Dame's Chicken and Waffles

Disregarding the absurdity of placing Durham on a par with London, Bull City residents can be proud that the New York Times has listed Durham as one of the forty-one places to go in 2011. I'll return to the list at the end of this post, but for now let me report that the city that the Dukes built was chosen for its downtown food scene, which over the past four years or so has undergone a miraculous efflorescence. The article mentions Scratch, Revolution, Rue Cler, and Parker and Otis (although the last is proximate to downtown rather than in downtown proper).

Readers of the Times who decide, yes, Durham really is a place to go in 2011 should of course eat at all of those fine restaurants; but they will have an incomplete experience if they miss another downtown eatery, Dame's Chicken and Waffles. Put simply, Dame's "classy hen," a fried chicken cutlet atop a waffle, is the best meal one can have in Durham. I will even venture to say that it's as good a meal as one can have in London.

The waffle alone is worth the trip. In fact, it was the best waffle I've had in any restaurant. That the cutlet--actually a whole boneless chicken breast--tasted like New Orleans turned a good meal into a great one. The crust was firm and spicy, and the cutlet came right out of the fryer.

The waffle, which in its misshapen grandeur was nearly the size of the plate, came with maple syrup and a small scoop of vanilla-almond cream butter, both served on the side. The waffle is so big, you will want to ask for an extra serving of each.

At Dame's, one can order chicken wings or drumsticks or quarters; but I recommend the cutlet: one can cut through it and to the waffle underneath and put both on the fork together.

The buttered grits that came as a side dish were good too and far better than the miserable fare that nearly every other restaurant shamefully offers. (Note to my fellow Southerners: Do not, under any circumstances, allow Yankee friends to order grits from any restaurant in the South, and certainly from no restaurant in Durham. Do them, and me, a favor: buy some authentic stone-ground grits [the Crook's Corner grits, which are available at Parker and Otis, do just fine] and cook them yourself at home.)

Quite surprisingly for a downtown restaurant Dame's is open seven days a week, and is open to as late as 10:00 on Friday and Saturday nights. For their hours and menu, visit their website.

Back to the Times's list. What is most significant about it is that it recognizes Durham as its own place. I suspect that even five years ago the Times would have been incapable of thinking of Durham as something other than one of the population centers that make up what essayist Joe Queenan once called the "faceless, amorphous Raleigh-Durham." That, at least in the eyes of one of the world's newspapers of record, Durham has succeeded in claiming its own identity is reason to be proud indeed.