Sunday, 12/7/03: Up in Smoke

On Thursday, I wrote "Silver Spring Independent Restaurants vs. Soulless Corporate Invaders," which, as you may have noticed, had a bit of a civic-boosterish quality to it, sort of. I believe everything I wrote there, though; I'd go to the independent restaurant over its chain competitor every single time, just on the basis of quality of food. I hope this information gets around so that people who come to our town will know that they don't have to settle for restaurants they see every day. It's an information problem, for the most part, or at least I hope so.

I was also looking forward to getting good danish at Panera Bread, which is what I set out to do this morning. Panera Bread is on the southeast corner of Colesville Road and Georgia Avenue; on the southwest corner is the Discovery Channel building, on the northeast is an office building, and on the northwest is a Citgo station. Abutting the Citgo station is a small strip of commercial enterprises. When I walked down, smoke was billowing from the space directly above the Carolina Kitchen, and Colesville Road was completely closed off as seven firetrucks (I counted) and a few stray ambulances and police cars made sure the fire got no nearer to the Citgo.

The path to Panera Bread still clear, I entered, ordered my danish and asked the clerk if he knew what happened. He said that the strip had burst into flames around 7 am and that the firetrucks had been pouring in ever since.

The thought that the Carolina Kitchen may be badly off or have to close because of this fire saddens me greatly. I remember well the first time I went in there and had to get used to what seemed to be indifferent service in order to get what ended up being some excellent buffalo wings. I later learned that the service wasn't going to get any better, but at least most of the time it was jolly during its numerous pauses (especially if you've been in there a few times before), and if they don't actually serve every single thing on their posted menu at least they're cheerful about it.

I also learned, over the course of several visits, that every single thing you could order there was good. The rotisserie chicken burst with flavor and moisture and was subtly spiced to bring out the chicken-ness even better. The fried chicken, made according to the owner's grandmother's recipe, boasted less fat and more succulence than the chain alternatives. The sides all excelled — a small mountain of mashed potatoes with skins left on and spiked with sour cream, astonishingly intense cheddar flavor in the mac and cheese, decadent creamed spinach. And the German chocolate cake is unaccountably good — there's no way to reasonably expect a soul food restaurant to make a huge dense hunk of cake this moist and with just the right light chocolate flavor to contrast with the coconut-heavy icing.

I'll be putting this in the eventual review I do of the rest of Silver Spring's restaurants, but I wanted to put it up now in case I have to change the verb tense. I'm sure those firemen are doing all they can.

Oh, and Panera's danish suck. Covered with sugary almond glaze that obliterates what should be but isn't the distinct butter flavor of the pastry dough, too large to hold together after a couple bites, pedestrian fillings. Argh.

Update: The Carolina Kitchen will serve its tasty stuff again. The owner said on the news (I cannot find a link to this anywhere) that he had insurance and will rebuild. Maybe when he rebuilds, he will acquire a menuboard that only lists things that the Carolina Kitchen actually serves. But that wouldn't really be in keeping with the spirit of the thing.

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