Brenda's Meat & Three

Brenda's Meat & Three Restaurant Review:

New Orleans-bred chef-restaurateur Brenda Buenviaje's Tenderloin restaurant, Brenda's French Soul Food, proved so popular that she added this laid-back, cozy café, complete with lazy ceiling fans and gleaming barstool-lined counter. Its different-every-day menus are so packed with classic Southern style as to border on cliché. Grits, gumbo, choux, catfish, collards, red-eye gravy, fried bologna sandwiches, red beans and rice: They're all here and all deftly prepared, as is a vegan po' boy loaded with cornmeal-fried vegetables and chipotle rémoulade. (As suggested by the restaurant's name, diners are encouraged to order a meat dish and three sides.) You never know what will be on the menu when you arrive, but if it's crawfish-andouille potpie day, you're in luck. Breakfast is especially fun, with such delights as thick shrimp-stuffed johnnycakes, cream cheese-filled french toast and shamelessly rich gravy-smothered biscuits; for some, the latter are a meal unto themselves. Calas --- Creole leftover-rice donuts --- round out all this Big Easiness; wash it down with an international beer and wine selection, a Bloody Mary or house-mixed watermelon sweet tea.