Oklahoma City Restaurants

Brown Suga Cafe is located at 2805 NW 122nd St. in Oklahoma City (map). Visit their website or call them at 405-748-5114.

If there is one thing I love yet often have trouble finding in Oklahoma City, it’s good old fashioned soul food. Soul food is a Southern-style (not Oklahoma / Texas southwestern southern, but deep-south southern) of cooking that typically marries wonderful ingredients such as lard, butter, and gravy to create tasty dishes that many people refer to as “comfort food.” Brown Suga Cafe is located on the North side of town off 122nd and May hoping to, as they put it, “put a little class in your soul.”

Brown Suga Cafe was actually recommended to me by one of our loyal readers. I had already written about one of my favorite restaurants in town, Mama E’s, when it was suggested that I give Brown Suga a try. When I pulled up, I saw a clean building, a bright and well presented sign, bistro-type outside seating, and inside a nice-looking counter to which you walk up and order. The menu was about what you would expect: chicken, pork chops, roast beef … etc. Unfortunately, the Saturday special of chicken and waffles had a big black line through it. That was disappointing.

Side items were typical as well including green beans, macaroni and cheese, greens, candied yams, and so on. Desserts were cobbler, banana pudding, and German chocolate cake. According to a sign I saw, I had just missed the Brown Suga sponsored event, “Hair Explosion 2008.” I’m always just a bit too late to these advertised events. I was a week late to the “Booty Shakin’ Contest” at Max Burger, I was a day behind the news when Starbucks was giving out free cups of its tasty new Pike’s Peak roast, and now I missed Hair Explosion 2008 by just a couple of days. What luck.

Anyhow, let me tell you about the food. I had to try the namesake, brown suga chicken. It was really good with a sweet brown sugar crust, savory spices, fine seasoning, and it was perfectly cooked. Now, I will tell you I had a friend go at night once and say that the brown suga chicken was a little dried out, as if it had been in a warmer all day. However, that was definitely not the case with my experience. It was tasty, tender, juicy, and fresh. That same friend also said that the collard greens were the best he had ever had. He went on and on about them. Since I hate collard greens I am taking his word for it. I know, lots of people love greens … sorry, I don’t. I hate black eyed peas too, in case you want to start making a list.

For my sides, I tried the macaroni and cheese and green beans. I liked the green beans. They were cooked with bacon and onions and were not cooked to death (although I do like green beans cooked to death too). The macaroni and cheese was not bad, but not my favorite. It appeared to be a stove-top-style mac and cheese rather than a baked mac and cheese. I like it best baked. My favorite place to get baked mac and cheese is in Nashville at Dan’s Grill. In fact, I always made such a big deal about the dish that Mama Dan would invite me back to the kitchen so I could watch them make it. It involved a lot of lard and cheese and it brought tears to my eyes every time. Lard, by the way, gets a bad name. Did you know it has less saturated fat than butter? With all the stink regarding trans-fatty acids, maybe we will see a rebirth of lard. We can always hope.

Wow, that was a bit off-topic. Anyway, last but not least, the meal came with Brown Suga cornbread. I’m not sure if that means it has brown sugar in it or not, but if it did I couldn’t tell. It just tasted like corn bread to me.

So, the food is pretty good, but I also have a few concerns right out of the gate. First, it is hard to get out of there for less than $10 per person. Now, I understand economics. Heck, I have a degree in economics, and I know that NW 122nd and May is not exactly SW 29th and May from a rent perspective. I know they have to pay for their location and cover their skyrocketing food costs. Still, $10 a plate could be tough to overcome, especially when I was the only person there at noon on a Saturday.

Which brings me to my second concern, there was nobody else there. Maybe they have a dynamic business going during the week which would help to ease my concern, but this lack of patronage definitely stood out to me.

Finally, their to-go meal did not come with forks, napkins, or anything. No big deal for me since I needed to stop at 7-11 for a cold can of Dr. Pepper anyway so I just picked it all up there. But this is something to check on if you need utensils. My guess is they have them if you ask.

Despite these concerns, Brown Suga has a lot to offer — pretty good food (from the limited sample I tried and counting on some reports from others), a really good location, and a cuisine that appeals to a broad demographic. Are they the best soul food in town? No. That crown, in my humble opinion, goes to Mama E’s. On the other hand, their mantra of “put a little class in your soul” seems to hold true. These dishes are presented a little more upscale than what I am used to with soul food. A clean, safe, and well-lit dining area is also a bonus (and quite a departure from my normal dining excursions).

So, if you are located on the northwest side of town (or just less inclined to shadiness) and looking for some soul cuisine, Brown Suga might be just what you’re after. Give it a try and please let us know what you think in the comments.

Other articles you might like:

• Mama E’s: food from the soul and shady restaurant of the month
• Sydney’s Restaurant: Shady Restaurant of the Month
• CousCous Cafe brings the taste of Morocco to Oklahoma City
• October’s winners announced, more prizes available for November
• September’s winners announced. More prizes available for October.

This article was posted by Andrew Littleton on Saturday, June 14th, 2008. It is filed in Northwest OKC, Soul food. Please leave your comments below (we'd love to hear from you), or trackback from your own site.

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