More Southern Food; Now at the Tispy Parson

I’m still on assignment — exploring Southern menus in Manhattan. Tonight, we head to the Tispy Parson, a cute cafe and restaurant in Chelsea that’s named after a Southern dessert — a trifle with booze-soaked cake. Here are the fried green tomatoes:

The restaurant looks a little like your grandmother’s parlor. Thes are the windows that look onto the street:

We sat at the bar to wait for Boo.

The seats across from the bar:

Our cocktails were too sweet for me:

We are taken to the dining room in the back —

— and are seated at the end of a long commual table:

For our first course (shared), we order many things.

Fried green tomatoes:

Deviled eggs:

The “Spread Trio:” pimento cheese, deviled tasso, black-eyed pea salad with housemade herb crackers:

Hushpuppies:

A special, corn soup with poblano oil:

All were pretty tasty — especially the spreads — and the corn soup was very good: it had depth and spice, but was still sweet.

Some plates on the wall:

Waiter in front of plates on the wall:

For our second course, we order three more things.

Shrimp and grits:

It came with a fried green tomato, which was crispy and cornmeal-y, broiled spiced shrimp, Rockland Plantation stone-ground grits and roasted tomato vinaigrette, which was more like a cross between a marmelade and Country Captain Chicken. The dish needed some editing.

The mussels were a special:

I believe they had andouille sausage, but I can’t remember. They were good — but not knock you down crying.

Catfish:

With fingerling potatoes, horseradish crème fraiche sauce, dill oil and cucumber salad.

Nice, but not earth-shattering.

The food isn’t bad — it’s just that it’s not fabulous! If I lived around the corner, I’m sure I’d be here often. The atmsophere is really cozy, and it’s a fun place, too.