Tipsy Parson has been around for nearly a decade now in West Chelsea, steadfastly serving a rarity in NYC: Southern comfort food. Well, perhaps these days it’s not as rare given the fried chicken and waffle or biscuit craze, but back when it opened, there weren’t many other Southern-food focused restaurants. All the Southern goodies that you don’t really get outside of the South can be found here – things like shrimp & grits, buttermilk biscuits, deviled eggs, hush puppies, fried chicken, and black eyed peas.
Now you could think to yourself, if you’re going to serve Southern food in a market that doesn’t have much Southern food and in which people aren’t all that familiar with it, what’s the point in doing it well? It’s easy to cut corners, particularly on cumbersome and time-consuming items like biscuits. A biscuit is actually a lot like a croissant in that they are both butter pastries and executing them well, with all of the appropriate internal buttery layers, soft interior, crispier exterior, requires real skill. I mean, especially these days, the so-called biscuits I’ve gotten so excited to eat have often left me saddened by their rock-hard exteriors, lack of butter flavor, and dry insides. But the masses seem to find them decent enough to consume because they aren’t from the South and don’t know what they’re really missing. Long story short, Tipsy Parson does a great job.
When you first walk into the restaurant, it looks like a small space because the initial room is just a row of about 5 or so two-tops on one side and a long bar on the other. But when you walk through the room to the other end, you enter the main dining space in the back, which is a good size for the area. It’s casual, but nice and charming. Pretty laid back atmosphere. The manager is as nice and informed as can be, but boy was our server problematic. From incorrectly insisting he knew certain things about a dish or its preparation that turned out not to be the case, being quite terse, and having a rude and annoyed attitude from the second we sat down. It’s not even as though the restaurant was busy and he’d been chaotically overworked. In fact, it was the beginning of the day (brunch) and the restaurant was only half full. Anyway, though it was unpleasant and inexcusable, we’ll chalk it up to one server just having a bad day.
More importantly, the food was all good. They use really good quality ingredients, their portions are generous, and ignoring our server’s whims, the rest of the workers and kitchen are more than happy to accommodate any requests or answer any questions you have. The aforementioned biscuit is executed very well here and it can be ordered all day and night. In fact, every table orders at least one to try. Their biscuit is a tall buttermilk-chive biscuit (buttery and moist as it should be!) and it’s served with honey butter, but you can add various other accompaniments like tomato jam or avocado smash. Or, you can make it more of a full meal and go for the biscuit bomb, a very popular choice, which is the biscuit stuffed with housemade country sausage and topped with melted sharp cheddar cheese. It’s heavy let me tell you. And the kicker is it’s served with butter on the side. Trust me, no matter who you are, how hungry you are, and how much weight you’re willing to gain, you will not be availing yourself of this butter.
Another popular choice is the grits. They serve castle valley mill red grits, which are very good quality. They are fine, but coarsely ground and made with butter and milk, so they are nice and creamy. They are also sprinkled with cracked black pepper throughout, which I normally love, but I felt it didn’t belong in the grits. I didn’t know until the order came, but would otherwise have requested it be left off. Though I would imagine for others, it would be a nice addition. The corn flavor comes through very strongly. You can top it with cheddar, bacon, jalapeno, or mushrooms if you so desire. It’s a big portion, I’ll tell you that. So you can either eat it as a breakfast/brunch entrée or you can split it with others as a side dish.
And as with most other places that offer it, the mac & cheese is also a common choice. The mac & cheese, in particular, is very heavy (a theme with Southern cooking) and comes with grafton cheddar, grana padano, and cornbread crumbs. It is cheese overload, which is, I suppose, what makes people love it.
Overall, it’s a good place to go for a Southern food craving, but I wouldn’t count on it to become your new favorite place.
