Now that you bring real southern cooking and soul food into the discussion, though, I will have to reconsider my review and rating thusly: I’m lowering the rating from 3.5 to 2.5 - Roudabush’s would have been a 3.5, and so far Basics doesn’t approach their quality or value proposition. In terms of the review, I will have to be clearer and mince fewer words as well: the meatloaf was barely mediocre and the fried green tomatoes were pure-T sorry. If that meatloaf was the example of a dying art, you can call the undertaker, as it has passed while we spoke.

I don’t remember seeing the pulled pork on the lunch menu, but I don’t know that I would be so optimistic as to order anything like barbecue at a place like that even before the tomatoes came out. If I go back, I will give it and the collards a try, though, given your ringing endorsement.

I did not find the pricing to be anything like extremely affordable: if you want real Southern blueplate for a real blueplate price, get the meat and *three* daily special at the Pirate’s Table on Carolina Beach Road, including tea, tax and tip for about the price of the meatloaf here. They not only have great meatloaf, they even have liver and onions from time to time, and their hushpuppies alone are worth the trip. I haven’t been in several months, since they discontinued the crabcakes as a daily choice (they weren’t the fanciest but they were mighty good for a $6 blueplate!)but I can’t imagine it’s changed much.

Part of the spirit of southern dining is the social aspect exemplified by The Daniel Boone Inn in Boone, NC and many other great institutions that dot the Appalachian landscape where you pass bowls of fried chicken around the table and listen to bluegrass-laden gospel music. The Basics dining room has a level of familial intimacy on par to Sunday dinner at Grandmas house – with periodic echoes of Johnny Cash bellowing from the background PA. The other popular format of southern dining is the quintessential grand buffet. There have been a number of southern buffets that have come and go over the years. One by one they fall victim to the worlds warnings about cholesterol and trans-fats - leaving Golden Coral at the head of the table and another point on the scorecard for big national chains. Having abandoned cafeteria-style buffets and bowls of fried chicken and biscuits, The Basics’ “Gourmet” may be the only way to lure foreigners to this genre of cooking in an inauthentic context. I hate to think that the Golden Coral has a monopoly on country cooking.

I appreciate the comments about The Basics’ menu in the relative sense, but this slightly negative presentation in the forum of the grove project may undermine the virtues of a dying art even if it is wrapped in bacon. I’ll take it anyway I can. Next time I recommend trying the chicken and dumpling soup…you won’t be disappointed. I’ve had southern vegetables cooked every way you can imagine from slimy to al dente… I must say that aside from being slightly salty, The Basics’ collards are some of the best I’ve ever had – good texture, great flavor. By comparison, another notable highlight from the menu is the pulled pork BBQ. Although my favorite local pork at the moment comes from Billy’s Pork and Beef (sorry, you have to go north to Wallace for this jewel), the pork at The Basics runs a close second.

There is a huge open fault line between the abstract ideologies of Southern, Low Country and Country cooking and The Basics’ has found a way to at least conceptually satisfy them all. Please encourage all of your friends and family to go. We can’t afford to lose another one. The pricing is extremely affordable and includes student discounts on select lunch menu items.

Regarding Morphine, thanks Ranald for the info. I didn’t realize that they were gone. I really like their music.

From one pepper fiend to another, you must locate a song called “French Fries w/Pepper.” It’s by the late, lamented band Morphine and it’s off their 1997 CD called Like Swimming. Alas, the lead singer, Mark Sandman, had a heart attack a few years later and died during a performance in Europe.