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Southern chef and blues adherent open a new juke joint
Friday, Feb. 12, 2010
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by EMILY BARNES
Co-owners Gene Cook, left, and Michelle Collins opened Delta Blues Juke Joint & Diner in what was formerly Herb's Restaurant in Waldorf. In front of Collins is a plate of smoked chicken with macaroni and cheese and string beans. Cook and Collins are engaged.
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Michelle Collins, who has spent most of her working life as an occupational therapist, grew up listening to blues. She moved here from the Midwest 23 years ago and has spent those years waiting for the right time, the right place.
Gene Cook, Collins' new business partner and fiance, started by serving Southern barbecue out of a food truck. His next business in Charles County was a modest carryout spot on U.S. 301 — Gene's Fish-Chicken-Ribs — which has been closed for some time.
Not far from there, on Old Washington Road, you will find what used to be Herb's Restaurant, which is where Cook and Collins went searching for a home to combine their respective passions for live blues and Southern cookin'.
As Collins recalls on the phone, she looked at the paneling and absorbed the "rustic feeling of it."
"This was a juke joint!" Collins says.
Welcome, then, to Delta Blues Juke Joint & Diner — a diner, for sure, and a juke joint even the Chamber of Commerce would approve of.
We're many miles from the Mississippi Delta, and we're many moons removed from Charlie Patton dropping in on a Saturday evening to play for tips. Even so, on a Friday or Saturday night, you might swing by to hear a local blues outfit without paying a cover, and perhaps soak it all in with some Cook-style Southern fare and a big, cold beer.
Though the roadside diner switched over to Delta Blues in late November, it feels like no one knows about this place yet. (If you're driving on Old Washington Road, look for the roadside sign, or for Christmas lights dangling from the gutter and lining the roof, or for signs in the window advertising whiting and catfish.)
One Friday night in the diner, the special was a bowl of spaghetti with meat sauce, like mom makes it, with a crispy hunk of garlic bread and two fried chicken wings that were really four fried chicken wings. A domestic beer, size large, came out in an oversize frosty mug that took some effort to hoist (a good thing), and dessert was a small bowl of "dump cake." What's that? That would be a kind of peach cobbler meets pound cake that will just about knock your socks off.
Nighttime fare here includes a standard and late-night dinner menu, which is served from 10 p.m. "until it's all gone." Among the late-night munchies, the most distinctive, easily, is catfish nuggets. The main menu has items like catfish, Southern fried wings and ribs, and each dish comes with two sides. "You like the blues?" asks a server.
You bet. And blues it is.
The recorded music drifts out from the connecting barroom, where a CD player and a Blind Lemon Jefferson album rest on the windowsill. The homey barroom has blues memorabilia on the wall, a pool table and space at the counter for maybe a dozen.
Back in the diner, posters pay homage to jazz and blues legends. The easygoing space has booths, tables and a counter with low stools. When bands play, the staff removes two booths, thus potentially creating a nightlife space where café and bar life can coexist.
Meanwhile, Delta Blues offers plenty of what I've been focusing on in January and February: great deals.
It opens daily at 6 a.m., offering big breakfast platters (even fish and grits) for about $5; a three-egg, three-meat Georgia omelet ($8.50); and breakfast "sammiches" for about $3.
After my first visit to Delta Blues, I returned with three coworkers for lunch — that is, for sammiches that were mostly praised.
The catfish sandwich came with two fillets on a soft, toasted roll. The fillets were hot, nicely fried and, though lightly seasoned, came with a flavorful condiment that put the customer in control. As fast as I reached for a fork to steal a bite of the catfish's accompanying side — home-style mac and cheese — the bowl was scraped clean. (As it turns out, potato salad is just as good.)
In true Southern fashion, smoked chicken and rib sandwiches were served with two slices of white bread on the side, which, as tastes will differ in these whole grain times, went over well for my dining companion who ordered the ribs and less well for the one who ordered the chicken. Even still, the smoked chicken, a big portion, was enjoyed just the same without it, and its side of green beans tasted anything but canned.
It was a delicious round croissant roll, in turn, that held a top notch mound of barbecued pulled pork. Seriously, this stuff was so smoky and good I didn't even use the side of barbecue sauce.
Around the time we were polishing off our plates, I spilled the news about the dump cake. Sadly, it wasn't among the day's offerings, but there were still three more to test.
The winner was a small bowl of peach crisp. Beneath the warm whipped cream, we we found fruit and crumb perfectly sweetened with brown sugar.
We'll have to see, as the word gets out about this new diner and blues venue, if this concept will take off. In the meantime, I might have to return on the right day and answer one lingering question: Which is better … the dump cake or peach crisp?
Delta Blues Juke Joint & Diner is at 2796 Old Washington Road, Waldorf. Hours are 6 a.m.-midnight Sunday-Thursday and 6 a.m.-2 a.m. Friday-Saturday. Entrée prices are $3-$22. Credits cards: V, MC, D, AE. For carryout, call 301-632-5837. Go to www.deltabluesjukejoint.com
