Lou's deserves a looksee on your journey.

Army and Lou's Restaurant
422 E. 75th St.
Chicago, IL 60619
773-483-3100
http://www.armyandlous.com/

I'm there when you are ready, schedule permitting. I cannot vouch for all of these, but here's a list of the obvious well known's to get you started. I know there's more. I'm pretty sure Rene G did an extensive post several years ago. Alos agree with Army and Lou's..nice place.

MacArthur's
5412 W Madison St.
Phone: (773) 261-2316

Edna's Restaurant
(773) 638-7079
3175 W Madison St

Queen of the Sea
(773) 723-5520
8154 S Cottage Grove Ave

BJ's Market
(773) 445-3400
9645 S Western Ave, Chicago, IL
and
773) 374-4700
8734 S Stony Island Ave,

Boo's Soul Food Cafe
8414 S. Ashland Ave
(773) 298-9997

Soul Queen
(773) 731-3366
9031 S Stony Island Ave


and out west in the burbs...
Brothers Soul Food
(847) 289-5201
970 Dundee Ave
Elgin, IL

dicksond wrote: Then we probably want to sample a set group of standards (fried chicken, greens, lemon cake, and ???) plus one or two bonus items at each place that look good. One order, shared between three or four people.

I'd love to try and be a part of this.

Suggestions for standards to sample:

Smothered something (pork chops or chicken)

Cornbread - not that sweet stuff in the little blue box, either!

Macaroni and cheese

Candied yams

There should be a good chance that a sf joint would have real homemade biscuits as well.

Chitlins. I would volunteer to be the group's chitlin taster. No issue for me - assuming any REAL sf joint has grays. Army and Lou's has 'em.

Black eyed peas (or whatever legume they have on offer - again, any sf joint should always have a pot o' beans on offer.)

Although lemon cake is ok, I'd consider cobbler to be more of a standard. That just might be me tho.

Good ideas. The list of standard dishes to try was pretty much off the top of my head, and not meant to be anything like definitive - which is my way of saying I like your list better seebee.

Thanks for your list, Tony. I assume that for both of you Saturdays will work best? I could do a weekday afternoon (starting at 11 or so), but I know that is more difficult for most people.

I only had breakfast there so I can't tell you too much about it (loved the bone-in ham I had) but you might want to add:

Helen's Restaurant
1732 E. 79th St.
Chicago

electric mullet wrote:I'm pretty sure Rene G did an extensive post several years ago. Alos agree with Army and Lou's..nice place.

I PM'ed Renee, but meanwhile here are a few posts on places we might consider.

Queen of the Sea
BJ's Market & Soul Queen
Collard Greens search
Daley's & some other places
Edna's
Some places listed by Rene

If anyone has good links to any other posts, please feel free to add them.

Hi,

I am adding more to the list of known soulfood restaurants rather than qualifying them:

Lake County Soulfood - Note Aunt Obie's has closed.

Following the Peach cobbler trail:
Pearl's Place
Miss Lee's Good Food
MacArthur's

Mississippi: Johnson's Soul Food., Ashland and 83d (reported more on Chowhound)

Izola's Family Dining

Cathy's Ultimate Soulfood Diner

West of Lem's is a vegetarian soulfood diner.

Brown Sugar Bakery, across from Lem's, has Caramel Cake, Red Velvet Cake, Sweet Potato Pie to name a few southern desserts.

Regards,

dicksond wrote:Thanks for your list, Tony. I assume that for both of you Saturdays will work best? I could do a weekday afternoon (starting at 11 or so), but I know that is more difficult for most people.

For important research like this, which is necessary to ensure the advancement of the human race, I could be coaxed into taking a well deserved day off of work.

(Wow. If my boss ever knew I would essentially take a day off of work to eat pig parts and cobbler all day.)

Wait, there's nothing wrong with that!!!

seebee wrote:

dicksond wrote:Thanks for your list, Tony. I assume that for both of you Saturdays will work best? I could do a weekday afternoon (starting at 11 or so), but I know that is more difficult for most people.

