Down-Home Downtown
You may not think a quest for comfort food could lead to trendy Fourth Street Live, but I’ve found a tummy-warming favorite for this winter — Red Star Tavern (568-5656), where the menu is loaded with cold-weather options, including soups, jambalaya and comforting staples such as pot roast and rigatoni.
Similar to what mom used to make, but with more pizzazz, the barbecue meatloaf ($12) shines brightest. The dish appears in an oversized bowl filled with a pool of tangy barbecue sauce. Perfectly peppered mashed potatoes — actually a delightful mix of cream, potato chunks and potato skin — hold down the center of the high-rimmed plate and form a cushion for a generous slice of thick meatloaf. Stuffed with Cheddar cheese, mushrooms and onions, the succulent meatloaf is also blanketed in sauteed mushrooms, which add more depth to the bite. The addition of french-fried onions, which are tossed into the bowl from every angle, and a handful of green peas add color and texture. Overall, the dish intertwines elements of crunch, cream and chew in a playful, albeit filling, way.
If the barbecue meatloaf doesn’t warm you up, the corn bread skillet with honey butter will. This $4 appetizer arrives hot in a cast-iron skillet. Sweet honey butter oozes across the crisped, golden bread. The bread packs a subtle punch of heat due to a sprinkling of poblano chiles inside the moist and chewy corn bread.
— Melanie Wolkoff Wachsman
