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Plate After Plate Dunbar's pushes the limit with all-you-can-eat red beans and fried chicken.
by Pableaux Johnson
Dunbar's Creole Cooking
After my second plate, the waitress came over to check the table.
"Get you another?" She had already brought two full plates of Dunbar's house specialty -- red beans and fried chicken -- and was obviously only asking as a formality. All around the packed dining room, big eaters worked their way through third and fourth servings, but on this particular Monday, I just had to stop. "You know that it's all you can eat? I can bring you another…" Her concerned voice trailed off as she motioned to the kitchen. And then it hit me -- the toughest thing about lunchtime at Dunbar's is knowing when to stop. From the outside, this simple Uptown restaurant looks like hundreds of other white-frame neighborhood restaurants around New Orleans. What sets Dunbar's apart, though, is their trademark five-dollar lunch special -- the aforementioned all-you-can-eat beans and chicken. Other rotating specials (smothered chicken, meatloaf and potatoes, gumbo) provide a bit of midday variety, but most of the customers belly up for Dunbar's trademark multi-plate challenge. It's printed on the menu in bold letters: "RED BEANS & CHICKEN ALWAYS AVAILABLE." In keeping with local laundry-day tradition, the red beans are spicy and substantial, with tender chunks of onion and pepper floating in the mix. Served "center plate" on a pile of rice, the beans strike a good balance between firm and creamy without a hint of long-cooked mushiness. Even without the chicken, this dish (served with its sides of green salad and cornbread) would be a great standard lunch option. But as luck would have it, there's also an near-endless supply of dark-meat fried chicken included in the bargain (white meat available for a reasonable $1 charge). Judging from the color of the chicken, Dunbar's cooks don't like to be rushed when it comes to frying, since the crisp skin tends on the darker end of the spectrum. This long cooking makes for deeper, more developed flavor in the chicken's protective crust without drying out the bird's moist meat. Once you start crunching it's pretty tough to stop, and provided you finish before 4:00 (the all-you-can-eat cutoff time) the cheerful waitstaff will keep your plate perpetually full. If you're not in the mood for poultry, but still want a heap of beans for lunch, Dunbar's offers a smoked sausage substitution -- a full link split down the middle and deep fried until the ends curl up like clown shoes. Not an option for the fat-averse, but sausage fans should give it a try for its great flavor and amazingly delicate texture. The link slices clean with the slightest fork pressure and just MELTS on the tongue. There are other items on the multi-meal menu ranging from breakfast platters and po-boys to seafood and steak options for dinner. Desserts (if there's room) change daily with a lineup of chunky homemade cakes and other sweets that tend toward larger portions. The one exception is the individual-sized sweet potato pie, which makes up in pure richness what it lacks in size. It's another case of big tastes coming in small packages. If you're going to go for sweets, start your day at Dunbar's with a strict two-plate limit, especially if your workplace has a strict "no afternoon nap" policy. The charming waitress might worry a bit ("You sure that's enough, baby?"), and some days she may just talk you into one too many helpings, and sometimes "too much" can be just perfect. Those are the days to lunch at Dunbar's. |
