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The Peachtree doesn't just serve soul food — it conjures spirits, too

Continued from page 1

Published on May 08, 2008

A gal after my own heart, Bonita shouldn't eat fried foods but does it anyway. She gave high marks to the crispy fried chicken, the sweet catfish and the steamed okra. Keith ate a whole plate of spicy, pan-blackened shrimp so fast that I thought I was imagining things. I didn't offer to share a bite of my plump chop, thickly glazed with a barbecue sauce as sweet as molasses and balanced by the slightly vinegary, flavorful collard greens.

You get a lot of food here, and the reasonable prices make it tempting to order even more. But I stopped before dessert, though I'm a devoted fan of the Peachtree's creamy and seductively seasoned vanilla-frosted bread pudding — and Keith liked it even more. I suspect that Bonita wished that she'd ordered the bread pudding instead of the sweet-potato pie. "It's good," she said with a smile, "but not as good as mine."

On another night, my dining companion Patrick couldn't believe that the restaurant served soul food. "It's so fancy," he said, "so upscale." Feeling flush, he ordered braised oxtails ("You rarely see that on menus anymore," he whispered) and I chose the braised short ribs. Both are slow-cooked with caramelized onions and a rich beef gravy, and the meat on the short ribs fell of the bone with just the touch of a fork. They were sensual and divine.

Patrick was equally enamored of his meaty oxtail. "My mother used to make this when I was a kid," he said. "But it was never this good."

The Peachtree's short ribs, meanwhile, made me think once again of my grandmother — but they were much better than hers. Now who am I supposed to channel to make them that way at home?

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