Great Southern Cafe: Grits and That's Not All....
83 Central Square, Seaside, (850) 231-7327

Hours: Open daily for breakfast, 8-11 a.m.; lunch, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; dinner at 5 p.m.
Reservations: Not accepted
Children’s Menu: Yes
Major credit cards
Dress: Casual

By Bruce Collier
December 11, 2008 Issue


Great Southern Cafe is as close to the center of "old" Seaside as it is possible to be. The restaurant occupies a one-story structure patterned after an old-fashioned Florida beach house, which it may in fact have once been. The cafe has a large, closed-in porch (where the liquor bar is located), a wine and beer bar inside, and several dining rooms of varying size. The seats are comfortable and the walls are hung with original art and posters. It really is like eating at someone's house.

We ate there on a Saturday night, and business was good. Great Southern does not take reservations, but we had no wait. We were seated at one of the tables-for-two near the inside bar. A television was on, but the volume was kept at a reasonable level. Our friendly server got us drinks (in additional to cocktails, they serve draft and bottled beer and wine by the glass), told us about the specials, and left us to consider. Specials are also written up on a chalkboard outside, and one on the inside as well.

We each ordered an appetizer—fried calamari and a half-dozen oysters Rockefeller. Other starters are a daily soup (turkey and andouille that day) oysters on the half-shell, crab cakes with fried green tomatoes, marinated olives, collard and artichoke dip, oysters Bienville, oysters Arcadia, crab claws, buffalo wings, and "soul rolls"—chicken and collard greens in spring roll wrappers with assorted condiments.

The squid arrived first (the oysters took a little more time), and was the thickly-battered variety. The tender rings were served with a mild marinara sauce, and disappeared pretty fast. We were hungry after a long day, and Great Southern Cafe is an excellent choice for people in such a state. Like the rest of the menu items, the appetizers are robust and rich, much influenced by Gulf and Louisiana bayou cuisine.

The oysters came hot, loaded with a rich, bacon-laced cream sauce. They, too, did not stay for long. My companion left most of them to me, and I finished them down to the last drop of sauce. The portion is six, and a dozen would have been a meal.

For the main course, my friend had pecan-crusted fish of the day (mahi mahi) and I tried an old-school New Orleans buffet dish—grits and grillades. The mahi had a crunchy batter, and the portion size led my companion to divide it right away for next day's lunch. On the side, though definitely not an afterthought, was a mound of "bourbon-spiked" mashed sweet potatoes, and crisp grilled green beans. Good cold-weather fare.

The grits were not the plain-old kind, but were blended with smoked Gouda cheese. They made a creamy bed for the grillades—beef slow-roasted with tomatoes, carrots and wine into a luxurious stew. Crisp-fried sweet potato "hay" made a nice garnish. I managed all the beef, but took about half the grits home for later. They stayed creamy even after reheating.

Other main courses were cheese grits with spiced shrimp, bacon, mushrooms and garlic, blackened, grilled or cracker meal-crusted fried shrimp, fried oysters, a seafood platter, grilled salmon, pasta, New York strip or filet mignon, braised beef and ginger chicken. These may change nightly, as will the specials. There are also dinner salads with chicken or salmon, a flank steak salad with bleu cheese, sandwiches with pulled pork, shrimp or oyster po-boys, burgers, chicken, muffuletta, and a roast beef French dip sandwich.

Great Southern Cafe also offers an interesting selection of "Southern sides," a departure from the usual potatoes, rice and grilled vegetables. Diners can have black-eyed peas, collard greens, fried okra, scallion mashed potatoes, smoked Gouda grits, fried green tomatoes, stewed tomatoes and okra, fries or a salad.

Desserts are the recited kind, and there were two that night—key lime pie and pecan pie. We split the latter. The texture was more like that of a brownie (or a blondie) than the traditional corn syrup-based pecan pie filling, and it was served warm. Ice cream would have been nice, but the kitchen may have thought we were too full. They were right.

Great Southern Cafe has been around for a while. The menu has changed a bit over that time, but the core concept has prevailed. Both concept and execution are solid—take traditional elements like grits, sweet potatoes, oysters and local fish, tweak them a little with regional spices and non-traditional ingredients, then serve them up in Southern-style portions. It's coastal, it's bayou, it's country, it's all good. We were told they serve meals "365 days of the year," so if your holiday dinner hasn't been planned yet, there's a cafe in Seaside where they'll have your number.

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