Val's Soul Food

People, it seems, want their shrimp with beer, and who can blame them?

by Elisa Ludwig

It was only there for a short while but it appears that Heaven has left the kitchen. For a couple of months, the owners of Gloria's Gourmet Seafood leased their restaurant space across from the Eastern State Penitentiary to two ministers who named it Heaven's Fine Dining and deemed the place an alcohol-free zone. The Christian concept — "too Christian," I'm told by Gloria's co-owner Val Boggs — didn't catch on. People, it seems, want their shrimp with beer, and who can blame them?

Boggs has taken back proprietorship, reinstalled the bar and renamed the place after herself. The menu offers soul food now, though she plans to transition back into the seafood on which Gloria's made its name. (In the meantime, Thursday is all-you-can-eat crab legs.)

The bread alone could be a course unto itself. Rolls twisted into knots and brushed with a glistening patina of melted butter are too good to resist. Appetizer spring rolls are actually something closer to pygmy egg rolls — they're small but wide cylinders with a fried outer skin and finely chopped-cabbage-and-carrot insides. They're served with a dish of hoisin sauce and a few cucumber slices in yogurt dressing.

Val's entrees are a big eater's dream. The beef ribs are the size of a petite woman's arm, and they come five to a plate. The toothsome meat, which is crusty in places with a complexly rich sauce, has a deep smoky flavor punctuated by juicy bits of fat. I'm not sure I've ever had such good fried catfish, which come two giant filets to a plate. Its peppery golden batter makes a crisp, zingy blanket for the moist, white-fleshed fish.

Sides, too, are on the mark. Grilled green beans are encrusted with a garlic mixture — they're salty and addictive. Vinegary collards, cooked to tender wet ribbons, are both bitter and faintly sweet while the yams, with their butter and brown-sugar syrup, are a luxuriant starch. The herb-flecked noodles of the mac and cheese are baked to a perfect crisp, though the casserole could use a dose of sharper cheddar to take it to the next level.

Desserts include a sizeable list of homemade cakes, like the sugar-shock pineapple upside-down cake with poufs of whipped cream. God may sell fitness videos, but when it comes to dinner, religion's got nothing to do with it.

(e_ludwig@citypaper.net)

Val's Soul Food

2120 Fairmount Ave., 215-235-3082

Lunch: 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; dinner, 4-10 p.m. daily

Appetizers, $3.95-$8.95; entrees, $12.95-$17.95

Wheelchair accessible. Reservations and credit cards accepted.