5 Sisters Blues Cafe

With urban-renewal brick walls on which hang blues-themed folk art paintings for sale, 5 Sisters is a pleasant place to dip into traditional African-American-Dixie cuisine, much of which is very good. When we stop in for lunch on Saturday, the clientele is 90% Caucasian, many of them large, happy families with babies in tow. Classic blues play on the sound system. The air conditioning is efficient and comfy. Lots of light streams in through big windows.

Fried chicken is juicy with brightly-seasoned skin – available by the piece either on a plate or on a waffle on a plate. BBQ shrimp (peel them yourself) come cosseted in a spicy sauce that is quite delicious, but the shrimp are mummified, dense, flavorless. There are too many good shrimp in this part of Florida to make excuses for these.

We like the side dishes. Cheese grits are vigorously seasoned and luxuriously cheesy. Cornbread dressing is radiant with pepper and spice and stout enough to be a meal unto itself. Collard greens are agreeably bitter, just soft enough, and include lots of little lengths of tender stem that is nice to chew. Sugar and Spice yams, lolling in syrup, are uncomplicated, soft and friendly. Banana pudding is light and frothy – sometimes available in a chocolate version; and there always is a fruit cobbler on the menu.

5 Sisters is a live-music venue, with jazz and blues bands at Sunday brunch and in the evenings Thursday through Saturday. The current schedule is available on the 5 Sisters Facebook page.