The Moose Cafe

Here's the thing, I hate stereotypes, I do. Southern accents, sweet tea, redneckery are all the punch-lines of living in the south. The Moose Cafe out by the The Farmers' Market, is all these things and worse. I should hate it, but I don't. Let's say I've come to embrace southern living in the last few months, and while I don't understand how the southern accent won the sexiest accent in North America, I do love our food. Some of it's quite uncouth, most of it very fattening, yet I find I'm justifying my time here in the south as an opportunity. That's right, a free-for-all of sugar, gravy and deep-fried-edness that I likely will never experience again if I ever move away.

Honestly The Moose Cafe, if not for their uniquely odd southern creations like gravy covered chicken fingers, would be right at home in south of France. Farm to table cooking with real, honest-to-goodness ingredients is very appealing to me. Everything I've had there is excellent. Sure it's a bit silly to drink sweet-tea from mason jars, or have biscuits (big enough to be a meal in their own right) as appetizers, but it's also a lot of delicious fun.

Where else can I switch into the southern dialect that I've long (and shamefully) erased from my persona, take a picture with Marty Moose out front, then hunker down for fried-green tomatoes, and corn bread (with real corn in it)? The barbecue chicken is so heavily smoked, that it's likely you'll gain cancer merely from consuming the baked-in carcinogens. I'm not saying it's bad, in fact it's probably some of the best barbecue chicken I've ever had. It's just, if we're to be honest, The Moose Cafe, like much of southern food is not the sort of diet plan you should be sharing with your cardiologist. Add some booze, drugs, and a few strippers and I imagine this place is a bit what heaven looks like.

So here's the bottom line. This place is quintessential southern, and absolutely Greensboro. I can't think of a restaurant that more fits in with the culture and personality of the Piedmont Triad than this resto. The food was great, the price cheap, and you can buy your Christmas tree (or fudge, fruits and veggies) across the street.  It's a well ran restaurant worthy of being the best choice for culinary indulgences of a southern-kind. It's everything that's both wrong and right, which as crazy as it sounds, makes the guilt of capitulation far more appetizing than the regret of never trying Moose Cafe's sinful southern selections.