“You should never have to salt soul food” was the final verdict of my companion as she lifted a pale forkful of the Five Star Day Café’s macaroni and cheese off her plate and then letting it drop on top of the rest of the quickly congealing mound. We were in Five Star Day’s baby-blue Athens’ Eastside location, where the food is deceptively billed as “gourmet soul food.”
Granted, soul food is a notoriously difficult term to define to an outsider. That’s because it is much more ephemeral than just a classic bit of oversalted meat and three vegetables, probably cooked with bacon. It’s a comforting and friendly quality that separates local legends like Weaver D’s from fast-food derivatives like Bojangles and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
I’d venture to say that soul food is 50 percent atmosphere, and the Eastside Five Star Day easily bests its downtown counterpart. The quaint, mismatched tablecloths, flower fixtures and local art are the products of a clear community connection. Five Star Day str
ives to represent some of Athens’ weirder qualities by combing the feel of your grandmother’s kitchen with Edvard Munch-derived paintings. The overhead music is mostly local bands, and most of the staff moonlight as musicians, artists, actors and activists.With that being said, the food at Five Star Day tastes like the cook has another job that he’d rather be doing. The most blatant culprit was the aforementioned pallid macaroni and cheese, an example of comfort food too self-conscious to be comfortable.
The daily special was a beef brisket, served along a bed of cabbage and sautéed tomatoes seasoned with paprika and diced red peppers. It was the most thoroughly seasoned item of the meal, and its flavor seeped across the plate into the gooey and fried corn and mashed potatoes. The tomatoes and cabbage brought both color and balance to a plate that could have been brought down by too much starch. It could pass for soul food on a good day.
My companion ordered the chicken and dumplings, which came adorned with a star-shaped biscuit. This attempt at flash barely compensates for a thin broth filled with too-doughy dumplings and stringy chicken. When paired with the maligned macaroni and cheese, the lack of taste becomes overbearing and tedious. I’m not a fan of salt, but nearly every bite of chicken and dumplings needed it.
Adding salt to soul food is the highest and most unfortunate form of irony. Fortunately, Five Star Day saves itself with the fried green tomatoes. Battered in thick corn meal and adorned with black-eyed peas, caramelized onions, hominy corn, diced peppers and an oil and vinegar sauce, they are the most unique flavor on the menu. Unfortunately, they are just an appetizer or side item, merely the supporting actors to a cast of underwhelming entrees.
Don’t get me wrong: aside from a few examples, the food at Five Star Day is not all bad-- it just claims to be more than it really is. This sense of culinary hubris pulls the food away from its roots, as if it is more concerned with adopting a type of style than offering substance. This notion is misguided, because soul food is supposed to communicate a feeling beyond the ingredients of the plate. It’s hard to point out exactly what ingredients are missing from the food at Five Star Day, but whatever it is, it can’t compensate for a chronic lack of soul.
VERDICT: More like a two-star day.
FIVE STAR DAY
Eastside:
2230 Barnett Shoals Rd.
Athens, Ga.
Downtown:
229 E. Broad St.
Athens, Ga.
www.fivestardaycafe.com
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