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This is the place where an Anita Baker ballad slips through the speakers and the smell of bacon floats in an irresistible fog.
Regulars (and who isn’t?) push through the glass door and sink into a red folding chair hankering for their usual order. The salmon croquette and the catfish are favorites, but the grits are always the star, arriving shimmering in butter and crowned with a fistful of shrimp.
This is the place where Mr. Elliott calls ahead every Thursday to request a cheese omelet, sourdough bread, hash browns and extra grits to share with his wife. Barbara Shay, the chef and owner, sometimes tosses in an extra blueberry muffin or a slice of red velvet cake.
Ms. Shay is the heart of this establishment and doing what her mother once did — a daily dance between the kitchen and the customers whose names she calls out as they enter, her talent for chitchat serving as her own distraction.
She is gregarious and warm but displeased with those who inquire about the exact ingredients in her flavorful coffee. “Don’t come in here and ask me what’s in my recipes,” she likes to say.
Otherwise, she is happy to launch into one of her stories — the time an admirer bought her a Corvette, the time she danced on “Soul Train” and met the show’s host, Don Cornelius. Her daughter, Annisa Faquir, 39, manages the books and the register and reminds her that the grill is still sizzling, the orders piling up.
