Harpers Table Harper Bradshaw Harper's Table

Harper's Table

122 N. Main St. (E. Washington St.)
Suffolk, VA 23434
Map
Cuisine: Contemporary / Southern
Vintage meets vanguard when down-home Southern, cast iron skillet fare gets an upmarket twist you could playfully call “haute hayseed.”
Openings: Dinner Mon.-Sat.

Features


Harper's Table Restaurant Review:


Deviled eggs, hushpuppies, barbecue. Dishes read like a Southern church supper canon, but chef-owner Harper Bradshaw’s informed technique and elegant presentations will set you straight: this is an upscale, albeit comfortably unstarched, restaurant of heirloom quality. “Everything Old is New Again” could be its theme, from the local-leaning, ingredient-driven sensibility to the décor (reclaimed peanut warehouse wood creates a booth canopy, a century-old soda mural discovered when exposing a brick wall showcases a bar configuring spiffy cocktails like a Rhu-Byrrh: gin, Byrrh, Cocchi Americano and rhubarb bitters). There are raw Indian Rock oysters, famed for their saltiness, for starters, and main dishes (dubbed here “suppers”) of Chesapeake Bay flounder and Windhaven red Angus burgers. Try Harper’s pork belly biscuit, and shrimp ‘n grits starring North Carolina shrimp. Or opt for molasses brined pork chop with country ham, cabbage and bourbon apples. Expect house-made butter, buttermilk and ice cream (perfect for a meal-ending Mexican Coke float). Staff conveys a warm, folksy sense of welcome, while serving like polished pros. The logo at this Mayberry-esque Main Street storefront, the restaurant’s initials configured as a table and chair, isn’t just clever, but prescient. You’ll want to pull up a seat and feast on HT’s sophisticated rendering of Southern culinary goodness.