A recent family celebration took us to DAME'S CHICKEN AND WAFFLES in downtown Durham, North Carolina. For obvious reasons we were excited to order the Chicken and Waffles, but were not at all prepared for the many choices that were available to us. It was the list of SHMEARS and DRIZZLES that had us both shaking our heads!
Now a shmear is a sweet crème butter delicately whipped with the freshest, natural ingredients. The list of flavors included strawberry-crème, chocolate hazelnut, maple-pecan, baby-blueberry, vanilla-almond, peach apricot, and orange-honeycomb. The list of drizzles, flavored nuts and syrups, is as lengthy, and then of course, there are the waffle choices which include classic, sweet potato, gingerbread, blueberry and vegan. It's a lot, but thankfully they have a number of "inspirations" or combinations of flavors paired for you.
Big Daddy ordered the Carolina Cockerel which was three large wings, a blueberry waffle with the peach and apricot shmear. I ordered the Light Brown Leghorns, four drumsticks with a classic waffle and chocolate hazelnut shmear drizzled with caramel and cashews. We added sides of southern potato salad, mean collard greens and Ceci's mac and cheese.
From start to finish we both enjoyed our meals. The chicken was really good! Not great, but good. It was tender with a nicely crisped outside. Now, they are definitely heavy handed with the seasonings! Everything was highly flavored. The greens were cooked to perfection with just the right amount of bite but for me, the red pepper had it too hot to truly be enjoyable. We both enjoyed the potato salad and neither one of us is a fan of the macaroni and cheese. There was nothing cheesy about the mac and it was seasoned with something that tasted very "green" and "earthy". I got a basil taste but Big Daddy thought it might be something else. We would order the potato salad and the greens again, but would pass on the macaroni.
And I have to talk about the SHMEAR! That was some sort of good and slathered on the fluffiest, perfectly cooked waffle made it the highlight of the meal for me. I liked my chocolate-hazelnut and I liked Big Daddy's peach and apricot. I could have done without the caramel and cashew drizzle. I found that too sweet for my palate but he enjoyed it.
Our favorite uncle joined us for this meal and he was excited to share his impressions of our dinner. Like Big Daddy he had the Carolina Cockerel. He scored the greens highly, giving them an 8. He enjoyed the spicy heat. We all agreed the potato salad was a solid 10 and he found the chicken fair, feeling the pieces were a little too large for his tastes and seasoned with an herb he thought took away from the overall flavor.
The portions were generous and everyone walked out with leftovers for a late night snack. And I have to rave about the sweet tea. I drank three extremely large glasses and could have guzzled a gallon more.
Dame's Chicken and Waffle won't take the title for best fried chicken but they were a good time and the meal was enjoyable. We'll definitely visit them again.
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