Sweet T wrote:Read up post we serve chicken on Sundays at brunch and by special reservation. This is true, but I just wanted to update that by letting you know we'll be serving fried chicken every Wednesday night too! Sorry if this is a shill, but I just wanted to clarify our schedule.

Cary Taylor
Executive Chef
The Southern

Cary,

Not a shill in the least, that is where a person affiliated with an establishment posts about the place without mentioning they are affiliated. Your info is relevant, timely and has me thinking about visiting The Southern Wednesday for fried chicken.

Enjoy,
Gary

i would love to try that fried chicken on wed.
that is a great idea

went for the fried chicken feast
it was outstanding. hush puppies,cornbread,johnny cakes,
ect. i had the swamp pot frog legs,amber jack ,shrimp.
great meal , antoinette had the chicken
great that sven came out from fair oaks farm

G Wiv wrote:thinking about visiting The Southern Wednesday for fried chicken.

Went with a group last Wednesday with an eye on fried chicken, though our group was large enough we sampled a fairly wide spectrum of the menu.

Southern Mess is a sleeper, I like crisp and cheese/gravy on fries are a deal killer, the Mess somehow manages hot and crisp with curds lending cheesy tang and tasso a salty pork edge.

Southern Mess, hand-cut fries, tasso ham, cheese curds



Speaking of fried, both The Southerns hand cut and sweet potato fries are terrific, I'd rank the hand cut in the Chicagoland top ten.

Hand Cut Fries



Mac and Cheese was well received, bread crumb topping lent textural contrast, though I prefer baked style to creamy.

Mac and Cheese



Hush Puppies are a solid winner, greaseless, moist, light crunch with accompanying roasted artichoke/smoked trout/scallion dip.

Hush Puppies, 8 to an order



Fried Green Tomatoes were a miss, though I was the only one at the table who thought as much. Loved the red pepper sauce, goat cheese and especially the cubes of watermelon, but the green tomatoes were cut too thick and did not achieve the melty soft tremble I associate with best of the style.

Fried Green Tomatoes



Collard Greens w/bacon, tender with a slight bitter note, dash of Franks hot sauce to round out flavor, they would have made a Southern grandmother smile.

Collard Greens w/bacon



Perfectly cooked shrimp, roasted red pepper and rich creamy grits. I am a plain grits kind of guy, but if guild the Lilly you must the butter cream cheese overdose at The Southern is the way to go.

Shrimp and Grits



Who doesn't love frog legs? Combine with amberjack, oyster and broth made with Shiner Bock and I know my entree next time I'm at The Southern.

Swamp Pot



Fried chicken, the reason we convened, moist, tender, slight buttermilk brine tang, generous portion, a full bone-in half chicken, with ham gravy and buttermilk biscuit. My one critique of the fried chicken - the crust is too hard - casing as opposed to crust. Deliciously seasoned, and I am all about crisp and crunch, but fried chicken should not require a ball-peen hammer to break through the crust.

Fried Chicken w/ham gravy



Portions, as mentioned, were generous and leftover fried chicken and black eyed peas made for lovely lunch but the carapace like crust drops The Southerns fried chicken out of the running for top ten in Chicagoland.

Equal parts bar/restaurant service for our energetic group was polite, professional, seamless with Chef Cary Taylor coming out to check on our group during the course of the meal. The Southern has a strong cocktail program though I focused on the Wednesday special, Old Granddad shots for $3.

All in all an enjoyable evening, full length windows open to gentle breeze, convivial conversion and strong drink making for an all-around experience that brings a smile even given a weeks span.

Enjoy,
Gary

great pics gary

Oh yum, I could go for some of those hush puppies. When I was little, my dad used to tell me that hush puppies were made out of real puppies, so he could eat mine. I need to head to The Southern to make up for my many years of missed hush puppies.

