The Grumpy Chicken

Well alrighty then. Brand new restaurant, opened three weeks ago. The menu’s pretty limited, but I’ve tried a few things, and what I’ve tried is good. Fried chicken, catfish, and shrimp dominate the menu, with some interesting add-​ons like Mississippi Delta hot tamales and smoked pork belly with maple gravy for appetizers.
I went for buffalo wings, just because I haven’t had ‘em for a long time and I got a craving. They were your basic naked rolled in wing sauce buffalo wings with blue cheese dressing. Solid. I ordered a side of baked beans (the wings come on their own), and those were good as well. Usually I’m a little irked when the beans taste like they came from a can, but that’s usually when it tastes like somebody just heated it up right from the can. These taste like they started in a can, but they got dressed up a bit, with good results.
I also got a fried drumstick (they don’t come one at a time on the menu, but I asked if they could sell me just one so I could try it), and it was also quite good. Not cayenne-​heavy like lots of places around here. More like what you find throughout the South, classic, crispy, lots of black pepper, very good flavor. Made me want biscuits and gravy, but darnit, they don’t have that.
My wife ordered the catfish basket. The catfish was fresh, breaded in lightly seasoned corn meal, and was quite good. Very similar to what I make at home with Zatarain’s Seasoned Fish-​Fri, but maybe with a tad more seasoning. She asked for tartar sauce and comeback sauce with it. The comeback sauce was basic, and in this case that’s a good thing. I had a bad experience with comeback sauce over at The Dock over in Gulfport; this stuff, well, I don’t know if I’d precisely come back just for the sauce, but the fish kept going back into it, so that’s good enough.
This is really a home-​cooking joint here. Comfort food. There’s nothing fancy, it’s just good, fresh, tried and true recipes, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
I only had one quibble: the fry oil the french fries were cooked in needed changing. I really don’t like that old fry oil flavor, and it was there in the french fries. Everything else was good.
I told the server they need oysters. There are oysters in the water all around here, they’re cooking catfish and shrimp, why no oysters? Come on, guys, get some oysters on that menu!
The place took over what used to be a sort of diner, so there’s some of that atmosphere in the main room. They call themselves a «fried chicken and blues revue,» but so far the blues revue part means they play blues on the sound system. Or so I was told. When I was there, it was old American folk. I heard two different versions of Man of Constant Sorrow (neither of which came from O Brother Where are Thou) while I was there.
I asked the server if they were going to start having bands, and his response amounted to «I hope so.» Me too. I might have to put together a blues band just so I can play there. Anybody wanna start a blues band? We can score some free fried chicken. Maybe four whole fried chickens. And a Coke. That’s a reference. If you don’t get it, get yourself educated. That is all.