We found a very good place for a Friday night dinner. Then Marie’s schedule changed and she’s busy Friday nights. Guess I’ll have to have lunch here alone then.
Southern Star is a modern meat-and-three place that specializes in blue plate specials with a rotating selection of specials and in-season vegetables. They have a very nice location on Broad Street, but strangely are only open weekdays. There’s a second site in Signal Mountain that’s open for lunch on Saturdays, but I was surprised this place has such comparatively limited hours. It turns out the bulk of their business comes from the nearby TVA administration building and they felt their weekend business was too weak to justify opening.
That’s a shame! We only enjoyed one dinner here before Marie’s hours changed, but my son and I came by for lunch in July to give them another try. On both visits, we had a really good experience. The food is pretty good and the service is terrific. Even if you can’t easily plan ahead for a specific dish, they offer such a neat variety of meals that I bet anyone who comes will leave quite pleased.
On our first visit, I had the fried catfish and thought it was very good. And do you mean to tell me that you’ll offer fried green tomatoes as a side and not just a separate appetizer? Sold! These were delicious. Unfortunately they weren’t available the next time I visited, this time along with my son, but I made sure to order the Brunswick stew on that trip.
The stew was pretty good. I’ve yet to find a really excellent bowl of stew since moving to Tennessee – that’s not entirely snobbery, as most of the Brunswick stew in Georgia isn’t “really excellent,” either – but I’ve had worse. I do object to the lima beans in it. Those aren’t as egregious as potatoes, but they’re still not necessary. (Brunswick stew should never, ever have potatoes. That may be the one and only hard-and-fast rule about food that I have.)
While my son was satisfied with chicken tenders, on this visit I found the jambalaya irresistible. As I’ve mentioned previously, and will again in our next story, I’m trying very hard to eat fewer carbs. Then I go and order a great big bowl of rice. Just as well it was really, really good. If you’re going to mess with your diet, you should mess with it eating something very good. Still, I felt so guilty that I just ate the meat and about a quarter of the rice. I had a salad for supper.
Southern Star
1300 Broad St # 300
Chattanooga, TN 37402
You can see all the restaurants that we have visited for our blog on this map, with links back to the original blog posts. It’s a terrific resource for anybody planning a road trip through the southeast!
Marie, Let's Eat! 