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No. 99: Bacon Shrimp and Grits at Bacon Social House
When you find yourself at a restaurant called Bacon, bacon had better end up on your plate in some form. Fortunately, at Bacon there’s no shortage of cured pork belly in just about every dish – and even in a few cocktails. This new Sunnyside eatery is open all day – and serves breakfast all day – so you can get your fill of eggs and pancakes at any time, too. But for a true taste of North Carolina native Brian Crow’s cooking, dig into a bowl of his shrimp and grits bathed in a rich brown sauce and studded with chewy bits of Tender Belly bacon.
“Shrimp n’ grits is true to my heart, being a Southern boy,” Crow notes. He builds his version on a smooth mound of slow-cooked grits and uses shrimp stock to pump up the flavor. Garlic, shallots and bacon are thrown into a hot pan, followed by shrimp, jalapeños and mushrooms. The shrimp stock – made in-house from shrimp shells – is added to deglaze the pan and is reduced with cream. At the end, tomatoes, spinach and butter are folded in.
Each bite yields a little smoky bacon and a little of the clingy sauce (which is gluten-free, since it’s not thickened with flour). The lightly cooked tomatoes and a few crumbles of goat cheese add brightness to the mixture, which never seems heavy despite the butter and cream. This is a breakfast dish to start a day of hard work – or to end it with sumptuous pleasure. But what else would you expect from a place called Bacon?
Throughout this year, we’ll be counting down the best dishes in the city – from longtime classics that keep us coming back to new additions that have caught our attention. If there’s a dish you think we need to try, tell us about it in the comments section, or shoot us an e-mail at cafe@westword.com.
Hungry for more? All the dishes in our 2016 countdown are linked below.
