My spouse and I visited Southern Hospitality for brunch on a
Saturday morning in early December 2018. Southern Hospitality is open Tuesdays
through Sundays from 11:00 or 11:30 am until late (11:00 pm, 12:00 midnight,
2:00 am, depending on the night); on Mondays, the restaurant doesn’t open until
5:00 pm. You can book a spot using the online Open Table reservation system. Although
we had a reservation, and although we arrived just as the restaurant was
opening, the host had difficulty finding a place to seat us. Upon meeting us,
he asked how long we planned to stay, which was not a warm welcome! We did not
want to sit at a high-top table in the bar area, but he said he was reserving
the regular-height tables in the rear dining room for a large party who would
arrive more than an hour later (which was sooner than we anticipated departing).
Southern Hospitality first opened in New York in 2007 on the
Upper East Side. The Hell’s Kitchen venue on 9th Avenue (between 45th
and 46th Streets) opened in 2011. The restaurant idea was conceived
by two restauranteurs and their celebrity friend Justin Timberlake (who is not
an investor/owner). The Southern Concepts Restaurant Group operates Southern
Hospitality, as well as other properties/dining concepts in the Southwestern US,
an area of the country that does not have its own style of barbecue (unlike
North Carolina, St. Louis, and Texas). The Midtown venue seats about 165
patrons at a time, either in the large front room (at the bar, at high-top
tables, or at a few regular tables), or in a smaller rear dining room (with
regular tables) that has a tiny semi-private dining space attached. Wood
features prominently in the decor, along with red pops of color.
The restaurant serves Memphis, Tennessee-style barbecue
dishes. To start, we couldn’t resist ordering their famous Bayou Bloody Mary, made
with smoked vodka and garnished with a brisket slider, spare rib, bacon, and a
pickle (definitely Instagram-worthy!). The restaurant also offers bottomless
regular bloody marys, Bellinis, and mimosas at brunch time, which many guests
took advantage of on the day that we dined. As starters, we shared the Brussel
sprouts and the tater tots, followed by the brisket platter (served with
coleslaw and cornbread) and the crispy shrimp (served with fries). We shared
the banana pudding for dessert
We enjoyed our
brunch at casual Southern Hospitality BBQ; the Bayou Bloody Mary was memorable!