For important research like this, which is necessary to ensure the advancement of the human race, I could be coaxed into taking a well deserved day off of work.

(Wow. If my boss ever knew I would essentially take a day off of work to eat pig parts and cobbler all day.)

Wait, there's nothing wrong with that!!!

You have your priorities right. Mankind can only thank you.

Regards,

Yup, don't forget the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem in Chicago:

http://www.kingdomofyah.com/Soul%20Vege ... dwide.html

(Soul Vegetarian East)

West of Lem's is a vegetarian soulfood diner.

Thanks for mentioning it, Cathy. It's good, but perhaps not apples:apples (chitterlings:chitterlings?) for a 'thon.

If I'm free on any of the days you pursue this, I'd very much be interested going with you.

It occurs to me that we could ask Donna Pierce when we (those going to the Midwest Foodways symposium) see her on April 5. Since she speaks on the African diaspora and the influence of the Great Migration on Chicago culinary history, she might be a good resource for coming up with places we might not know about.

Hi,

Is this intended as an -athon? If yes, then April 5th is Greater Midwest's Symposium on Midwestern desserts. I have free every Saturday until the last one in April, when I host the founder's sons of Cock Robin and Prince Castle. Of course, if it conflicts, then so be it. I can go on my own sometime.

Regards,

The March 6, 2008 Reader has a list of soul food restaurants which would be a very good place to start. In that same issue Mike Sula profiles Johnson's/Turner's in both a column and video. If you're only going to try one dish at one restaurant, Murilee Johnson's chicken and dumplings would be the way to go. I've been eating at quite a few soul food places recently and will try to post more soon.



Turner’s Family Restaurant
(also known as Johnson's Soul Food)
8233 S Ashland Av
Chicago
773-488-5700

Hi,

I've been to Mrs. Johnson's only twice, but each time it was the Chicken and Dumplings. As I recall, and your pictures reflect, they were cut into wide ribbons. Wonderful stuff.

Regards,

In addition to Mrs. Johnson's, you'll definitely want to try Morrison's just down the block. It is also very good.

On the west side, I once developed an affinity for Ailce's at 5638 W. Chicago. It is more Carolina style than Mississipi style cooking noted by the service of string beand and white potates served together in one dish. It's a bustling after church kind of place.

And, of course, there is the recently mentioned Cathy''s Ultimate on West Chicago, too.

I really miss my old friend OT and his incredible pinto beans and wings that he once served from his Division Street location.

HI,

Almost forgot about OT's, which closed for remodeling and never reopened. What is it about remodeling that finishes off so many places?

Regards,

This does indeed sound like a tempting project. I would say you should have some standards (yes to friend chicken and greens) but also have some flexibility to order another specialty of the house. There's not going to be any way to come up with a nice numerical ranking along the lines of the beef-a-thon, but I think we could still come up with some useful comparisons and some rough ranking along the lines of poor, fair, good, excellent, or good, better, best.

The two places that are at the top of my Soul Food list are Pearl's and Izola's. You can count me in if either or both of those are included in the itinerary. I'm wondering if this athon could be accomplished in a day or, like the beefathons, it would have to be divided up into several outings. I don't think that there are nearly the number of places worth considering as there were for the beefathons, but the volume of food that would have to be consumed at each place is higher than the beefathons, so fewer places can be visited in a day.

I don't think that the inclusion or exclusion of a particular item (i.e., Chitterlings) should be the standard of whether the place is soul food. in fact, you are seeing a lot of soul food places nationwide excluding pork products. Many cooks are using smoked turkey necks as a replacement for salt pork, fat back, or smoked neck bones.

