Priscilla's Ultimate Soulfood Cafeteria

To judge by its looks, Priscilla's Ultimate Soulfood Cafeteria in Streamwood, Ill., could be any large cafeteria pretty much anywhere, with mostly neutral colors and spare decor. Pleasant but not special.

But Priscilla's is special. It charms the nose first, from the moment you walk in. The place smells like the wonderful working kitchen of an old friend. That is, an old friend who really knows how to cook, who honed her talents in the Deep South, and who can feed a small army.

We went on Sunday for a late lunch. Sunday's menu includes a choice of main meats: fried chicken, fried catfish, beef short ribs, turkey, ham hocks, baked chicken and cornish hens. The sides are many, and most everything you'd expect: dressing, greens, candied yams, rice and gravy, corn, blackeyed peas, cole slaw, mashed potatoes, potato salad, and a multitude of beans -- string, pinto, red, baked, lima, navy.

Other days of the week have other menus, sporting the likes of pot roast, liver & onions, gumbo, pork chops, meatloaf, barbecue ribs and (on Thursdays) ox tail. I have to try that last one.

Priscilla herself, an affable black woman likely a few years younger than I am, greeted us as we came in. She and her husband Mansfield own the brand's two locations. I told her we'd wanted to try the cafeteria for a while now, and had heard good things about it. She seemed glad to hear that, and told us how each meat came with two sides and cornbread, for the fixed price, not including a drink, and that it would be a lot of food. She wasn't kidding.

I asked her about the other location in Hillside, an inner western suburb that I rarely have occasion to visit. That one was going well, she said. Some day, she added, she hoped to have "48 more" locations. I wished her well with that. Retail expansion is no easy thing.

Mainly I hope the quality doesn't suffer in any expansion. We took an instant liking to the Sunday offering of baked chicken, which luxuriates in a savory brown gravy -- we all ordered it, except for Ann, who had a kid's plate with fried chicken and macaroni & cheese. All the sides we had were good, too; and each one fresh. No opening industrial-sized cans of green beans (for example) for Priscilla. The desserts looked good: cakes and pies and pudding and cobblers. But the rest of the food was so filling that dessert had to wait for another visit, which will certainly happen sometime. All in all, haven't had Southern food this good since the last time I passed through the South.