Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery

Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery Restaurant Review:

Southerleigh was among the first hospitality operations at Pearl (the old brewery complex that also houses the C.I.A.’s cooking school) to emerge in the full industrial chic, steampunk regalia that’s now almost de rigueur; next-door Hotel Emma features it in lobby and bar spaces as well. The cuisine, Southern with a Texas twist, is somewhat less dramatic but generally easier to repeat. Side dishes such as the fried snapper throats and the rewarding fried cabbage plate sometimes trump main events like the stewed oxtail pie --- though it’s hard to pass up smothered chicken in redeye gravy. House-made potato chips with various dips are perfect with one of the on-site (and on display) brewery’s drafts; so is Gulf crab-spiked mac ‘n’ cheese, a worthy variation on this familiar theme. Sandwiches feature house-baked bread, making the soft shell po’ boy that’s a possibility with the Cellarman’s Lunch Pail an especially good choice; it’s a toss-up between the well-made salads and soups. Oysters that pop up as a Late-Shift option, along with a crawfish boil and chicken cracklins, pair beautifully with a Darwinian IPA.