photograph by michael donahue
Clay Schuchardt and Felicia Willett-Schuchardt
Like countless other food-lovers, I waited three long years to dine on cuisine from Felicia Suzanne’s. I finally got my chance the other night, when I visited her new location at 383 South Main.
The food and atmosphere were sublime. Unlike the sprawling former location on North Main Street, the new Felicia Suzanne’s is intimate and elegant. But not “intimate” as in tiny. Instead, it’s a comfortable restaurant with lots of seating in the bar area, which is where we enjoyed our meal, and in the adjoining dining room.
photograph by michael donahue
The main dining room is intimate and elegant.
The restaurant also includes seating on side and back porches. But it does have a “bistro feel,” which Felicia Willett-Schuchardt says she and her husband/co-owner, Clay Schuchardt, were going for.
The old one-story brick building at South Main and Talbot had been home to many businesses over the years, most recently Spindini restaurant.
When I think of quintessential Felicia Suzanne cuisine, deviled eggs and a dish called “Sunday Sugo” immediately come to mind. They’re both on the menu, long with many of her Low Country and Creole classics. (She honed her professional skills in Emeril Lagasse’s New Orleans kitchen.) Felicia says she wanted to include items diners had been craving for three years.
I was late, so I asked my fellow diners to order a cocktail and some deviled eggs as an appetizer. Three types are listed: house-smoked salmon and caviar, hot sauce-bacon, and chow-chow. I could make a meal out of all three, but I asked for the salmon and caviar. If you’ve never had a Felicia Willett deviled egg, you’ve never had a deviled egg. These are over-the-top good. The caviar blends perfectly with the eggs.
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photograph by michael donahue
Decree Wallace with drinks
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Cedric Gardner has been the kitchen manager for 20 years.
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Justine Reid and deviled eggs
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Inga Theeke with the “BLFGT” salad and crepes
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Chris Hewitt with the “Sunday Sugo”
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Grace Climey with two desserts
We also ordered oysters, which are always great to find on any restaurant menu. The chargrilled oysters, which include white wine, chilies, garlic, and parmesan cheese, were exceptional. I’m anxious to try all the others, including “Oysters of Love,” which the menu says are “drizzled with New Orleans bbq.” They also have hot-sauced oysters with a “hot sauce butter sauce and blue cheese fondue” (that sounds amazing) and raw Gulf oysters with cocktail sauce, saltines (of course), and a balsamic mignonette.
My salad choice was a Felicia Suzanne classic: “BLFGT,” which consists of bacon, cream remoulade dressing, Flo’s (the chef’s nickname from when she lived and worked in New Orleans) pimento cheese, and fried green tomatoes. I loved the touch of sweetness to it, which Clay told me came from brown sugar.
Choosing an entree was difficult. I wanted the Gulf fish, a black grouper with cornbread crust, fresh lump crab meat, and lemon butter sauce. But I also wanted the Sunday Sugo, which is my favorite Felicia Suzanne’s classic. I consider it the ultimate comfort food. It’s beef and pork from Home Place Pastures in Como, Mississippi, with parmesan risotto in a red gravy, which is suitably rich. This is such a fabulous dish that my table-mates and I compromised, splitting both entrees.
Fans of Felicia’s shrimp and grits will be happy to know this dish also is included on the menu, along with Scottish salmon and filet of beef tenderloin.
photograph by michael donahue
Felicia Suzanne’s has found a new home on South Main.
We ordered the fried green tomatoes (with Creole remoulade sauce and Flo’s chow-chow) and the decadently good mac and cheese with smoked provolone cheese. They also have “BBB” (bacon, beer, and brown sugar) Southern cooked greens, and a spinach Madeline, with Manchego cheese and Flo’s pickled jalapeños.
We concluded this feast with a strawberry trifle (sponge cake layered with mascarpone cream and strawberries) and the “Peppermint Patty,” (fudge and warm chocolate sauce on peppermint gelato).
I think the latter was my favorite, but, then again, I really loved that trifle — and several dessert items still beckon, like the “Milk & Cookies” (the “milk” is sweetened cream spiked with bourbon and brandy).
Felicia tells me this is her opening menu, but it will evolve into more bistro-type fare, including house-made pastas. In addition to dishes from her library of recipes collected over 23 years, she says new items will include steak frites and a chilled seafood platter.
She also plans to add a West Indies crab salad, a dish that Clay’s mother is known for.
More items will be available when Flo’s, her grab-and-go establishment, opens in the bay on the south side of the restaurant. It’s slated to start serving in time for the holidays, and I’ll certainly be back for more.
Felicia Suzanne’s, 383 South Main
