I hit the ground in Gainesville ready for a homey dinner. Reggae Shack Cafe turned out to be the perfect choice. The atmosphere is fun, the service wonderfully welcoming. And the food is superb.
I ordered the Jerk Tofu, extra hot. The heat sneaks up on you. I started to tear up after about 30 seconds. The heat was wonderful. Tofu is ideally suited to soak it up and give you a nice blast. The vinegar in the sauce also gives it a good tartness.
The bread was billed as like cornbread but it reminded me of a cruller. It was delicious and it really did help tamp down the heat.
The vegan coconut cake was superb. It was moist and dense with a very nice texture. The coconut was very fresh and extremely flavorful. Vegan baking is the hardest type of baking. My server explained that the owner makes the cake in the morning and brings it to the restaurant---kudos!
Luella's is a nouvelle BBQ outfit on the north side of Asheville. It is nestled among the trees in a lovely neighborhood. The restaurant has lots of windows for inside seating and plenty of outside seating. Service was courteous and amazingly fast. This is a combination plate with pork and brisket. Both were very moist and tender. For the pork, I tried both the mild and hot vinegar sauces. To my surprise, I preferred the milder one because it didn't assert itself too much. I enjoyed the spicy tomato sauce for my brisket. The hushpuppies were very good. The fried okra was fresh out of the fryer and excellent. The slaw was of the vinegary variety, which I usually enjoy, but this version is heavy on the white stuff and didn't have quite enough variety in tastes for me.



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