I am so very much for small business. Especially small minority owned businesses in a town where…read moreyou really are the minority. I want you to win.
That said, I already have a love-hate relationship with Soul Food. It tastes great, every bite is a a flavorful and savory journey for your tastebuds, but is it good for you? The answer is a resounding NO.
This is my point, Soul Food is the worst meal for someone to eat on a regular basis. The reason? SALT, the number one cause of hypertension and the number one (or two depended on who you ask) killer of the Africanus-Americanis nationwide.
Soul food should only be eaten in moderation, if ever. So if that's the case and I'm going to willingly take years off of my life then the food needs to be good. Damn good. Like sell my soul to the Devil good. Unfortunately, Roxanne's was anything but good.
Thanks to my girlfriend and her relentless craving for fried chicken and macaroni and cheese, we wind up looking up this place on a Friday evening. I dial the place up and talk to a pleasant enough woman who said she was closing soon she but put my order in. I ask her the menu choices, because apparently the menu changes everyday. My sweetie ordered some baked chicken wings with a side of mac and some green beans and since pretty much everything else was cooked in pork fat or turkey, I opted for Tilapia and a double side of mac and cheese, really because that's all that's available...allegedly.
We drive up to the restaurant, a small store front, tucked into a crevice on Main, next to a barbershop, we almost missed it. I applauded its quaint charm, until I stepped inside.
The same woman who took my order was both the cook and taking phone and walk-in orders, meaning we had to wait a bit to ask any questions about the food. I'm not really into Tilapia, its a shitty farm raised fish of questionable quality, but according to the woman on the phone it was the only fish they had at the time...or so she said.
When we got there we see a whole menu of items which she did not say were available, one being salmon which would of been my go to choice, but since I called in the Tilapia I was stuck with it. Fine, I was a little pissed but I went with it, supporting small business and all.
Now I'm quite the stickler on how my food is prepared and what it contains and I get it, its not a fancy spot but I was turned off by how the food was cooked. No gloves being used or hairnets while the cook was handling the phone, then going to the cash register, handling money, the phone only to go back to cooking.
We finally get our food, in styrofoam (another pet peeve) I pay and as I hand back the receipt, I get some request for us to "check in on Facebook." and a not really sincere but more of a "fuck you, go away, goodbye" attitude with corresponding laughter to a cohort (who should of been back there helping instead of cackling in the front) which immediately made me feel like I was being hoodwinked.
"Don't worry I won't be back." I muttered to myself while leaving, I get home and open my container of food to validate my concerns and Viola! Much to my surprise (THIS IS SARCASM), the food sucked. Everything was too salty, everything, the fish, the macaroni, the green beans. How could someone eat this on the regular and not eventually die of a stroke.
Like I said earlier, if your going to sell high blood pressure and diabetes to people in the form of food at least make it consistently good and don't have an attitude when people come to give yo money. I could of made everything at home and it would of tasted much better and would of been way healthier with the same 20 dollars I spent.
Message: Just because you are Black and full of sass does not mean your candied yams are any damn good.
