When a restaurant winds up changing its name less than a month after it opened, that usually is not a good sign. But Southern Social, which this past week removed all traces of its original name Swine & Co. after a little unpleasantness with a similarly named restaurant in Miami, seems to be booming.
On a Wednesday night last week, this fairly large restaurant occupying the 14th Avenue space that once housed Avanzare was packed, predominantly with young people, and since it does not take reservations, we had a half-hour wait.
Headline News: Featuring hand-crafted cocktails and craft beer as well as “southern cuisine with a progressive twist,” this is clearly a restaurant where you go with friends to drink and have fun as much as to eat. Created by the team that brought Vero its edgiest bar, Filthy’s (originally called Filthy McNasty’s), it is hardly surprising that a restaurant originally called Swine would have a similar young vibe.
Look & Feel: With bare lightbulbs dangling from a black ceiling, dark concrete floors, and distressed wood planks on the walls of the two dining rooms, Southern Social has a hip, country-casual appearance. When the wood plank dining tables are filled with people having a good time, as they were on the night we were there, the restaurant is extremely noisy.
Food: Our party of three sampled two “shareables” and three “supper” entrées.
The appetizers we tried were the deviled eggs ($9) and the burnt ends ($12). While waiting for these to arrive, our server brought a basket of cornbread to the table. Cornbread is a wonderful staple of southern cuisine when it is moist; these chunks, alas, were dry and crumbly.
The deviled eggs, adorned with specks of candied bacon and chives, were a nice rendition of this southern classic, though they would have benefited from a little more garnish. The burnt ends – snippets from the narrow end of the brisket that could have been a bit more blackened – were served with fried onions and a flavorful house BBQ sauce.
For entrées, I ordered the shrimp and grits ($21), my husband chose the smoked brisket ($18), and our companion went for the short rib sliders ($12).
The perfectly prepared shrimp were served atop grit cakes with a sprinkling of crispy deep-fried collard greens. While the grits were swimming in Andouille butter, the dish had curiously little smoked-sausage taste. My husband’s brisket, which customarily comes with baked beans here, was served at his request with smashed potatoes. Both the brisket and the short rib sliders were a bit too dry.
Drink: Southern Social offers an intriguing variety of hand-crafted cocktails, craft beer and ale, and three categories of wine by the glass: tasty ($6), interesting ($9) and delicious ($12). I opted to try one of the “tasty” whites, and my husband chose a “tasty” red. Later in the meal, when we ordered another glass, we were told they were all out of the “tasty” – and we switched to the “delicious.” Better, but twice the price.
Service: Our server Samantha was helpful, knowledgeable and attentive – everything you’d want in a server.
Prices: Appetizer prices run from $9 up to $14. Entrées run from $18 to a top of $24 for the hanger steak. Handhelds served with waffle fries run from $11 up to $13 for the pork and brisket “company burger.” Salads run from $5 to $14.
Initial impressions: A party of two can dine here – having a couple of beers or glasses of wine, sharing an appetizer, and enjoying two entrées – for $70 to $80, before tax and tip (somewhat more if you’re having mixed drinks). If the kitchen ups its game to match the bar’s performance, our guess is that this nouveau Southern gastropub is in for a long run.
I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at [email protected].
The reviewer dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of Vero Beach 32963.
