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By Root 847 0

flavored not with pork but with what she calls turkey “tails.” Even more wondrous is cabbage, which, when we first saw it, we assumed was steamed with greens because dark leaves were laced among the white ones. B.J. explained that those are the cabbage’s outer leaves. “The best part!” she declared. “Most people throw them away because they are tough. They need an hour extra steaming; that makes them soft and brown.” Flavored with a hail of spice that includes jerk chicken seasoning and lots of pepper, this is cabbage with tongue-searing punch. On the side comes a basket of hot-water corn bread: cushiony-moist, griddle-cooked cakes that are the perfect foil for ecstatically seasoned vegetables.

Aside from Alcenia’s exemplary southern vegetables, dining delights here include a delicious fried pork chop that is crisp-crusted and dripping with juice, crunch-crusted fried chicken, and bread pudding that the Memphis Commercial Appeal declared to be one of the ten best desserts in the city.

Beacon Light Tea Room

6276 State Route 100

931–670–3880

Lyles, TN

D Tues–Fri, BLD Sat & Sun | $

Opened in 1936 by Lon Loveless, who went on to open the renowned Loveless Café in Nashville, the Beacon Light Tea Room is a lesser-known gem of Tennessee country cooking. Loveless fans will have déjà vu upon opening the menu, for it is the same as the Loveless’s used to be. Brittle-crusted fried chicken and country ham with red-eye gravy are the only entrees to know about, and among essential sides is the sumptuously rich mid-twentieth-century Home-Ec triumph, hash brown casserole. Potato shreds are mixed with cheese, sour cream, and—you guessed it—a can of cream of chicken soup, then baked until bubbly with a crust on top.

Meals are sided by biscuits with homemade peach and blackberry preserves, which are set out on the table in spoon-it-yourself crocks. There are whole, soft hunks of peaches in the amber one, and the blackberries have a sultry flavor that is a brilliant counterpoint to super-salty country ham.

Although it was originally named for the revolving spotlight that directed planes flying mail between Memphis and Nashville, the term “Beacon Light” now has another meaning. For the proprietors of this upright restaurant, the beacon is Jesus, and his image is everywhere in art on the old wood-paneled walls. Each table, which is clad in a leatherette cloth, is outfitted with a “Scripture Bread Box,” a small plastic loaf hollowed out to contain cards about the size of fortune-cookie fortunes, but in this case with scriptural advice on each side.

Blue Plate Café

5469 Poplar Ave.

901–761–9696

Memphis, TN

BLD | $

Listen up, waffle-hounds! If, like us, you are perpetually on the lookout for slim, small-tread waffles (as opposed to the thick Belgian plumpies), put the Blue Plate Café of Memphis on your itinerary. They make platesize round ones, crisp and golden brown, with plenty of little holes to hold gobs of butter and syrup. While it is possible to order one filled with pecans or topped with apple compote, blueberries, or other fruits, we like ours plain and hot from the griddle…with a huge slab of salty country ham on a separate plate.

In this cheery café that was once a private home, the menu goes way beyond waffles. Breakfast (served any time) includes pancakes, omelets with great hash browns or grits on the side, and flavorful knobby-top biscuits served with silky cream gravy dotted with bits of sausage.

Lunch is good ol’ meat-and-three, with such entrees as pot roast, baked pork chops, chicken and dumplings, and fried shrimp (that last one is every Friday). The vegetable roster is about twenty items long, including real mashed potatoes, turnip greens, creamed corn, mac ’n’ cheese, etc., etc. If you want something simpler than meat-and-three, there are salads, soups, and sandwiches, including a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. Apparently, that one is health food: it is served on whole wheat bread.

Bolton’s Spicy Chicken & Fish

624 Main St.

615–254–8015

Nashville, TN

LD | $

Bolton’s manager