I would like to come along *BUT* in April, I will be checking the southern cooking dives in Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas in early April and Southern Arkansas and Northern Louisiana later in the month.

yes, yes to the flexibility factor seems key! the few times I've been to MacArthur's, while I was swooning over and snarfing down my smothered pork chops, my two south side friends were tucking into the ox tails like nobody's business. "I can get smothered pork chops at my mother's anytime, but nobody beats these ox tails," my friend Denise told me.

heck, no matter what you all eat, I can't wait to hear about this! I have wanted to check out Boo's Kitchen since Rick Kogan did a profile on it about 10-12 years ago.

bjt

A few comments in reply to the above.

I will start a thread on events to schedule the first outing, trying to see if a Saturday can be found to suit the most passionate.

No, I do not think we will be able to absolutely rank the places as was done with the Beefathons. This, of necessity, will be more of a survey or a traditional LTH -athon in the sense that the goal is to go out, eat, evaluate and post in a more subjective manner. I suppose we could aim to see which one has the best fried chicken, biscuits or whatever, but that will end up being difficult because we are going to try them on different days with possibly weeks in between, so the comparisons.

But the end result might be a better list of soul food places and some useful comparisons - useful at least as the starting point of argument. I do expect it to take many outings to complete it and would not be at all surprised if it takes a year or more. Tough work, but I think we can do it.

JL I think you misunderstood - the idea of having "standard" dishes was just as a basis of comparison, not to decide whether a place really serves soul food. Anyway, I am not sure we will, or will want to be, that disciplined. Tell me more about this April project, please.

Will edit this to add the link to the event later today.

No offence taken.

Over the last twenty-five years, many southern cooks are moving away from a pork based existence. You don't automatically see pork in greens and the like as you might have seen a couple of generations ago (especially in the northern cities).

As for my trips, I am heading on two road trips to get away from work for a while. The next two places that I am gong to try out include Sweetie Pie's in St. Louis (W. Florissant in Dellwood, Manchester Rd. in the city) and a plate of ham and beans at the student-run College of the Ozarks, a few miles outside of Branson.

Enjoy!

I want to make a trip South to Soul Queen to try their Cobbler.

Does anyone know if they are still open? I have tried calling during the day to no avail. Nothing that I have read has indicated that they are closed, but it would not be a huge surprise.

Unfortunately, Soul Queen was closed and empty when I drove past this evening. It appears as if they have shut down operations and not recently.

Good thing that Old Fashioned Donuts was still open and there were 2 Apple Fritters with my name on them.

msmre wrote:I want to make a trip South to Soul Queen to try their Cobbler.

I'm curious why you settled on Soul Queen. I never tried their peach cobbler so I have no opinion on that. Army & Lou's serves a very good version with a particularly light and flaky crust.



If you just want some peach cobbler to go, Miss Lee's (takeout only) is a good choice. She also bakes a nice sweet potato cobbler.

Army & Lou's
422 E 75th St
Chicago
773-483-3100

Miss Lee's Good Food
203 E Garfield Blvd (55th St)
Chicago
773-752-5253

Rene,

Thanks for the tip. I was bringing the cobbler to a gathering and I had heard from a friend that Soul Queen whipped up a lovely pan of cobbler. Apparently given the dust in the place, that was months ago.

I will definitely try Army & Lou's, that cobbler looks great.

June is National Soul Food Month! You've got thirty days to explore all of the current variations of soul food--traditional, down home healthy, vegetarian, vegan and neo-soul.

Where can you get neo-soul? What is neo-soul?

Regards,

Have you seen anyone in Chicago practicing this:

"neo-soul" has several variants: 1) the same as "down home healthy"--making soul food healthy with ingredient substitutions and cooking method alterations; 2) deconstructing soul food by playing with its traditional forms, eg. "soul rolls" where seasoned black-eyed peas and rice are stuffed in a collard leaf; 3) the upscale "refinement" of soul food ingredients so that one can charge a lot of money, eg. using artisanal grits, heirloom meat and vegetables, adding lobster to mac n' cheese, etc. and 4) true fusion with other cuisines, eg. catfish tacos, jerk fried chicken.