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\n New York subscribers got exclusive early access to this story in\u00a0Eating New York, a newsletter featuring food news and advice straight from our critics\u2019 mouths. Sign up here<\/a> to get it in your inbox.\n <\/p>\n \n Shrimp and grits at Ferguson\u2019s Country. It was 11 a.m. on a damp and blustery Saturday, a nor\u2019easter was bearing down on New York, and a line had already formed outside Kirbee\u2019s<\/a>, a new Texas-barbecue spot in Williamsburg. Despite the unfortunate weather, many people weren\u2019t carrying umbrellas; some weren\u2019t even wearing rain jackets. Everyone had left their apartments in a daze with one thing in mind: plates of authentic smoked meat and, more important, the sides that go with it. Poblano-laced green spaghetti, pinto beans stewed with bacon and hot dogs, cole slaw, and \u2014 of course \u2014 cheesy grits.<\/p>\n Anyone who lived in New York circa 2007 will remember there was a time when it seemed like every restaurant in town offered warm bowls of smothered grits, or platters of country ham, or a moonshine cocktail served in something like a Mason jar. The restaurants of the time had names like Seersucker<\/a> and Char No. 4<\/a>. I was 5 at the time, so the only mac and cheese I was eating was likely to be Annie\u2019s from a box, but while these sorts of down-home destinations have almost all closed, some new spots that follow in their comforting, reassuring bootprints are starting to pop back up.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to bring not only the feeling of community but nostalgia as well, the feeling of being in an amusement park as a kid,\u201d says David Yun, who just opened<\/a> Good Time Country Buffet<\/a>, with partners Yong Min Kim and Steve Choi, in the East Village. (Perhaps you\u2019ve seen the lines to get in stretching down the sidewalk before opening.) During service one recent evening, Yun says he walked by a family sitting in one of their many booths and overheard them say, \u201cNow this brings me back to when I was younger.\u201d<\/p>\n Nostalgia also plays a big part in the new menu that chef Noah Ponjuan designed for the Musket Room<\/a>. He grew up in Baton Rouge, eating shrimp and grits, boudin, and fried okra. When he serves his black-truffle cornbread, caviar-topped hush puppies, or pork belly with red-eye gravy and, yes, grits, what he really wants New Yorkers to feel while they\u2019re eating it is that they\u2019re being cared for: \u201cThe point of food is to nourish, not impress,\u201d Ponjuan says. \u201cFood is meant to show love and affection in some way.\u201d<\/p>\n The food of the American South is, first and foremost, delicious, but it is also built around community, feeding as many people as possible. Gabi Mann felt this was lacking in Williamsburg, where she and her partner just opened Ferguson\u2019s Country<\/a> (Fergs for short) to help fill that gap. Since the doors opened in September, it\u2019s been a steady flow of people from the neighborhood, just looking to check out a new spot with wooden planks covering the walls, Dolly Parton on the jukebox, and favorites like shrimp and grits and biscuits with chicken on the menu. No absurdly long lines, and no stress over getting a reservation on Resy.<\/p>\n Back at Kirbee\u2019s the other weekend, there was a similar sense of camaraderie wafting alongside the wood smoke in the air. Johnny White, a pitmaster and one of the owners, walked back to the gingham-topped tables to check in and to ask if everyone was doing okay. Again and again, the answer was a resounding \u201cyes.\u201d There was a storm building outside, but everyone in there was warm and happy.<\/p>\n Sign up for Eating New York<\/p>\n Weekly food news, straight from our critics\u2019 mouths and just for subscribers.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n
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\n Photo: Dave Fitz\n <\/p>\n