A few days ago I decided to pop in to The Southern, which serves up (you guessed it) southern style comfort food in Chicago’s vibrant and artistic neighborhood, Wicker Park. If you simply hear the name, “The Southern”, one might envision pulled pork mac n cheese or biscuits and gravy. Yet as the saying goes, you can’t judge a book by its cover, and I was so pleasantly surprised when I saw the menu!
I started with the seasonal grilled peach salad with baby kale, arugula, fennel, radish, pickled onion, sheep’s milk feta, spiced pecan and bourbon-honey Balsamic. If you’re looking to cut calories, or if you are vegan, I would skip the feta cheese, which is what I did (it was still delicious).
My friends went with the Chicken Salad with Amish Chicken Breast from a local farm. The chef loves to bike around the city and visit farmers markets where he picks up a lot of his ingredients. The salad was topped with apples, red grapes, celery, watermelon radish, fried shallot and local baby lettuce. I stole and bite and it was amazing. If you’re looking to save a few calories, I would recommend skipping the fried shallot.
The portions are big and share-able, and the items are extremely well priced. Besides The Southern being a great place to watch sports and throw back a drink after work, you can genuinely enjoy a quality meal with your friends.
P.S. I’m quite eager to taste their plant-based options in their brunch menu. If someone has any recommendations, fill us in below in the comments!
