Soul food. Every ethnic group has its own. Bahamians may tout baked bonefish, cracked conch with peas and rice and plantains. For Latin Americans, it might be sweet potatoes; for Peruvians, rice. Bratwurst has been called Wisconsin’s soul food.
Coined during the Black Power movement of the ’60s as a cultural expression for people with roots in Africa, the term generally refers to cooking styles popularized by Southern blacks, such as deep-frying, intense spicing and making croquettes (done by adding seasoning, egg and cornmeal or flour to leftovers and deep-frying them).
Henry E. Black is fairly sure that Hicks BBQ, opened by his father-in-law in the mid-’60s on Jackson Avenue, was one of the first soul food restaurants in Las Vegas. “If not the first,” he says, as he checks on meats being slow-cooked in a Dumpster-sized grill.
Handed the business decades ago, Black changed the name to H&H BBQ and set about creating a following—everyone from U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to Congresswoman Shelley Berkley has enjoyed his food.
In his time, he’s seen Las Vegas develop a surprising number of soul food restaurants, given the African-American population (9 percent).
Though not exhaustive, this list of 10 restaurants is a good primer on the best places to satisfy your desire for soul food.
Kathy’s Southern Cooking
6407 Mountain Vista St., Henderson. 433-1005.
Blink and you will indeed miss this gem of a restaurant tucked in the tail end of a shopping center on Mountain Vista just north of Sunset. Soon as you step into the 36-seat eatery, look to your left and smile at the cooks who’ll dutifully prepare your food in an open kitchen. (At this moment, they’re working on chicken etouffee, a spicy Cajun stew traditionally made with crawfish, vegetables and a dark roux and served over rice.) One of the general laments about Kathy’s is the length of time between ordering and receiving food—30-minute waits are common. Be patient, and you’ll be rewarded with as well-rounded a soul-food experience as there is to be had in town. Top sellers include the seafood plate (etouffee, catfish, crab and shrimp), fried chicken (skin supernaturally golden brown) and, for dessert, hot bread pudding.
You should try: Hot links. You get two perfectly smoked sausages slathered in a sauce whose spicy-to-hot remnants you can still taste hours later.
Big Mama’s Rib Shack and Soul Food
2230 W. Bonanza Road. 597-1616.
www.bigmamasribs.com
Menu items (gumbo, chicken, pig feet, etc.) are painted on outdoor windows and columns. A flashing neon sign welcomes you into a darkly lit restaurant (it used to be a McDonald’s) with pictures commanding nearly every inch of the walls and tables covered with psychedelic-looking cloths. Big Mama’s is an elder stateswoman of soul-food restaurants, as it opened in 1992. In that time, it’s been ritually feted by customer and food reviewer alike for doing bang-up jobs on soul-food staples like fried chicken, fried shrimp, ribs, chitterlings (pig intestines, also called chitlins), ham hocks, yams, oxtails, hot links and collard greens. Shaquille O’Neal has ordered up seafood here a time or two. The entrees are uniformly good, but Big Mama’s desserts are what truly soar, including a red velvet cake that tastes like heaven. And Big Mama’s has, without a doubt, the best promotional pitch among local soul-food eateries: “Put some South in your mouth.”
You should try: Gumbo. Rich, thick and meaty, it’s (over)loaded with andouille sausage, shrimp, lobster and chicken—a hearty meal in a bowl.
Buzz BBQ
7810 W. Ann Road Suite 130. 294-2899.
www.buzzbbq.net
The smell hits you as soon as you turn into this hidden spot by a pizza parlor in the northwest part of town. Usually one of the three proprietors (Michael Hanson, David Jackson and Michael Hanson; yes, there are two of them) greets you, while the other two are manning the kitchen or out back slow-smoking sausage, chicken and pork ribs. It’s a labor of love: the meats are dry-rubbed and smoked with hickory wood for three to seven hours. The result is savory, melt-in-your-mouth tender meat that’ll have you coming back for more. Also killer: the chopped-beef brisket sandwich. Morsels of beef get chopped into small pieces coated with a sweet-tangy mélange that’s finger-licking good.
You should try: Half chicken. Things of beauty these four pieces are. They taste great without adornment, but when paired with the tangy sauce—magnificent.
Catfish Alley
3620 E. Flamingo Road. 450-3474.
Owners say the unfailingly clean place is developing quite the following, luring folks from all over town to dine on authentic Southern hush puppies, fried okra and catfish so good it’ll turn you into a believer. When you order catfish, you get perfectly fried, impeccably spiced fillets that look almost too good to eat (flaky skin yielding to tender meat). Major props also go to the corn nuggets—dipped in batter and fried in hot oil to a golden brown—which could very well be the best in town. Best of all are the bargains: 21-piece shrimp and fries for $4.99. Can you say “leftovers”?
You should try: Spicy catfish. These Cajun-style fillets are a tongue-tingling mouthful of joy. Keep water nearby.
Heart & Soul Express
3940 N. Martin Luther King Blvd. 647-9898.
Taking a page from casinos, the restaurant features a buffet-style set-up. You can see and smell the various offerings: baked beans, red beans, black-eyed peas, pigeon peas and rice, corn, jerk chicken, baked chicken, beef. The sides might be the stars of the culinary show. Corn is juicy and perfectly delectable without butter. Owner Lawrence Weller gives a nod to his island roots by mixing red beans with Jamaican gungo peas (pigeon peas), brown sugar and white rice.
You should try: Fried turkeys. So good that the restaurant is so swamped with orders during the holidays that near-riots have ensued.
