Thomas MacMillan Photo
Congress Avenue has a new soul food restaurant — and a “nu” soul food restaurant, too.
Fiancees Steven Ross and Shayla Crawford opened the new restaurant, Cast Iron Soul, across from the John C. Daniels School on Congress Avenue this weekend.
Shayla Crawford, who’s 25, calls the cuisine “nu soul,” a scattering of healthful alternatives to traditional deep-South, deep-fried dishes.
Jeremy Lent Photo
Shayla Crawford and Stephen Ross
“Sometimes people don’t want fried or smoked pork chops — they want them grilled,” said Crawford, also pointing out the menu’s Spanish and Caribbean influences. (Crawford’s main culinary inspiration, her mother, is from Jamaica.) Stephen Ross, who’s 31, is the co-owner and head chef.
They opened their restaurant down the street from the former home of Sandra’s, a popular soul food restaurant that operated first on Congress Avenue, then on Whitney Avenue, for 17 years before closing in 2008.
Cast Iron Soul is a cozy space with six tables and deep-red walls — the color of barbecue sauce.
Ross and Crawford met working at the old Sandra’s 10 years ago. Ross had just started as a line cook, Crawford as a server. Ross, who went on to cook at Zinc and Barcelona before attending the Connecticut Culinary Institute, credited Sandra Harris and the other chefs he’s worked under for helping him get to where he was on Saturday.
“They taught me about flavor, about the mindset of being a chef and about putting everything together for a meal,” Ross said. “Today, I’m showing that I appreciate what they did for me — taking my skills and doing something with it.”
Ross’s culinary influences go back to his mother and grandparents, who cooked Southern food for him as he grew up. His grandparents, Mildred and Bishop Ronnie Brayboy, were among the first customers on Saturday. They sat down quietly and, this time, let their grandson do the work.
“I’m so glad to see him doing something constructive,” said Bishop Ronnie Brayboy, originally from South Carolina and now living with Mildred in Bridgeport. For his part, Ross said that he’d soon be adding his grandfather’s famous sauce to the menu.
Saturday at Cast Iron Soul was largely a family affair, with both Ross’s and Crawford’s siblings on hand to serve food and work the register. Crawford’s mother spearheaded the restaurant in the first place: After watching Ross and Crawford run their own New Haven-based catering business, Cast Iron Catering, for two years, she thought it was time for them to settle down — at least cooking-wise. Without telling either of them, she set out to look for a suitable place for a restaurant. Only after she found the Congress Avenue location this past May, as Crawford recalled, did she call the two to say, “Come over here. I want you to take a look at something.”
Minutes after opening, Ross and Crawford already had a line of customers. Renard Jowers was among them, and in between bites of blackened catfish and spare ribs, praised the return of Southern cooking to New Haven’s Southwest.
“We’re lacking a lot of things in this neighborhood,” Jowers said, “and soul food was one of them.”
By coincidence, the night before the opening, local curator and writer Frank Mitchell stepped onto to the Long Wharf Theatre stage to talk about the need, in New Haven and elsewhere, to “recapture authentic regional foodways,” and to avoid generic cuisine.
Mitchell was the guest lecturer at Friday night’s performance of “Chautauqua!”, a play by the National Theater of the United States of America. After the show, Mitchell expressed fond memories of Sandra’s.
Mitchell then expressed surprise when told by a reporter that a new soul food restaurant would be opening in New Haven the very next day. Some wishes come true.
Looks clean and inviting. I'd like to stop in, but what are the hours? What's the address?
(550 Congress Ave.. 203-495-8400. [email protected] . www.castironsoul.com )