Brown Sugar Kitchen - A Lunch Review

A few weeks ago I was home from work with the family and decided that we should try a restaurant for lunch that we hadn't tried before.  I had remembered driving by a yellow building in west Oakland that I thought was some kind of Jamaican place, but wasn't sure.  So, the wife, the (4 year old) daughter and I headed out at around 11:30 in hopes of getting some Jerk or something similar.  As we drove by the restaurant, first we noticed that it was no longer yellow and run down, it was now brown and seemed much more inviting.  Upon further inspection, we found that it was a restaurant called Brown Sugar Kitchen.

Brown Sugar Kitchen
2534 Mandela Parkway
510-839-SOUL (7685)
 7am - 3pm
Tuesday - Saturday

The short: Go there.  It is really good!

Now, at this point, this is a nervous time in all parents life, not understanding if a restaurant is going to have any food that a 4 year old can appreciate, let alone if they will be friendly to your child.  Needless to say, we entered Brown Sugar Kitchen and had a look around.  On first inspection, the place was about 30% full, not bad given its slightly out of the way location and early arrival time.  It seemed very clean and had a very modern, open kitchen with clean chefs-in-whites feel to it.  The wait staff were not wearing uniforms and gave off an air of inoffensive authority to let us know that they would help us in our mid day dining experience.

I am going to preface this next paragraph with a little information about me.  You should know that I am not what people refer to as a "foodie".  In fact, I hate the word and most of what goes along with it.  I don't know many chefs by name and name dropping a chef does pretty much nothing for me.  That being said, I do watch the food network on occasion and find some enjoyment (though that seems to be decreasing as of late) in it.  As we walked into the restaurant, after noticing the decor, I took a quick look into the open kitchen to see what the situation was.  In the kitchen, the first thing I noticed was what seemed to be a professional, hierarchal type kitchen staff with a clear head/executive chef, sous-chefs and the like.  This may seem redundant, but I seem to be noticing a more line cook approach to the lunches I have lately.  I then noticed that the head chef actually looked familiar to me, which I have to say, has never happened to me before in my life.  Upon further inspection I found a well placed, attractive looking cookbook on the front counter with the head chefs picture on it.  More on the cookbook and the chef later.

We sat down, were presented with uncluttered, simple menus that gave us enough options to suit our tastes.  The menu focuses on a simple, 3 main lunch course options as well as a few specials of the day.  Each lunch option includes a side.  For lunch I decided on the Jerk chicken and Molasses bbq baked beans, the wife decided on a special of the day, Oyster Po-Boy with the Cabbage slaw with lime dressing side.  For the daughter, we ordered a side of the Baked macaroni and cheese.  While we waited on our food, we ordered two cups of Blue Bottle Coffee (brewed in a french press).

As all of you should know, the coffee was incredible.  When we received our food, it was clear that this was no ordinary lunch, the plating was well thought out and the food looked absolutely fantastic.  My chicken was cooked perfectly through, with just enough, but not too much Jerk seasoning.  Too often, when I have Jerk chicken I feel I am slapped in the face by the seasoning and lose the pleasure of a good piece of chicken.  This time however, the chicken tasted like a great barbeque where someone really knew how to season the meat.  The wife's sandwich was very interesting.  She had never had a proper Po-Boy before, and I had not had one since I was in the south some 10 years ago.  The bread had just enough oyster and lemon juice on it, and the oysters were deep fried to perfection.

Moving on from the main courses I want to pay special attention to the sides we were served.  These sides were no ordinary side dish afterthought.  Each was paid as much attention as the main course.  The baked beans were home cooked baked beans, which is nearly impossible to find in this day and age.  The beans were cooked al-dente, giving them a texture to let you know that what you are eating is really something special.  The coleslaw was not slathered in mayonnaise, rather it was lightly drizzled with a lime dressing that perfectly complimented each main course we ordered.  The baked macaroni and cheese was individually prepared in a small casserole dish, cooked perfectly through, obviously containing more than one kind of cheese and topped off with what seemed like a few bread crumbs and possibly some parmesan cheese.

If the description of the food I gave hasn't convinced you, the wait staff were all very helpful, friendly and knowledgeable.  They brought me the chef Tanya Holland's cookbook titled "New Soul Cooking" which seemed like a wonderful cookbook, blessed by famous chef Mario Batali.  The cookbook seemed to be full of approachable, southern soul recipes.  Also, the cookbook let me know that the chef has been a regular guest on The Food Network on a show called "Melting Pot" which made a lot of sense given that Tanya was familiar to me.

Overall, we were extremely pleased with our dining experience at Brown Sugar Kitchen.  Someday, I hope to be able to go and try their breakfast.  If you happen to go there for breakfast or lunch, please let me know your experiences.