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Chow down with John Batchelor at Sweet Potatoes

BY JOHN BATCHELOR

Stephanie Tyson opened Sweet Potatoes with partner and floor manager Vivian Joiner in 2003. This spring, Chef Tyson was nominated for Best Chef in the Southeast in the prestigious James Beard Awards. She credits her grandmother’s influence as very important in developing early interests that eventually led to a career. She attended Baltimore International Culinary College and graduated on the Dean’s List.

The concept centers on southern styles, professionally executed. Located in Winston-Salem’s arts district, the restaurant’s entry leads to a long bar along the right, bare table seating inside, and a pleasant, shaded patio outdoors. Interior décor reinforces the southern theme, with prints illustrating jazz.

Servers are southern-gracious-friendly, deliveries prompt.

You absolutely should not miss the Fried Green Tomato and Okra Basket starter. Breaded and fried okra joins tart sliced green tomatoes, crisp, hot, and delicious. I’ve never had better. Fried Pork Rind Basket is classic Deep South- think extremely light potato chips that taste like bacon. Everybody at our table loved them. These come with “Mambo sauce,” kind of a sweetish barbecue sauce.

You actually taste the greens in Collard Green Dip, although the flavor of melted Blue cheese is a little stronger, albeit well balanced. Crumbled bacon rounds out the flavor profile. The serving is surrounded by crackers, and they work fine, but I actually liked combining the dip with pork rinds even better!

Several sandwiches, burgers, and salads provide the more casual section of the menu. We tried the Camel City Barbecue Chicken sandwich, a complex assembly of breast meat, smoky housemade barbecue sauce, smoked provolone cheese, fresh-cooked bacon, and crisp tobacco onions, hosted on a brioche bun. It’s a winner.

A Southern-themed restaurant must serve first-class fried chicken, and Sweet Potatoes wins solid points on this criterion.

Their chicken is pan-fried in fatback. It’s tender and moist, served steaming hot, with nary a drop of grease in evidence. But the flavor of the fatback sure comes through. That’s a compliment!

Miss O’s Fish Plate features flounder, fried, plus French fries, creamy coleslaw, and a sweet potato muffin. The fish has a pleasantly crisp exterior, giving way to a puffy-tender white interior. A lot of places use a cheaper fish on fried platters. Kudos to this kitchen for sticking to quality. And those muffins are worth a special trip in their own right.

My serving of Salmon Florentine used two slices of salmon, a little on the thin side, lightly blackened, just a bit dry, but still fully flavorful, plus two tender shrimp perched on top. This rests on fresh spinach, all assembled over a slice of toasted sweet potato cornbread ladled with a warm mushroom vinaigrette, interspersed with fresh mushroom slices.

BBQ Shrimp and Grits earned the highest praise of our visits. “I don’t like grits,” remarked unindicted co-conspirator Tracy, “but I like these!” They are prepared with cream, among the richest I have tasted. Jumbo shrimp are sautéed tender, covered with homemade sweetish barbecue jus, blended with Jack Daniels infused butter and cheese.

FRIED CHICKEN

FISH PLATE CAMEL CITY BBQ CHICKEN