Southern restaurants feature such fried meat entrees as Southern fried chicken or catfish, with buttermilk or cornmeal often times serving as the batter. Side dishes typically include such fare as collard greens, candied yams and mac and cheese or bread items like corn bread, muffins or biscuits with gravy.
Barbecue remains another common Southern dish, including pork or beef ribs covered in sweet or tangy barbecue sauce. Southern Living Magazine named Lexington Barbecue as the best Southern barbecue restaurant in the Carolinas. Travel to New Orleans-based Johnny's Po-Boys for a Po' Boy sandwich, a Crescent City staple featuring fried meat or seafood stuffed inside a baguette.
Top off any meal with a Southern style dessert, such as those found at Brooklyn, New York's famed Southern restaurant, Amy Ruth's. Such standard Southern desserts include selections like country bread pudding, sweet potato pie, peach cobbler and red velvet cake.
Southern cuisine restaurants also offer varieties of bourbon, a strong whiskey derived from Kentucky, and Dixie Beer, originating from a Southern-based brewery. Common non-alcoholic selections include sweet iced tea and pink lemonade. Pat O'Brien's, located on New Orleans' famed Bourbon Street, serves up potent Hurricanes, a rum-based tropical drink.
Some restaurants, like Savannah's Mrs. Wilkes' Dining Room and Mama's Farmhouse in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, feature family-style dining, where tables share dishes served in large communal serving bowls or platters. These restaurants provide dining halls reminiscent of a private home, such as knick knack covered walls, bright colors and hutches filled with kitchen items.
Some Southern restaurants, such as the Cracker Barrel chain, offer a country kitchen-themed setting, complete with rustic tables, oversized fireplaces and wrap around porches on the exterior with rocking chairs. Other restaurants, such as the Blues City Cafe in Memphis, adopt the Mississippi Delta shack look, outfitted with creaky wooden floors and distressed furnishings.
Some Southern restaurants offer musical performances, such as Buttons Restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas which features live blues music on a nightly basis, as well as a gospel Sunday brunch. As far north as Chicago, the Southern cuisine establishment Stanley's Kitchen and Tap provides guests the opportunity to perform karaoke while backed by a live band. Cracker Barrel allows diners to shop while waiting for a table by browsing the attached country store, selling such fare as candy, home furnishings and cookware. The porches provide oversized checkers games as well.
