Soulfully Southern: Soul food served with pizzazz at new Glenpool eatery
BY SCOTT CHERRY World Restaurant Critic
Thursday, January 31, 2013
3/28/13 at 7:45 AM
They could have given the restaurant any other name, and there still would be no doubt we were dining in some kind of soul food heaven.
We were looking at bowls of collard greens and yams and plates of cornmeal-battered fried chicken, fried catfish, meatloaf and fried pork chops.
This was at the new Soulfully Southern restaurant in Glenpool, where the ladies cook old-fashioned recipes with confidence and at times more than a little pizzazz.
I had a three-piece dark chicken dinner ($7.99), two thighs and a leg. Battering chicken with cornmeal and perhaps a touch of flour is an old, deep South tradition, and it gave the chicken a different kind of crunch and a pleasing flavor.
We also ordered a two-meat dinner ($13.49) with meatloaf and fried pork chop. The meatloaf was a blend of ground beef and sausage, and it had a little spiciness in the seasonings and a thin layer of ketchup on top. The pork chop nearly covered the plate, was a little chewy and had a thicker breading than the chicken.
We added an a la carte serving of catfish ($1.99), shipped from Mississippi, we were told. The four or five chunks had a lighter cornmeal breading than the chicken and a fresh flavor.
The dinners came with either Okie toast (no Texas toast here) or cornbread and a choice of two sides, and we selected green beans, rice and gravy, collard greens and yams.
The green beans were cooked with bacon and onions and were laced with a spicy-hot seasoning, and a mellow brown gravy was ladled over white rice. The tender chunks of yams (technically sweet potatoes) tasted just as described, candied with a touch of ginger.
We expected the collard greens, dotted with a little ham and onion, to be bitter, but they weren't. They tasted like a smoky first cousin to cooked spinach, and my wife, who questioned ordering them in the first place, wound up stealing most of the bowl for herself.
We had a piece of smooth sweet potato pie ($1.99) and good peach cobbler ($2.79), just out of the oven, for dessert.
The restaurant also serves breakfast all day except Sunday.
It's interesting to note that unless you count coleslaw, the menu shows no salad.
Although some of the dishes are heavily seasoned, we were told salt never is used.
Soulfully Southern is owned by Kim and Jeffrey Jordan and Demitra Hammon. Other kitchen staff members are general manager Angela Taylor, Tonya Williams and Desiree Goudeau.
"We all grew up together, like sisters," Kim Jordan said.
Our servers were Taylor's daughter, Alexus, and Jordan's daughter, Kolbi. Both were energetic and friendly.
Jordan said initial plans called for Soulfully Southern to be a fish-only place.
"My husband's parents owned Jordan's Fresh Fish Market on Greenwood in Tulsa, and that was what he was confident with," Jordan said. "But I wanted to add my part, too, and we added my grandmother's recipes.
"I also thought we would mostly be a carry-out soul food place, but we found out most people wanted to sit down and be waited on here."
The space has housed a number of restaurants over the years. It has the look of a '50s diner with regular and high-top chrome soda fountain chairs with red cushions. Vinyl records and album covers of soul and gospel performers decorate the walls.
Guests from Tulsa can turn left (east) off U.S. 75 into the Glenpool Center strip center at about 138th Street. If you go to the stoplight at 141st Street, you will have to double back north on the highway to reach the center.
SOULFULLY SOUTHERN
13831 S. Casper St., Glenpool
918-995-2567
Food: 
Atmosphere:
Service:
(on a scale of 0 to 4 stars)
7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday-
Thursday and Saturday, 7
a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, noon-
4 p.m. Sunday; accepts all
major credit cards.
Original Print Headline: Soul food heaven
Scott Cherry 918-581-8463
scott.cherry@tulsaworld.com
Associated Images:
Fried catfish is served with coleslaw, skin-on fries and Okie toast. STEPHEN PINGRY / Tulsa World
Co-owner Kim Jordan stands behind the counter at Soulfully Southern restaurant. STEPHEN PINGRY / Tulsa World
Cornmeal-battered fried chicken and fried pork chop are served with cornbread, candied sweet potatoes and collard greens. STEPHEN PINGRY / Tulsa World
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