South Bar & Kitchen — Restaurant in Pompano Beach

South Bar & Kitchen serving contemporary Southern comfort food with Louisiana influence and American beers in Pompano Beach is the latest restaurant venture from renowned local restaurateur Mike Linder. He also owns three other popular Fort Lauderdale restaurants, Jet Runway Cafe, Canyon, and Yot.

You can find Southern Bar & Kitchen in Pompano Beach's Old Town historic district which is being developed as the cultural arts heart of the city. They city has been spent millions of dollars widening the sidewalks and improving the building facades. The city uses this area to host the monthly Old Town food truck event and the Pompano Beach Green Market. This area however is still in transition. Parts of it are starting to look great and come to life but I still saw homeless people behind this restaurant. As a history fan I love that South Bar & Kitchen is located in a general store from the 1900's. In the future the restaurant will open on to the The Backyard, a soon-to-be-completed public plaza that will serve as an outdoor community patio.

The minute I saw South Bar & Kitchen I was impressed. It stands out like an oasis in an otherwise barren spot. There is an ample parking in a lot across the street as well as a few spots on the street. The restaurant has a gorgeous deep green and gold accented dining room anchored by an indoor/outdoor bar which opens onto a large patio space anchored in the middle by a large ficus tree. Elegant, classy, and welcoming are a few words that sprung to mind when I saw the space.

While I waited for my friend to arrive I enjoyed a cocktail at the outside bar. The drink menu includes craft and classic cocktails, craft mocktails, dessert cocktails, flights, and beer and wine. At the bartenders suggestion I ordered the La Sandia ($14) made with Dahlia tequila, fresh watermelon, basil, citrus, and agave. It was so refreshing and perfect for the evening.

After my girlfriend arrived we moved to the gorgeous patio to a table under the tree. Our server for the night was Delrico who took impeccable care of us throughout the night. We started with an order of the Fresh Baked Buttermilk Biscuits ($10) served with pepper jelly, a seasonal blueberry jam, and whipped honey butter. You must order these buttery delicious heavenly biscuits. We actually moaned several times while digging in. For our main course we both ordered the South Fried Chicken Sandwich ($18) spicy for her and classic for me. The double dipped fried chicken breast is served with shredded lettuce , pickled onion, cucumber, and okra,, and garlic mayo, on a brioche bun. The portion was so big I could only eat half. The tender and flavorful chicken was thoroughly encased in the crunchy coating and we both really enjoyed our sandwiches. When you order a sandwich it is served with a side of fries or sweet potato chips and we took Rico's suggestion to order the chips. Oh my! They were lighter than air and so crispy. Absolutely addicting! You must get these too! While we dined owner Mike Linder stopped by our table to see how we were enjoying our meal which was very nice of him.

The only hiccup came when we ordered dessert. After seeing an appealing fruit cobbler served to another table we decided to save room. My friend was in a chocolate mood so we ended up ordering the Warm Chocolate Brownie ($12). We liked how it was served in its own baking dish but the scoop of ice cream on top was so small. When we dug in we discovered it was overbaked and dry as the desert. They offered us another one which we declined and they had no problem removing it from the bill. This is their inaugural week and we were informed that they are still tweaking desserts. It didn't really matter. We both still loved South Bar & Kitchen and look forward to...

Last week, I received my November issue of the Las Olas Lifestyle magazine in the mail. Upon perusing through the mag, I noticed a write up about this new restaurant, South Bar and Kitchen in Pompano Beach.

Curious, I checked the address on Google Maps (165 NE 1st AV, Pompano Beach) to realize that it is 4 miles west of the beach, 2 blocks North of Atlantic BL and and 2 blocks east of Dixie Hwy area. Puzzled of its location, I thought ‘Why would a restaurant in a nothing area, right next to a busy R-R track, in a known-for-nothing area advertise in the Las Olas Lifestyle mag?’

I read the first paragraph of the article, and to my surprise, I learned that this new restaurant “on the po’ side of town” is owned by Mike Linder, owner of the SFL Hospitality Group that operates Canyon, Jet Runway Café (two of my favorites), YOT, and Rio’s Tequila Bar (the latter two are unknown to me, yet). Then I understood why the article was in the Las Olas mag.

I read further and “A fusion of Cajun and Creole flavors” spiked my attention. I rounded up my regular foodie friends and Saturday night we ventured out to South Bar and Kitchen.

