Our 2nd night here in the deep South was a much improved dinner at the truly wonderful Alligator Soul.
We were all expecting something funky and weird and as we went down the steps to the restaurant we were very surprised to see a beautiful cavernous room of brick with ceiling fans and white linens. The manager Rashad greeted us and asked us if there was anything we needed to please come ask him, and our server Misha was more than generous with his time, explanations and help.Southern hospitality abounds here in every venue!
Will ordered a Constellation made from Prairie Orange vodka, Stirrings organic pomegranate, Grapefruit bitters and lemon juice with lemon twist, while I chose the Hilbo's Bloody Mary made from Crop organic tomato vodka with Hilbo's spiced stewed tomato puree, blue cheese stuffed peppadew pepper and habanero pimento cheese stuffed olives...what a trip. But the spicy rim on the drink only made it 20 times better.
An ok amuse arrived in the form of a lentil spinach curry soup in in odd ceramic spoon with little spoons to eat it, luckily this was not a preview of the fabulous spicy and tasty food to follow.
Samuel started with fried green tomatoes with a superb spicy remoulade, while Will chose the Alligator Fritters which were served with Savannah river farms pork belly, Trinity mirepoix, panko and Cajun lemon caper remoulade as well as a green tomato Chow Chow.
My Oysters a la Soul were gorgeous plump Chesapeake Bay Oysters grilled with Savannah River Farms bacon, Louisiana crawfish, Trinity mirepoix and scallions in a creamy Hilbo spiced roux topped with parmesan bread crumbs. If this weren't enough to make me thrilled and want to come back again and again for this dish, there was a blow your mind Habanero jelly that you could dapple on top of each oyster!!
Misha suggested a beautiful bottle of Martin Codex 2016 Alberino from Rioja, which was perfect with all the spicy food.
There was only one vegetarian main course but it was a beautiful preparation of 3 items including a stuffed acorn squash with quinoa, a spinach salad and a tomato bisque, even if Samuel only wanted the quinoa. Will chose the rich shrimp and grits with Georgia wild shrimp. lemon butter and Creole spices with Freeman's mill stone ground Georgia grits creamed with aged cheddar cheese.
My main course was called Gumbo's Back Baby which consisted of wild Georgia shrimp, Littleneck clams, Prince Edward Island mussels, tons of sweet Louisiana crawfish, grilled Andouille sausage, the Trinity mirepoix and okra in a dark Cajun roux with Carolina gold rice that was very reminiscent of an etoufee and was everything anyone could ask for. Indeed being in the South the main courses were huge and we had to forgo dessert because we knew there were some rich fudgy chocolate brownies in our hotel room with a bottle of red wine where we are right now enjoyed them...
