Get Across Town: The Front Porch
By GraceAnn Walden


They have fried chicken in buckets,” said our art director, Sara Brownell. Sara is a girl after my own heart. I am a self-confessed fried chicken chick, and even after eating my way through the Bay Area’s best for my “Fried Chicken Frenzy” feature several years ago, I still can’t get enough.

The Front Porch is an out-of-nowhere charmer on a side strip of 29th Street in the southern Mission – apropos since the “Caribbean comfort food menu” offers a number of southern classics with hip California twists. Their spicy crab and grits is a crave-worthy play on the low country staple shrimp and grits, with diced fall vegetables and lobster butter. I make some creamy grits I’m rather proud of, but after eating the grits at the Porch, I felt like the runner-up in the Miss Southern Belle contest. The chunks of sweet crab and cream offset the lip-tingling, just-right spiciness, and I love that you can order a small portion as a starter or a larger portion as your main. Another favorite, frisee with chewy chunks of house-cured bacon, soft-boiled eggs with bright yellow yokes, and plump, sea-salty, cornmeal-crusted fried oysters, rates as one of the most satisfying salads I’ve had this year.

“Miss Ollie’s” fried chicken, as promised, arrived in a movie popcorn bucket, overflowing with pieces of juicy white and dark meat – an entire bird – coated in that cornmeal crust. With the breasts cut in half for easy chomping, I can’t imagine wanting anything else, but you also get sides of red beans and dirty rice.

Tucked into a cozy booth with delicious food, a bottle of Viognier, and a good friend, I can’t imagine a better way to spend a chilly night.

The Front Porch: 65a 29th Street
(at Mission), 415-695-7800, www.thefrontporchsf.com

– S. D. Reynolds