The Mango Lassie

Living in a relatively ungentrified part of Harlem has some drawbacks for food lovers. There are no bagels, no espresso bars, no wine stores and almost no sit-down restaurants. But, as Empanada Boy and I found, living here can also have its culinary advantages. These are particularly evident if you live, as we do, within a quick trot of Charles’ Southern Style Kitchen. This small storefront has a few tables and a case where you can select from a short list of soul food offerings and delicious, mainly vegetable, sides. On Sundays there is a buffet line with a tremendous all-you-can-eat offering for around $10. We went there on a Monday night with Mango Mama and met Charles Gabriel himself. He told us that he makes most of the food at the fancier Upper West Side kitchen of Rack and Soul where he is soul food chef. (Memphis in May 2008 champion John Wheeler is pitmaster there.)

Charles’ specialty is the fried chicken (pictured above), which he reportedly cooks in massive cast iron skillets. He seasons the pieces for at least 8 hours, dips them in egg and fries them in soybean oil. The result is some of the lightest, crunchiest fried skin I’ve ever tasted. This delightful shell gives way to moist, flavorful meat that is difficult to stop eating, despite the ever encroaching state of fullness. Just ask EB. He finished his chicken, sweet potatoes and collard greens and then had to go home to lie down. I ordered the barbecue chicken and was entranced by the sweet, slightly spicy sauce coating the tender, smoky meat. Collard greens were salty and rich with ham hock flavor. Similarly seasoned black-eyed peas exploded in my mouth like morsels of candy. I took some of my chicken and sides home for EB’s lunch, and I was still full. Mango Mama’s barbecue pork ribs were falling off the bone and coated in the same sauce.

The heavenly fried chicken at Charles’ invited comparison with Spoonbread, another Harlem soul food spot I had visited a week or so earlier. This one is located across from Morningside Park, not far from Columbia. It is a pleasant sit-down cafe with big windows facing the street. When I tasted the fried chicken there, I thought it had all I could ask for. But after trying Charles’, I’m afraid Spoonbread’s just doesn’t match up. The fried exterior here was heavier and less flaky than Charles’, and, while the meat was tender, it’s flavor didn’t hold a candle to the depth of Charles’ long-seasoned pieces.

Spoonbread does have better atmosphere and far more menu variety, but I don’t think I’ll ever crave it as much as I do Charles’. On the other hand, that might also have something to do with their locations: it’s hard to compete with just around the corner from my house.

Charles’ Southern Style Kitchen
2841 Frederick Douglass Blvd.
New York, NY 10039
212.926.4313

Spoonbread
366 W. 110th St.
New York, NY 10025
212.865.6744