We really had no idea of what to expect and we went cold call, unannounced. We arrived at 6pm. Upon crossing the main entrance threshold, we lost our field of vision across an endless dining room and bar. Why isn’t there anybody here?, I worried. The greeter asked us if we prefer to be seated inside or out on the back terrace? The weather was cool-perfect for outside dining; we asked to check out the terrace first. She cheerfully ushered us to the terrace which appeared to be cosmos-infinity greater than the dining room with a lighted banyan tree (maybe a ficus tree) smack in the middle of the terrace resembling the Avatar Tree of Life surrounded by a bar.

That’s where everybody was because of its lively atmosphere. Then, I noticed an entertainer setting up his gear behind the bar and that was frightful for me for I don’t enjoy entertainers hoping to be discovered by chance-impresarios while I am dining. We all opted to sit inside. Don’t get me wrong here, it is I that have this problem, but most people love live entertainment while eating. Shortly after our seating at a booth, many more people arrived and opted to sit inside.

The menu is about 50% cocktails and beer, and the food items are definitely enticing, and indeed favoring dazzling Cajun and Creole flavors. The choice of food was difficult for me because I wanted to sample everything. Our server steered us to her favorites, and we chose from her recommendations. We shared two appetizers: the Deviled eggs that left a trail of delightful spicy Creole tang on our tongues, and the Southern Green Fried Tomatoes which were delicious, but cut very thin, thus, the mild piquancy breading was empowering the texture of the tomato slices – perhaps the tomato slices should have been cut thicker. For mains, three of us enjoyed double-cut pork chops, tender and flavorful, while I indulged with the incredibly aggressive and most delicious fried half-chicken.

We all left the place happy. Because this territory was totally new to us, we drove around to explore that new trendy hub that seems to attempt to rival (in a small scale) Flagler Village, Las Olas BL, and Lauderdale- By-The-Sea (minus the sea).

I think that Mike Linder had a bold vision to set up shop in a no-where-land right off I-95 and Atlantic BL exit (very clever to attract far away neighbors). I am eager to watch this new neighborhood grow because there is plenty of surrounding land for expansion, and many new residential high-rise buildings are popping up all around that hub, like Flagler Village.

Street parking, or $6 valet...

I made a reservation for a party of 4 and was able to get seated without the rest of the members there. I thought that was a nice gesture being that other restaurants wont seat you unless all or most of your party is present. The unlimited brunch menu is a two hour course that allows you to order the whole menu and share with the people at the table. We started our brunch with what our server recommended like biscuits, tater tots, candied bacon, and deviled eggs. For our drinks we ordered strawberry peach lemonade (no refills) and they were out of this world. That lemonade was the star of the show I highly recommend anyone to try it. As for the starters, the biscuits (the best I’ve ever had) and tater tots were absolutely delicious. The candied bacon was not really my favorite and the deviled eggs tasted like a concept of a deconstructed egg salad, it didn’t taste like a deviled egg.

Now this is part of the service where things went downhill. There were only two servers (in white button downs) going table to table to take/place orders and a group of staff (in green polo shirts), taking the order from the kitchen and delivering them to the tables. It is hard for two servers to rotate between tables and accommodate to needs and wants of their customers especially on a busy day on a Sunday afternoon. It took us several requests to get another drink or to place an order so that meals would roll out to our table (After the starter menu, you have to request the food items to the table. They don’t automatically roll the dishes out to your table which honestly would be easier on the servers if they just did that. Or set up an app/device in which we select our table and can request what food we want brought to the table. This can mitigate food waste and allow assistance of a server if anything goes wrong without having to shout or wave hands to grab their attention.)

The food we did get like the steak and eggs, chicken sliders, chicken and waffles were good. The eggs tasted like it was from the carton and not really fresh. The chicken was nicely seasoned. As for the shrimp and grits if you can even call it that wasn’t good. The grits part wasn’t grits but more so a lumpy rice pudding concoction with shrimp and gravy topped on it. If anything that was menu item was thoughts and concepts of shrimp and grits. It will throw you off if you have a chance to taste it. Flavor wise, it wasn’t bad but the texture wasn't something that I could get past by. Fried green tomatoes and blue crab beignets were delicious.

All in all, if there were more servers taking orders I would have given this place five stars instead of four despite the taste of some of the food items because the ambiance and environment of this place was top tier. Despite there being so much people the place was clean including the bathrooms and the service/interaction that I did manage to get from the employees were excellent.

**Please note that you have to eat as much as you can since they don’t allow you to take your meals home neither do they have to...