There has not ever been a crab cake better than the one I had yesterday at The Southern. Almost entirely crab meat - fresh tasting and deftly seasoned, bound just enough to get a beautiful, crisp exterior. With a soft egg yolk oozing over the top, this brunch menu item was simply gorgeous. Brunch also included fresh, hot biscuits with a crumbly texture and buttery aroma that could be smelled all the way across the shady patio. Slathered with more butter and a scant drizzle of honey, the biscuits alone make The Southern a worthy destination. Add in my favorite of our city's versions of shrimp and grits, and if The Southern stopped begging the twittersphere to check in on foursquare before downing cheap shots of SoCo, it just might become my favorite restaurant in town.

I hope the lack of posts here doesn't mean that few people are trying The Southern. My wife and I had a great dinner there last night. We shared the hush puppies, a braised rabbit over a biscuit, fried oysters, and the crab cakes. Everything was excellent, but the star was the braised rabbit. This is actually an appetizer but is large enough to be a really nice meal. I had a really amazing bacon Manhattan, which is bacon-infused bourbon, maple syrup, garnished with bacon. This isn't a gimmicky drink and tasted far more complex that you'd guess based on the short ingredient list.

Darren72 wrote:I hope the lack of posts here doesn't mean that few people are trying The Southern...

I had couple of dishes here last week -- during my first-ever visit -- when I was meeting a friend for drinks. We shared the Southern Mess, a very tasty take on poutine, which featured house-made tasso gravy. We also had the fried chicken (might be a Wednesday special), which was very, very good. It was served with an ethereal biscuit and some delicious gravy. My only quibble was that it was served atop the gravy, so the skin of the moist, flavorful chicken lost a touch of its exterior crispiness where it made contact with the gravy. Still, these were a couple of very successful dishes. I had a cocktail, an Old Yeller, which was comprised of Old Overholt, Pear liqueur, Maple Syrup and Lime Juice. I was worried that it might be too sweet, but it was made extremely well and came off with perfect balance. It's not a neighborhood I frequent but I'd definitely go back to try some more of the menu, which looked really interesting.

=R=

My wife had the Old Yeller and really enjoyed it.

Just a bump to re-affirm how good this place is. You'd think with so many positive comments the thread would be a lot longer than 2 pages, and it would not have taken me a bit to dig it up.

Really, this place reminds me of Carnivale, where some might have wanted to dismiss it for various reasons, but if you actually go there, you have no reason not to be fully smitten.

Vital Information wrote:Just a bump to re-affirm how good this place is. You'd think with so many positive comments the thread would be a lot longer than 2 pages, and it would not have taken me a bit to dig it up.

Really, this place reminds me of Carnivale, where some might have wanted to dismiss it for various reasons, but if you actually go there, you have no reason not to be fully smitten.

I think the comparison of The Southern to Carnivale makes sense, except that I would go farther and say that at least Carnivale creates an atmosphere that reminds you you're at a restaurant. If you dine upstairs at the Southern, you will be seated in view of the huge projection television above the bar. And the whole vibe of the place leaves me thinking that The Southern itself views itself as a bar that just happens to serve some pretty damn good food. And I've been to cutlery-free bbq joints where they don't push you in and out like they did last night at The Southern. Dinner for 4 in 40 minutes? The battle of restaurant vs. bar also takes place a bit on the menu, where there's no traditional breakdown of appetizers and entrees. Rather, there are smaller and larger dishes on the dinner menu, and also items to share. If you're trying to plan a three-course meal with the traditional appetizer, entree and dessert, you will have some difficulty (menu pricing itself will not be helpful).

Anyway, I'll come back to all of this, but let's talk about the food, which generally impressed me. Yes, the hushpuppies were feathery light, hot and grease-less, but it was the accompanying smoked trout-artichoke spread that elevated these pups - outstanding. I thought the mac and cheese with the smoked cheddar sauce was tasty, and I also enjoyed the creaminess of the cheese and the pasta that retained some texture.

The skillet cornbread is of the drier variety, and served with both honey and butter. The flavor and texture were right on the money, but it was a little disappointing that it was not served in the skillet, and by the time it reached the table it was barely warm, and not warm enough to melt butter. Collard greens were also tasty, but not really spicy as billed. I had only a brief taste of the gumbo but enjoyed it. Even better (albeit based upon a small taste) was the braised chicken and biscuit. I ordered the crawfish pistolletes - crawfish tails and etoufee nestled in two vertically plated french bread pieces. It was just decent - pretty good flavor in the crawfish and etoufee, but a little dry and lukewarm, and the soft, plain and totally average french bread pieces really had no business being on the plate.

