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Sylvia’s

Sun., April 2, 2006

Katie kept the stuff I bought at Ikea yesterday in her car until she got off work early this evening, then drove up to my place and we unloaded it. Katie gets irritable when she’s hungry and she was hungry. Me leading her around Upper Manhattan to restaurants that didn’t seem to exist or had two-hour waits didn’t improve matters.

Then she realized that we were in the vicinity of Sylvia’s, Harlem’s famous soul food restaurant, but that she didn’t remember exactly where it was. Fortunately, while tooling down W. 125th Street, we caught a glimpse of its lights off on Lenox Avenue. And we arrived just in time, 7:45 p.m.—they stop seating on Sunday nights at 8:00.

While waiting for our table, we started out at the bar with some expensive but tasty rum punch. Although an apparent advantage of arriving at Sylvia’s later is that the crowds aren’t as intense, they also plan for the food to run out at the end of the night. So they didn’t have the pickled beets I wanted as a side. More heinously, they had run out of mashed potatoes; Katie mentioned several times that her gravy-smothered chicken steak would have been even better had it only a dollop of mashed potatoes. Instead she got the candied yams, which she recommended, just as I can recommend my black-eyed peas and macaroni-and-cheese, made with real cheddar (which you’d think all restaurant mac-and-cheese would be, but you’d be wrong).

For my entree, I got the ribs, of course, and I highly recommend them. In fact, they are sneaking into my top three. Thickly sweet-sauced, tender meat, not too fatty: perfecto. Also, love the full name: Sylvia’s World Famous Talked About Bar-B-Que Ribs with Her Original Sassy Sauce. Entrees also come with your choice of mimosa or Bloody Mary, a nice touch.

The layout is utilitarian but family friendly, with tons of tables, and chairs that look like they were swiped from a chain hotel’s ballroom. The brightly painted walls are hung with framed photos of Sylvia, who has owned and operated the place with her family since 1962, posing with a variety of celebrities.

Sylvia’s

Tags: 52 Meals Project (2006) | Comments have been closed.