"Modern Creole," rather, is the term being used to describe the cooking here. And it invites images of Louisiana that, coming up on Mardi Gras, had me nostalgic for my old New Orleans days. Of course, the great Creole dishes I savored during my residence there, from the gumbos and griddled pecan pies to the smothered pork chops and definitive fried chicken, rank among the greatest soul food I've ever eaten.
But it's all a matter of semantics, I suppose, as long as the cooking is good. The name, said Johnson, is really intended to illuminate the restaurant's personal approach, drawing upon the connection between mother and daughter.
"It's about me and my mom, and the food she makes," says Johnson, 24, a former Temple film major and the 2007 Miss Pennsylvania U.S.A. "It's about us."
Of course, close family work relationships aren't always seamless.
"She thinks she's the boss of me," says the chef of her daughter. "She's a foodie, but Samantha isn't always right."
We experienced our own mini-version of the familial miscommunication after Angiebrown had left a message on my guest's phone confirming our reservation.
"We don't take reservations," snipped Johnson when we showed up to a nearly full dining room for our meal. (In fact, reservations are accepted for parties of five or more - we were four.)
There was, luckily, one last table to squeeze into. Unluckily, my disappointing meals here made it clear that this mother-daughter act had put more polish into the personality of their concept than into actually nailing down some satisfying flavors - Creole, soul or otherwise.