So all of the above (plus two rounds of cocktails) was ordered, delivered and eaten in 40 minutes (we did linger for a bit after). Food arrived very quickly (second courses delivered immediately after first course plates removed), and at times was pulled away too quickly. "Are you done with that?" as my plate has already been touched and partially lifted. "Uhhh ... yes" I said, wondering what happens when I tell him to put it back down. "Are you done with the collard greens?" Us: "Uhhh ... yes," and at the same time wondering how we'd eat it without plates and cutlery which had been removed. Had we not been drinking, I could have understood at least from a business standpoint what was going on. But for a Friday night dinner, I just don't think there should be that big a rush to move a table out. Coincidentally, we ran into friends who were seated nearby at the very same time as us, and they voiced similar concerns, but observed that it appeared we were being moved just a bit faster than them.

All of this being said, and having eaten Chef Taylor's food on multiple occasions and knowing that there's no question he can deliver, I will almost certainly return to the Southern to try more of the menu, but I will either do so for brunch where I don't care so much how long the meal lingers, or for a weekday dinner (probably Wednesday when I can try the fried chicken). Also, those are times when I expect that the bar-first mentality will not be as readily apparent (as opposed to a Friday night). In many ways, I was reminded of meals at both Carnivale and Lockwood where you could tell that there were great chefs at work, but something outside of their control was holding them back. Well, Chef Mendez is now at Vera, and Chef Foss is now at El Ideas.

Vital Information wrote:Just a bump to re-affirm how good this place is. You'd think with so many positive comments the thread would be a lot longer than 2 pages, and it would not have taken me a bit to dig it up.

Though I would like to say my first experience at The Southern was a home-run, I felt a bit underwhelmed. I chalk this up more to visiting a bar on St. Patrick's Day than their food being off.



Attempting to catch up with the rest of The Southern's patrons, we ordered a few alcoholic drinks
Bloody Mary

I like my Bloody Mary's a bit...chunkier? This was quite smooth.

Maple Bacon Manhattan house infused Jim Beam Bacon Bourbon, maple syrup, North Country smoked bacon


Aunt Bee's Sweet Tea Rishi Organic Tea infused bourbon, topped with lemonade


We then placed our food order

Skillet Cornbread

Though I would love to say The Southern's cornbread was the best I've ever had, I found it rather dry and bland. Not even a drizzle of honey was able to save this.

Main courses, I ordered their:
Piggly Wiggly Berkshire pork chop, brined and grilled, bbq sauce, asparagus, rainbow chard

Meat was a bit tough, but the flavor combinations were great.

Dana ordered the
Crab Cakes blue crab meat, dijon aioli, petite salad, gala apple

I only had two bites, but the crab cakes tasted a bit too mayo-heavy for my liking.

our side of Hand Cut Fries however were crispy, salty and delicious.


Though we were quite underwhelmed by our meal, we have to take in account that we were at a bar on one of the biggest drinking holidays of the year. I look forward to visiting The Southern again when their focus is more on their food rather than their alcoholic beverages.

We met up with old friends and family for a short-notice dinner for six at The Southern last night. I'd never really heard of the place, but the meal was excellent.

First, a negative: our party was seated in the back, where it was all but pitch black. iPhone flashlights were a necessity for reading the menu. We had some folks over the age of 50 in the group, and they looked at us like we'd lost our minds going there.

But the food made up for the cavernous ambience. The fried chicken was a hit, as was the nashville hot sandwich. A huge piece of dark meat chicken, fried crisp and tossed in a sweet-hot hot sauce. It's not as good as Analogue's (mostly because the pickles weren't up to snuff), which is just about perfect, but it's a lot bigger, and was a quite satisfying meal with a side of the excellent collard greens. Folks in our group also had good things to say about the shrimp and grits, which I didn't get to try.

All this to say, we were quite pleased with our meal, and would happily go back.