M&M Soul Food Café
3923 West Charleston (at Valley View). 453-7685.
www.mmsoulfoodcafe.com
The flavors and smells of Mississippi carry throughout the place. That’s great when chicken’s being fried. Not so great when someone wants chitlins—the stench can be overpowering. It’s a minor inconvenience for the chance to glimpse cooks in action and meals delivered through a serve-through counter. Entrée portions are generous-to-huge, with full orders coming with a choice of three sides, of which the green beans (judiciously flecked with pepper and accompanied with boiled potatoes) could be the best. Meals here are started off with cornbread-like pancakes—thin, round patties that taste divine when topped with butter. The smothered chicken has drawn raves, as has a breakfast menu that features fried chicken and waffles, turkey patties, salmon crochet, turkey links, corned beef hash and that most Southern of soul foods, grits.
You should try: Fried catfish breakfast with eggs and grits. It’s all that.
Mario’s Fish & More (Soul Food Paradise)
2245 Las Vegas Blvd. N., North Las Vegas. 452-1231.
Ignore the looks of this stand-alone eatery; it was a drive-through restaurant of some sort in its former life. The food churned out now is probably better than anything made here prior. Walk up to the order window and waste no time in asking for the neck bones or the turkey wings and dressing. Just as popular are the oxtails, pig’s feet and chitlins.
You should try: Yams. They are dessert-worthy, neither gelatinous nor mushy, but perfectly firm and teasingly sweet.
Mr. J’s Fish Market
230 S. Rainbow Blvd. 363-5585; 2301 W. Bonanza Road.
462-5352.
www.mrjfishmarket.com
Props all around to this place for keeping it real Louisianan. They use Zatarain’s Creole seasoning for their dirty rice (so named because small pieces of chicken liver or giblets, when cooked with white rice, give it a dark color). And that’s real Kool-Aid next to the soda fountain. Whiting and hush puppies get the zesty spice treatment, while the macaroni and cheese strikes the perfect taste balance: neither too greasy nor insufficiently cheesed, as is the case at some soul-food restaurants in town. This being a proverbial fish market, the fish (catfish, red snapper, sole, whiting, Buffalo and San Dabs, a small fish found off the California coast) are iced and on display. Catfish here comes in generously sized golden brown fillets and has more crunch than any other in town. The newly opened second location, across the street from Big Mama’s, offers a large breakfast selection, including country-fried steak and French toast.
You should try: Peach cobbler. Looks like a pot pie, but tastes way better, the soft crust revealing a small orchard’s worth of cinnamon-dusted peaches.
Seven Seas Restaurant and Lounge
808 W. Lake Mead Blvd. 646-4688.
The large white sign touts Texas-style ribs—the smell from the huge outdoor smoker is enticing—but Seven Seas’ real calling card is its catfish and red snapper, unerringly good pieces of fish given a remarkable Cajun zest. The food adds to the down-home ambiance: the jukebox is tuned to blues, and the wait staff is country polite.
You should try: Cakes; all are pillowy soft and moist (chocolate is the standout).
T.C.’s Rib Crib
8470 W. Desert Inn Road #H-3. 451-7427.
There’s much to like about this outpost run by the Harrell clan out of southern Louisiana. Irving Harrell is an affable, always smiling pitchman. Uncle Joe (who, it seems, rarely smiles) lords over the kitchen. Recipes bear the names of the family members who’ve perfected them: Aunt Ada’s potato salad provides a fluffy, mouth-cooling counterpoint to the tangy burnish covering the ribs, beef brisket and chicken. Grandma Georgia’s macaroni and cheese is cheesy and spicy; Uncle Earl’s mighty fine cole slaw has the right cabbage-to-vegetable ratio; Cousin Joe’s collard greens are tart and firm; and the wedge-cut fries rival McDonald’s for addictiveness. It’d be wrong to come to the Rib Crib and not try the smoky ribs (beef and pork). Braised in a secret family sauce that’s 105 years old and inflected with a smoky hardwood finish, the moist and tender slabs can hold their own against anyone’s.
You should try: Glazed-doughnut bread pudding. Take a store-bought doughnut, glaze it with Bacardi Rum, warm it up and enjoy the sugar shock.
Other places to try
Cookies’ BarBQ and Southern Cooking
1600 N. Martin Luther King Blvd. 450-3474.
Recently opened restaurant winning over customers with hearty beef-brisket sandwiches.
H&H BBQ
Southeast corner of Martin Luther King and Carey. 358-4860.
Dedicated following hunts the Black family down. (Since their flagship restaurant on Martin Luther King and Washington burned down in 2003, they’ve jumped to multiple locations, including a short-lived stint as the elegant Sweet Georgia Brown’s on East Flamingo.) H&H does so many things so good. Perhaps the best: bacon-thin cuts of beef brisket, tangy collard greens and to-die-for banana pudding.
Mario’s Westside Market
1960 N. Martin Luther King Blvd. 648-1482.
Excellent fried catfish and a great place to get meats from places like Alabama and Louisiana.
Soul 2 Soul Bistro
In the process of moving locations. Catering available. 791-2433.
Generated buzz by using olive, peanut and canola oil to create lighter, healthier versions of Cajun and Caribbean classics such as blackened catfish and Jamaican jerk chicken, and innovative offerings such as voodoo pasta, linguine and chicken tossed in a spicy Creole sauce.
Damon Hodge is a Weekly staff writer.
Photographs by Iris Dumuk.