It is not usually the business of Areté to provide restaurant reviews, but today is an exception since several folks have asked me about this place. I’ve been driving by Abundant Bistro Café Soul Food* on University every so often for months now, and finally stopped in today for catfish, hushpuppies, collard greens, and sweet potato pie. It was everything I hoped for and a little more — serious hard-core Southern food. It was easily one of the best meals I’ve had since moving to The Land of Blandness a year ago.

I’ll definitely go back for the smothered chicken or the fried okra or rice and gravy or blackeyed peas or baked macaroni and cheese, none of which I tried. The cornbread isn't skillet made, but it’s still worth the trip. The collards are fresh and cooked down with neck bones and the sweet potato pie was the best. ever. And yes, Clancy, they do a full bore breakfast menu until 11:30: eggs, ham, bacon, grits, fried potatoes, pancakes, two kinds of home fries, and Lord knows what-all else. Several kinds of tea, several kinds of coffee. The list takes up half of the truly massive blackboard behind the bar. They also offer a variety of gyros, salads, and burgers, so one can likely take soul-food-phobic friends there as well.

If you want serious swamp or low country food, this isn't the place to go. (I don’t think there is any place to go for that up here, but Dixie’s on Grand does a reasonable facsimile*.) There’s no gumbo, etoufees, or po boys on the menu. Nothing that involves crawdads, shrimp, oysters or crabs, a decision I have no problem with considering our geographical location. There’s also no soul food that would be construed as scary, meaning no chitlins or pickled eggs. Being from a generation of Southerners who came up eating farm-raised catfish, the catish was a little too muddy for me. But that’s not necessarily such a bad thing; one just has to be prepared. One should also be prepared for the sort of service one usually gets close to the Gulf, meaning s-l-o-w. There’s one woman working the front of the house and two in the back. Since the dining room only has about six tables this isn’t too impractical, but it does slow things down considerably. It’s not a place to grab a quick bite.

It is, however, a wonderful place to sit a spell with a book or a companion and eat some fine homemade food by women who know what they’re doing. I’m going back and taking Mister Boyfriend with me soon.

*Bistro Café is a redundancy I can forgive.
**Dixie’s tries very hard, but they think that gumbo should come with two sides and that blackeyed peas need a sprightly fresh tomato garnish. It’s the Minnesota boho interpretation of Southern food. They do a wonderful catfish appetizer, though.