New Tacoma soul food restaurant serves greens, wings, catfish and recipes from a beloved grandma
Just about everything Corie Brewster Patterson-Harper knows about cooking came from her grandmother, Mable Anderson Giles.
Longtime locals might remember that name from when Giles cooked greens and sweet potato pie at Southern Kitchen. She also cooked at The Sugar Plum and Last Round.
Patterson-Harper is the owner of newly opened Collard Greens & Other Things in the Tacoma Dome neighborhood.
The restaurant debuted Aug. 20 with a menu of soul food ranging from the classics to a few of Patterson-Harper’s modern interpretations.
Patterson-Harper remembered fondly how her grandmother never wrote down recipes.
To teach her, she would tell Patterson-Harper a general outline of the recipe, minus some of the ingredients. That would leave Patterson-Harper to learn by taste how to replicate grandma’s cooking.
“That’s how I learned to taste stuff,” said Patterson-Harper, whose nickname is Pajama Mama, which is also the name she goes by on her social media channels where she is known for her cooking videos.
“The recipes were always in her head, so I had to keep stuff in my head because I knew she was not going to write anything down,” she said. In keeping with grandma’s traditions, her recipes also are not written down.
This is a second restaurant for Patterson-Harper. She previously ran Brewster’s Place, Slap Your Mama Soul Food at Caballeros Club, the hidden gem of a private supper club in Tacoma.
Beyond Brewster’s Place, Patterson-Harper was a caterer who also delivered. Her nickname, Pajama Mama, came from her old delivery days when occasionally she would skip getting dressed in day clothes to get food to her customers faster.
“I got so busy, I never had time to get dressed. I was running around to all these businesses in my pajamas,” said Patterson-Harper. Before long, her customers gave her the moniker and encouraged her to keep the pajamas as a uniform.
“And then everyone started buying me pajamas,” she said.
Her pajama preference is two-piece pajama sets, but she said she’ll wear any pajamas so long as they’re stylish and comfortable.
Her restaurant is in the former home of Friesenburgers, which closed in February.
The tiny 24-seat space has been made over with homey touches and the walls are covered stylishly with layers of wood. The dining room has a dozen two-top tables and small lounge areas in the front and back. High-back cushioned seating provides for a comfortable dining experience.
A flat-panel television will show Seahawks games, said Patterson-Harper. She’s a one-woman show as the owner and chef, with reinforcement from husband Donta Harper, who has been instrumental in menu design and helping with other opening tasks when he’s not teaching social work and criminal justice at the University of Washington Tacoma where he’s a part-time lecturer.
Here’s a first bite report. It’s this paper’s policy to avoid criticism of food and service in a restaurant’s first month.
The menu: Appetizers include soul rolls ($11.99), five salads and soups, which include a Cobb salad ($14.99), house salads ($4.99 to $5.99) coleslaw ($3.99 to $5.99) and a collard greens soup meal ($10.99).
Three burgers come with fries ($12.99 to $13.99), four sandwiches also come with fries and include a hot link sandwich ($9.99) to fried cod ($13.99) or catfish sandwich ($14.99).
A choice of fish or chicken wing baskets comes with fries ($12.99 to $14.99) and an entree menu lists catfish or cod dinners with two sides ($16.99 to $17.99) or a jumbo chicken wings dinner with two sides ($14.99).
Sides include mac and cheese, collard greens, beans and rice, sweet potato fries, house fries, pineapple and coconut cornbread or regular cornbread ($1.50 to $7.99 for a la carte sides).
Fried fish and wings: Catfish or cod is battered in a crisp cornmeal-flour breading that crunches pleasantly at first bite. Huge chicken wings arrived coated in a well-seasoned flour breading.
The green bomb: Patterson-Harper uses a fascinating seasoning technique. Her “green bomb” is a mixture of dried seasonings and flavoring agents.
“It’s like how you put a bath bomb in your bath. I package up a green bomb and I drop it in for collard greens or cabbage,” she explained.
Soul rolls: Those are Patterson-Harper’s take on portable soul food. They’re egg rolls filled with her favorites.
“It has collard greens, chicken and mac and cheese inside and you fry it. If you’re in a rush on the run, it has all your soul food in one bite.”
Collard greens: “It’s grandma recipes with a little tweak,” she said.
She flavors hers with smoked turkey tail.
“I don’t do ham hocks because so many people don’t eat pork,” she explained.
Macaroni and cheese: At first bite, the best macaroni and cheese I’ve had all year. Patterson-Harper said the pronounced cheesy flavor comes from a secret blend of seven cheeses, plus “loads of cream and real butter.” Bouncy, big noodles provided lots of surface area to carry the delicious cheesy sauce.
On a first visit: Order the Mama’s Sampler Platter ($23.99), a platter built for sharing with two well-seasoned jumbo chicken wings — steamy hot inside and crisp on the outside — plus two fish filets in that perfectly crisp cornmeal breading.
The sampler platter also offered a choice of chicken or beef hotlinks, which carried a significant hit of heat, plus a choice of well-seasoned steak-style fries or sweet potato fries.
The meal also includes two soul rolls and two slices of Texas toast.
Collard Greens & Other Things
Where: 308 E. 26th St. Tacoma
Info: 253-625-5373, facebook.com/Collardgreensandotherthings
Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays
This story was originally published August 29, 2018 at 11:00 AM.