Beans & Cornbread...

I don't usually blog about food, BUT when food takes me back down memory lane I must admit I need to go there. 

Somehow it seems family & food always end up getting tied together.  I think if you talk to most people their memories usually have food figured in, whether its holidays or other celebrations, food seems to always play a part.  Certain foods just seem to always evoke memories. 

Tonight on the way home Mark stopped at this little bistro.  We've driven by many times, always saying, "we need to make a stop there sometime", but somehow we never got around to it, at least not until today.

Today we stopped at "Beans & Cornbread - A Soulful Bistro".  All I can say is OMG!  Now I am thinking of all the great meals we've missed.  This fabulous place is located at 29508 Northwestern Highway, in Southfield.  This place brought back memories of my "grannie's" Georgia cooking.  Memories came flooding back as I tasted the hoppin john, cornbread and ribs.  Mark & each ordered the early bird special - I had salmon croquettes with a side salad & macaroni & cheese.  I was thrilled to see the tomatoes done the way I remember so many members of my family doing them!  Mark had ribtips bathed in an awesome BBQ sauce that tasted like it was right off the grill at a roadside stand in south Georgia!  He had the hoppin john and sweet potatoes.  My croquettes were awesome as well  If you order the early bird special you get dessert as well.  They were out of Sweet potato pie (what does that tell you?) so we had peach cobbler.  I think that was the best peach cobbler I've had in many years!

Part of the fun of enjoying dinner together was the ability to try what the other had. Boy was I glad.  Nothing in this place was bad...  I think one of the best things was the sweet potato muffins.  OMG!  They are so awesome.  The chef won't share the recipe, so I guess I'll have to just keep going back! 

Despite giving up caffeine I had to try the sweet tea.  Its not often you find a place here in the metro Detroit area that asks, "Would you like your tea sweet or unsweet?"  Of course I had to have the sweet, somehow things like hoppin john, sweet potatoes, bbq ribs just need a sweet tea to top it off.

At some point I had to ask our server, Darien, if she had my granny in the backroom somewhere.  She laughed and said no. 

Visiting Beans & Cornbread brought back memories of granny - memories of a more gentle time, time with cousins, aunts & uncles, all gathered around granny's table, surrounded by all her "pretties" & photo's of all her family, times of laughter and fun, crawdads down at the crick, eating tomatoes with a salt shaker out by the ditch... 

I can't say that going to Beans & Cornbread will do all those things for you, but I must say it will fill you up and make you glad you stopped in for a visit! 

What about you?  Have you found a place like Beans & Cornbread that brings back childhood memories for you? 

Happy Researching!
Karen
** Ironically after arriving home we talked with a tax client dropping off a return.  She said she had to hurry, she had called in a take order to BEANS & CORNBREAD!   Amazing!