Open since 1998, Evanston’s Dixie Kitchen and Bait Shop serves up their classically Southern and Cajun style food seven days a week. It offers a wide variety of choices coupled with an old-style atmosphere that is hard to find anywhere else.
When you first walk through the doors, it’s not hard to notice that this place is a little different.
The tables are covered with red and white plastic checkered clothes, and the walls are adorned with old Coca-Cola advertisements and miniature alligators.
It also has neon signs advertising the restaurant’s fresh “gump” and pictures of old Southern farms to add to the atmosphere.
Once seated, instead of the conventional breadbasket, your waiter will present you with Dixie Kitchen’s very own corn bread pancakes. The basket comes with five or six of the silver dollar sized cakes along with the customary butter dishes. These pancakes are not only delicious, but go a long way in adding to the “Southern experience” the kitchen tries to provide.
The menu might just be the best part of the experience. Known for its wings, the restaurant offers five different styles and serve you a pound of your choice. There is a mild flavor, the Sweet Jalapeño, two medium flavors, Dixie Hot and Peach Glazed, a hot flavor, Jamaican Jerk and finally the extra hot Blazin’ Dixie.
Regardless of your preference for heat, the chicken wings are a definite must have. Cooked to perfection, the meat tends to fall off the bone in your mouth and leave you wanting more.
Aside from the wings, Dixie’s offers eight “Southern Specialties”, such as jambalaya, a Southern Sampler, shrimp & grits and of course, the promised gumbo. For those who are not familiar with this particular Southern specialty, gumbo is typically a strongly flavored stock mixed with a thickener, meat or shellfish and seasoned vegetables.
The gumbo at Dixie Kitchen is made with roux as its thickener, which is essentially flour and fat, and has shrimp, chicken and Andouille sausage. To finish it off, the stew is served over a plate of rice.
If these kinds of plates aren’t for you, they have a wide variety of other options that may be a bit more comforting. There is a a Meat n Three option and several pasta dishes to choose from.
The Meat n Three is one of the meat entrees that comes with anything from catfish fillet to a chicken breast, coleslaw, a corn muffin and two side dishes. If the Dixie Kitchen ensures one thing, it is that you will not be hungry when you leave.
Some of the pasta choices are Catfish Bienville and a seafood option, and all pasta dishes are offered in half sizes and come with garlic breadsticks.
The experience continues all the way to the side dishes, which do not fail to live up to the rest of the menu. Offering sides like Cheese Grits and Fried Sweet Plantains, the entire meal has the Cajun feel Dixie Kitchen is looking for.
Even the desserts, treats like peach cobbler and beignets, or three New Orleans styled pastries, go along with the theme. It truly is as if you have been transported to a restaurant in Louisiana for your meal.
Though Southern cooking may not be for everyone, it’s not only the food but the experience that is not to be missed at Dixie Kitchen.
The decorations, the aroma, the open floor seating, all of it adds to the old-fashioned and cozy je ne sais quoi you feel when you walk in, which makes it that much better. So for a change from Flattop or Noodles, try Dixie Kitchen and experience a little bit of that Southern cooking.