Adventure on a School Night: Southern Hospitality

It's the time of the year when people are feeling especially overworked, underpaid, and overwhelmed by preparations for the holidays. In an effort to avoid burnout and exhaustion early, we decided to go out and enjoy a fun happy hour and concert on a Thursday night in mid-November. The concert venue, Songbyrd Music House & Record Cafe, is located at the top of the Adams Morgan neighborhood of D.C., thus we decided to drop in for happy hour at Southern Hospitality. Southern Hospitality, or SoHo, is located within two blocks of Songbyrd, and there is ample street parking and a paid parking lot next to the restaurant. Adams Morgan is home of a wide variety of unique eateries, entertainment, and bars. Several of the bars in the neighborhood have stood the test of time, and we hold some fun memories from visiting them during our graduate school days.

Southern Hospitality has a somewhat unique exterior appearance---the image of their pineapple logo gave Simone pause when we arrived, because how does a pineapple tie into the idea of southern hospitality? Nonetheless, we persisted. The restaurant's interior and decor is cozy and comfortable, with traditional wood furnishings and brick walls throughout. To Simone, exposed brick always screams "you are in a city so embrace the city." Once seated at the bar, we learned that SoHo's happy hour consists of deals on drinks but not on food. SoHo does have daily specials, but we were there on a Tuesday and their Tuesday special is an all night happy hour, which didn't help us out much since we had to go to the concert. In any event, we took advantage of SoHo's $5 rail happy hour special---Simone had a vodka ginger and Damien had a whiskey ginger. There's really nothing like cheap drinks out in D.C.!

We chose to order several appetizers because we take this blog very seriously and if we must eat and drink, then we shall do that purposefully. We ordered the Crab Cake Sliders, Mac and Cheese, Brussels Sprouts, and Fried Green Tomatoes, and these appetizers varied in awesomeness. The Crab Cake Sliders were very good, and this appetizer was Damien's personal favorite. They were breaded and fried, and topped with coleslaw and a remoulade which packed a nice, spicy kick thanks to the star ingredient of the remoulade, horseradish. There was definitely good seasoning in the breading, and the coleslaw worked well to tie all of the flavors of these sliders together. Simone prefers broiled crab cakes, but was definitely able to get down with SoHo's Crab Cake Sliders. The Mac and Cheese was interesting because SoHo adds bacon and broccoli to it, and that combination may not be for everyone. However, we really enjoyed the appetizer---every ingredient worked in harmony together and the dish was flavorful and cheesy. It is also important to note that this Mac and Cheese appetizer was huge and could easily be shared by 3-4 people. The Brussels Sprouts were the best appetizer in Simone's opinion. The sprouts were perfectly crispy, and the bacon added an extra welcomed crunch to the dish. And real talk---the accompanying anchovy aioli sauce was bomb! If we had to critique the dish, Damien felt that it was a hair on the salty side, and so the bacon could potentially be omitted to counteract that saltiness. But overall, the dish was really delicious. Our least favorite appetizer was definitely the Fried Green Tomatoes. If a restaurant has southern hospitality within its name, then the expectation of delicious fried green tomatoes goes without saying. Unfortunately, SoHo's fried green tomatoes lacked flavor, seasoning, and any character to make them live up to their name. The tomatoes were very crisp and not quite ripe or ready to be fried. The only saving grace of this dish was the tasty remoulade dipping sauce, but even it couldn't save the tomatoes. If you love fried green tomatoes, skip this appetizer at SoHo because they are just going to disappoint.

Overall, we would give Southern Hospitality a 3.5 out of 5. SoHo's happy hour would be amazing if they included food specials as part of it. And the food we had during our visit definitely had its pros and cons, but we mostly enjoyed it (expect for the Fried Green Tomatoes). And finally, the service we received was standard, but neither our bartender nor server were overly warm or attentive to us during our visit. SoHo seems to have found its community within the brunch world, but they fell a bit short with happy hour in our opinion. The best part of our night was definitely the concert---we had a blast! If you are a fan of alternative R&B and soul music, definitely give R.LUM.R a listen right now. Until next time, friends!