Eating grits at Stone Park Cafe
Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy. Wait, not really... but I did recently discover the song Tik Tok and it's deliriously addicting for someone without musical taste like me. But really, what you want to feel in the morning is not like Diddy, but like his son. You know, so you can have a Maybach. Usually when I wake up in the morning on the weekend, I prefer to act like a hibernating bear. Although sometimes I can be pried out of bed by the thought of brunch. Pancakes and waffles are great. What really gets my attention is grits. As a person who used to live below the Mason-Dixie, and who never ate grits until coming to New York, for some reason I really love this shit.
After spending my formative years in the South, I came up to New York and got into this food blogging scene. I realized that I wasn't versed in any type of Southern Cuisine whatsoever. No grits. No BBQ. No meat-n-threes. But after trying this thing called 'grits' or if you prefer, cornmeal, I discovered that it's pretty doggone delicious. It kind of reminds me of congee in a way. The consistency is really similar and it can be eaten as a savory, warm breakfast food. To put a Park Slope angle on it, we'll slap a $14 price tag for a tiny bowl. Fork in the Road recently visited Stone Park Cafe and found their food to be appealing. I agree, the food here is delicious and accessible. By accessible, I mean in terms of taste, not necessarily in terms of price. After all, how much should cornmeal cost with three little shrimps? I'm not sure. It was a delicious bowl that made me wish for a Goldman Sach's bonus.
My Polaris was at brunch with me, and her north star for brunch is usually pancakes. Stone Park Cafe does this pretty well. You get three moon-sized pancakes for $12. This price is par for the course in the Slope, and it doesn't hurt that the pancakes are delicious. It comes with some syrup and a little thing of blueberry sauce that's really a great addition. Steph felt sorry for me that my plate was so small and maybe next time I'll just order the pancakes too.
With 16-year-olds getting crazy cars, me falling in love with Southern food after moving out of the south, a Republican senator getting elected in a generally liberal state, and well-to-do cocksuckers wanting poor uninsured people to suffer through life, I feel like the apocalypse is imminent. For further evidence, I present an economics rap song an old ESPN college basketball analyst dancing. Oh last but not least, a little shameless self promotion.
Stone Park Cafe
324 5th Avenue.
Brooklyn, NY 11215
718-369-0082
@Kim,
Actually I haven't had Clinton St. yet. The line is always ridiculous and I'm line-phobic...
@FN,
Well BBQ and Crabs do sound a lot better than grits. But when you add cheese, gravy, sausage, and shrimp, it stops being just grits. I'm down with that.
@allix, @ang
Thank you!
Danny
January 31, 2010 10:24 pm
just read the blurb about your blog in the "10 Best NY Blogs" article in the Village Voice. congrats!
allix
January 28, 2010 5:13 pm
congrats on the VV feature!
ang
January 29, 2010 11:04 pm
Reading an earlier post you made re: Sierra Mist, just wanted to share that I, too, prefer and am in constant search of the sharp, almost-until-it-hurts, fizzy heaven of carbonation in my sodas, but also want to avoid the ole' HFCS, as you say. Found the solution to this dilemma at the Brooklyn Trader Joe's in Hansen's Natural Cane Soda, the virtues of which include supreme & extreme bubbly-ness, especially when ice-cold, and good flavor(I'd avoid the diet and am partial to the delicious pomegranate, but there's root beer and some other flavors, too)...all this, and in a 50-cent (including deposit) per can cost, to boot! Check it out & enjoy
anonymous
January 27, 2010 10:05 pm
@anon - i also buy TJ's Hansen soda. Love the root beer. Great for a root beer float too!
Those pancakes look great! On par with Clinton's Street's?
kim
January 28, 2010 8:11 am
One side of the family is from the South - Georgia and South Carolina. Every time I went down there to visit I ate a ton of barbecue and crabs. Avoided the grits unless someone forced me to eat em. Still don't like grits.
FN
January 28, 2010 8:49 am
@FN,
I thought I'd seen it all around here too. I lived in TN back in the day. Wait, your family is from Georgia?
Danny
January 27, 2010 8:45 pm
Wow, fourteen dollar grits! I thought I'd seen it all.... If I paid that my dead grandma would crawl outta her Georgia grave and smack me across the face.
Danny, where'd you live in the South?
FN
January 27, 2010 4:18 pm