CityView Magazine - Fayetteville, NC
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/35097
f ood SOUTHERN SCRUMPTIOUS Steve the Southern Gourmet serves low brow food in high style | By Bhairavi Bhatt Opposite page | Michael Broadhursts’ Turkey Barbecue creation. Left | One of four versions of Shrimp and Grits. Below | Yanci Evans’ homemade lemon cake with cream cheese icing. “ Southern” and “gourmet” are not words one often finds side by side. We tend to think of gourmet foods as being difficult to pronounce and hard to reproduce in home kitchens. And southern food conjures up images of guilty pleasures, like the fried treats country grandmas cooked up in tiny, grease- splattered kitchens. Steve Graham has not only successfully strung those two words and concepts together, he has served up wholesome southern cooking in his restaurant, Steve the Southern Gourmet, since 2009. As the owner and head chef, Steve became motivated to convert his passion for cooking into a full-time catering business seven years before actually opening the restaurant. It all started when he noticed that his family and friends were constantly praising his cooking, skills he learned, of course, from his mother Ms. Rita and Grandmother Mabel. The two ladies also taught him how to add southern hospitality and lots of love to his restaurant fare. As a child, Steve said he enjoyed his mother’s Shrimp and Grits and ate his Grandma Mabel’s Stew Beef every Sunday. He serves dishes like these, and many more, to the customers who frequent his restaurant. Due to the unique, homey, flavors presented and warm hospitality, Steve has regular customers who visit him at least once a week, bringing in new friends with them all the time. First time visitors often become regulars after they too become hooked on Steve’s broccoli casserole or his Danny Boy’s Chicken Fricassee. He said that, while he unquestionably enjoys cooking, he enjoys the gratification expressed by his customers even more, as that is what it is all about. To keep up with his ever-growing number of customers, Steve the Southern Gourmet CityViewNC.com | 25