Watts grocery, Hustle

We ate tonight at Watts Grocery, a relatively new restaurant in Durham. Greg Cox, the N&O's food critic gave it four and a half stars, the highest ranking (at least by my memory and that of several others) since he started his newer, tougher scoring system. We'd never dined there before, so we entered with high expectations.

Overall, Watts Grocery lived up to them. Two of the sides--the grits and the hush puppies--were superb, the grits as delicious as any I've ever tasted and the hush puppies simply the best I've ever had. Period. I've consumed more than my fair share of hush puppies over the years, so that assertion is not one I make lightly. My house-made pappardelle with chicken, bacon, vidalia onions, and various other goodies in a white wine cream sauce was outstanding, also. All the dishes, including the desserts, were uniformly strong. The only misstep was the bread basket, where the biscuits were not up to the rest of the meal (you could even taste the baking powder in them) and the rolls were good but no better.

I'll definitely go back, and I strongly recommend it.

That said, if I had to choose between Watts Grocery and Piedmont, I'd have to give Piedmont the nod. But not by a lot.

Watts Grocery is also open for brunch and late-night dining; I intend to try both.

After dinner, we finished the fourth season of Hustle. Adrian Lester, who for my money was the heart and soul of the fine ensemble cast, was not on the show this season, and it felt his lack. The writers tried to hard to play up the strengths of the replacement leader, and the results were decidedly uneven. I have to say that I understand why the BBC pulled the plug on it. That said, I will miss it, and I recommend the series, particularly the first three seasons, all of which are available on DVD.