WATER'S EDGE MAGAZINE

Southern Comfort

BY CATHERINE ENNS GRIGAS - PHOTOGRAPHY BY ED HALL

Forget foie gras and chanterelles. Barbara Jean's dishes out meals like mother used to make ... well, sort of.

If you judged a restaurant by a parking lot packed with luxury imports and a front porch ablaze with Lily Pulitzer and Ralph Lauren, you'd figure it caters to an upscale crowd; a restaurant boasting a menu of foie gras, fine wines and chanterelles.

But step inside Barbara Jean's and you'll discover the fashionable folks outside are here for something else - good, simple food at bargain-basement prices.

It's no plain Jane, but Barbara Jean's doesn't boast anything more complicated than easy Southern dining in a casual neighborhood restaurant on the banks of the Intracoastal Waterway. Since opening earlier this year, the Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, restaurant has attracted diners like ants to a picnic.

Although new to locals, Barbara Jean's already had made a name for itself. Owners Barbara and Jim Barta opened their first restaurant in downtown St. Simons Island, Georgia, three years ago. The quality home cooking cultivated fans both far and wide, many of them from the Ponte Vedra area - who encouraged the couple to open another restaurant futher south.

Sure enough, by word of mouth alone, Barbara Jean's is luring people from their Marsh Landing mansions - and beyond - to sample food like their mothers used to make.

Granted, the restaurant isn't easy to find on a first visit. Drive down Ponte Vedra's Roscoe Boulevard along the Intracoastal and you'll find the restaurant set back along the water behind overhanging oaks where popular Old Ward's Landing fish camp used to be.

Inside, the newly renovated building is a bright, open space with picture windows that open up to a wide view of the Intercoastal Waterway.

Outside, a big wooden deck offers outdoor dining in one of the most stunning natural settings around. Minus mosquitoes, it's a pleasant place to wait for a table (and you just might have to on a busy Sunday night).

Across the coffee-colored water, palms, pines and a tangle of vines rise high along the sandy banks. Herons hunt for food and schools of fish ripple the water.

If the view puts you in mind of Florida the way it used to be, the restaurant's menu likewise recalls the good ol'days. Fourteen vegetables, fixed from scratch, are always available. Dishes that are the staples of home cooking like pot roast slow-cooked for six hours, turkey and dressing and chicken-fried steak - are offered for around $8. The day we were there, the special was liver and onions. You've got to love a restaurant that proclaims "no pretensions, just food that comforts."

And then there are the crab cakes.

That's the item Barbara Jean's brags about. Cards on the tables offer to package them and send them across country so that other souls can discover what they're missing. The menu even declares, "If you don't try anything else, have the crab cakes."

We were happy to oblige with crab cakes and more.

Sitting in one of the yellow vinyl-covered bootbs, we started our meal with a cup of the she crab soup ($2.99, $3.99 for the bowl) and the soup of the day, cream of mushroom ($2.99). The cream of mushroom was homemade, but less creamy than just plain thick, with slices of fresh mushrooms and onions. The she crab soup was in a class by itself. Purists may note that it was not bisque and lacked the traditional touch of sherry. What it did have was so much crab, a spoon could stand up in it. Rich and creamy, with a slight, spicy bite, it was a hearty soup that could easily be a meal.

Just because Barbara Jean's prices are a throwback doesn't mean that the restaurant skimps on the details. For example, the bread basket is piled high with three different types of homemade bread and butter. The dinner roll usually gets overlooked for the pumpkin bread, which is warm, spicy and sweet, or the cornbread flecked with chopped jalapeno peppers and cheese.

Salads come with a choice of the honey mustard, bleu cheese or ranch dressings, which the restaurant makes itself, but we headed for the entrees.Besides crab cakes, there are fried entrees, such as shrimp (coated in buttermilk or coconut), fried catfish and cod. Tuna, salmon and catfish come grilled or blackened.

For old times' sake, we ordered the meat loaf with brown gravy, mashed potatoes and squash casserole ($7.99). The meat loaf was a huge wedge of ground beef studded with onions and green peppers and smothered in a tasty brown gravy. The mashed potatoes were the real thing, tiny bits of potato skin declaring their origins. The squash casserole was cooked fresh squash, mixed into a buttery lightness.

For those who want to sample the best of Barbara Jean's, the Coastal Platter ($ 17.99) is the way to go, offering a crab cake, fried large shrimp and fried fish all on one overflowing plate, along with a choice of two fresh vegetables. Cod is the fried fish, and it comes out moist and sweet, encased in a crunchy golden brown crust that seems just right for dipping into the homemade tartar sauce.

The "large" fried shrimp - as described on the menu - are that and then some. They're some of the best around, moist and plump within a coating of buttermilk batter, fried until golden. The coconut shrimp, each rolled in coconut before frying, have just a touch of sweetness.

While the shrimp is good, the crab cake is something to behold. Little wonder that between the two restaurants, Barbara Jean's goes through 31 tons of backfin lump crabmeat a year. Ordered alone, the crab cake comes in two sizes - jumbo at 7 ounces ($11.99) and regular at 5 ounces ($9.99). just crab, bound together with a touch of breading and spices, it is sautéed into a truly decadent patty that would give other, tonier, restaurants a run for their money. But the crab cakes should come with a warning. They're addictive. Once sampled, they're hard to pass up for anything else on the menu.

If there's still room for more, dessert awaits. All homemade, the desserts aren't fancy but Barbara Jean's bread pudding, fruit cobbler and a chocolate lover's fantasy - a creamy brownie topped with homemade whipped cream (all $3.99 for a howl, $2.99 for a cup) - should satisfy any sweet tooth.

Perhaps, though, the greatest satisfaction comes at the end of a meat, when you realize how well (and how much) you've eaten without having the bill take a bite out of your bankroll. Add to that a priceless waterfront view and you know you've discovered a rare restaurant - a restaurant that seems to view food as a simple pleasure, meant to be enjoyed with family and friends.

BARBARA BARTA'S KAILUA CHICKEN SALAD

Barbara Barta doesn't give out recipes to just anyone. To prove it, she has two framed requests from both Gourmet and Bon Apetit magazines hanging in the St. Simons restaurant, asking for her she crab soup and chocolate stuff recipes. She didn't reveal any secrets, though.

"Just having them requested was enough for me," she says.

Understandably, we feel privileged to pass on her recipe for Kailua Chicken Salad.

1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
1 tablespoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups chicken, cooked and diced
2 cups celery, thinly diced
2 cups pineapple tidbits, drained
2 cups mandarin oranges, drained
1/2 cup green onions, thinly sliced
1 cup plus 4 tablespoons chopped pecans

In a small bowl, mix mayonnaise, curry powder and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, toss the chicken, celery, pineapple, oranges, onions and 1 cup of the pecans. Add the curried mayonnaise and mix gently.

Place 2 scoops of chicken salad on each plate lined with Romaine lettuce leaves and garnished with tomato wedges. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon pecans on top and enjoy.

Serves 4 (generously).