Bailey's is not the kind of restaurant that you can get a feel for at first glance. The restaurant's Davis Islands space — the former home of Chez Bryce — has a gorgeous outdoor courtyard that often sits empty. The main interior dining room is an oddly tight space painted a uniform cafe au lait color, with no art and little on the white-clad tables besides salt, pepper and sweetener caddies. No music to cut the conversation, no art on the walls. It's stunningly bland.
But then you see the plates streaming from the kitchen, piled high with collard greens and mashed potatoes, grits and green beans, fried pickles and braised beef. Everything edible at Bailey's is engineered for maximum culinary comfort, the no-frills atmosphere a blank palette for unfussy food. Simple food, sure, but far from bland.
This restaurant and caterer moved to the Davis Islands spot from Hyde Park, with regulars following closely behind to join a new crowd of prospective fans in the new neighborhood. Little has changed other than the setting, and a few higher-end dishes to suit the updated digs.
Bailey's starters explain the restaurant's philosophy — and culinary greatness — simply and succinctly. Tender bites of moist chicken, covered in tender, flaky breading, seasoned right and paired with pots of both honey and ranch dressing. Puffy donuts studded with corn and dusted with powdered sugar, like nothing more than corny mini-funnel cakes. Honey on the side there, too.
Sound like chain fare or fast food? Nah, it's all fresh and executed perfectly, the fat, sugar and salt in it earned through traditional links to classic Southern cuisine and old-school home-cooking. In any case, you better get used to it.
Bailey's menu changes weekly, but never strays from rib-sticking classic comfort food. Oh, you can reach for fine dining by picking entrees like crisply seared sea bass that are easily the equal of more high-end spots. But that's not really what the restaurant is about. Here is the food of your youth, reminiscent of grandmas and church socials — executed with profound attention to the fundamentals and unerring flavor.
Braised brisket at Bailey's is a massive pile of tender chunks, moist with seasoned jus and paired with a sharp horseradish cream sauce. Pork chops come breaded and fried, the almost fork-tender meat dripping with retained moisture.
Meatloaf is justly one of Bailey's specialties. Covered in bacon, the thick slab of loaf is hearty but not dense, moist with bits of onions, sharply seasoned but with the meat still the star. Instead of cloyingly sweet ketchup or a silly marinara, it's sauced with a basic tomato sauce that adds a touch of sweet along with a bounty of bright, cleansing acidity. Although there's a hint of peppery heat in most bites, this loaf is all about the fundamentals done right.
Side dishes can be the star of any plate at Bailey's, from basic creamy mashed potatoes to grits loaded with salt and butter. Collard greens here are almost perfect, each bite of bitter green tempered by a flash of bright cider vinegar and touch of cayenne heat. Macaroni is inundated in a silky cheese sauce, an elegant nod to grocery store boxed brands. And hey, if you want a serving of vegetables without sacrificing cheese, there's always the broccoli and cauliflower mash loaded with the same cheese sauce, barely distinguishable from the mac.
Desserts can be a tad sillier than the restaurant's more down-home savory fare, like homemade ice cream covered in toffee chips and rum lit on fire at the table with a kitchen blowtorch, but most stick to Bailey's core philosophy. The rum cake is soaked through and through, just coherent enough to stick to a fork, while the apple crisp is sweet, rich and almost too hearty in Florida's mild winter.
Best of the after-dinner fare is a luscious peanut butter mousse pie that looks heavy, but has an incredibly light and airy texture. Eat too much of it, though, especially after a typical Bailey's gut-busting dinner, and you'll still feel it for hours to come.
Although it could use some art on the walls, and some music to cover the clinking of fork on plate, the food is the point at Bailey's, not the ambience. Despite the historic old building and quaint courtyard in the heart of Davis Islands, the cuisine at this restaurant could fit just as well at an old-school lunch counter.
But, since the food Bailey's cranks out is better than most any lunch counter or local family restaurant that you'll find in the Bay area, the setting works. Even inveterate fine-diners crave a little comfort now and then, and at Bailey's they'll get their fill without the need to slum it at a place where they're concerned about locking their car doors.
This article appears in Jan 13-19, 2011.