A short while back, I met a dear friend and charitable colleague for lunch and opted to have our luncheon meeting at Restaurant Cotton. At the onset I felt as though this would be a good visit since we were fortunate enough to have Dylan Wallace as our waiter, with Chef Jack Melson heading the kitchen for our meal and Pastry Chef Cassie Kacvinksy at the helm for our dessert. 

Service: For those who are familiar with Dylan, I need not express his thoughtfulness nor his ability to go above and beyond for those who are lucky enough to be seated at his tables; however, for those that haven’t had the pleasure (and I strongly use the word “pleasure”) it is nothing short of a treat from start to finish.

Cuisine-wise:  I opted for the daily lunch special of C.F.S  (chicken fried steak) with braised collards and marinated local tomatoes, meanwhile my lunch guest partook of the shrimp & grits. Both dishes came out visually appealing, proportionately equivalent to the overall value of product contained in each dish, as well as having a very nice aroma to satisfy the senses. 

Flavor-wise:  My dish was seasoned quite lovely.  The braised collards were fork-tender to the palate as well as having a very subtle hint of pork smokiness without overpowering the flavorful texture of the collards themselves, splashed with a hit of house made pepper sauce and it was certainly a side that I’d delve to convey was “the bees knees”.  Moving right along, the marinated LOCAL tomatoes were light, refreshing and quite cleansing to the palate.  Containing a nice light tossed dressing, flavored with red onions, cucumbers, radishes and locally grown fresh tomatoes – just to name a few ingredients.  The star of the meal – the CFS.  For this dish, the meat was tenderized perfectly, battered in a house flour batter that included generous amounts of black pepper, and covered in a velvety smooth cream gravy.  The journey from fork to tongue was quite tasty.

Dessert:  As an added bonus, we were promptly presented with a copy of Cotton’s new dessert menu to select something divine from, and the creme brulee bread pudding seemed to “leap” off the menu and yell with a voice of its own.  Decadent in its own right, with a side pairing of a tangy chutney that sinfully complimented the overall sweetness of the bread pudding.

Over-all impression:  This visit to Cotton was a very welcome change from visits I’ve had in the past, and will most certainly go back to visit with Chef Jack, Chef Cassie and Dylan again in the near future and enjoy lunch again.

For more dishes and information about this restaurant click  Restaurant Cotton.