The South Will Fry Again

IT TOOK 26 months, but the chef/owners of Williamsburg’s Pies ‘n’ Thighs have made good on their promise “to build a bigger, better, more miraculous hole-in-the-wall.”

Sarah Buck, Caroline Bane and Erika Geldzahler reopened their beloved Southern-style diner in March after a hiatus many feared would never end. Squeezed into a tiny space behind a Williamsburg dive bar, the original Pies had a claustrophobic kitchen and parking lot smoker that defined the phrase holein-the-wall. It was no surprise when, in January 2008, the Health Department forced a shutdown. More puzzling was the interim, which dragged on endlessly due to bureaucratic setbacks. Now, finally, Pies ‘n’ Thighs is back, a return loyalists will celebrate and everyone should welcome.

As promised, the new space is bigger and better. Its well-lit, mid-sized dining room is decorated simply with a hodgepodge of charming tchotchkes and art. A second dining room, out back in a former garage, is stuffy when the red carriage doors are closed but bright and airy when they’re open. It’s a space befitting the original Pies’ spirit: cheery, modest and serious only about its no-frills Southern cooking.

Some diners may wish for more attention to detail outside the kitchen. Service, friendly but disordered, is a work in progress. Over several visits I had later-arriving parties seated ahead of me, a pie order forgotten, and food served without setups. Occasionally the kitchen misfires too. Smoked pork hash ($12, brunch only) featured smoky strands of pork and savory potatoes but also overcooked eggs and a limpid salsa.

More often than not, though, Bane, Buck and Geldzahler succeed, replicating the unfussy approach so lauded the first time around. Indeed, food-wise little has changed. There are a few new menu items, including a taco of the week ($7), but the best dishes are holdovers. Fried chicken ($11, with a biscuit and a side) is still deliciously straightforward. Though it needs more salt, the meat is moist and flavorful, the skin crispy and tangy with a sweet flour breading redolent of summer picnics. The coleslaw too is as classic as the gingham tablecloths, with finely diced cabbage and carrots and a creamy, soursweet dressing. Collard greens are also done traditionally, with the right amount of vinegar and massive hunks of pork.

Better still are the biscuits—buttery, flaky and crumbly outside, and fluffy in. They accompany the fried chicken and anchor two more standouts: the chicken biscuit ($5) and the biscuits and gravy ($8, brunch only). The first, with its huge, hot-sauce coated and apple-butter-topped chicken cutlet marries sweet, sour, hot and savory to excellent effect. Biscuits and gravy seem to have shrunk from two biscuits to one, but for those of average intestinal fortitude, that should be plenty. Beautifully seasoned with pepper and rosemary, the gravy is deliriously rich and studded with whole hunks of herbinfused sausage. Impressively, the sopping biscuit holds its texture.

The same cannot be said of the pulled pork sandwich ($10, with a side), which you’ll be lucky to finish with your hands. The soft bun would scarcely contain its mountain of succulent pork under any circumstance. It hasn’t a prayer given that the pork is doused with vinegary Carolina-style sauce and topped with pickles and coleslaw. Use a fork or lean over your plate, because it will drip. The brisket sandwich ($11, with a side), once a special and now a regular item, is another delicious mess.

Its thick-cut white bread is grilled, slathered with mayonnaise, then piled with smoky, dry-rubbed brisket also spiked with tangy barbecue sauce. Less messy but just as good is the fried catfish ($10, with a side), which is flaky and hot beneath its lightly fried cornmeal crust and served with a briny tartar sauce.

If, by chance, you have room for dessert, there are plenty of baked goods, all of the nothingfancy variety, in keeping with the rest of the menu. Thick, chewy and not too sweet, the cookies ($2) are good; rich, nutty donuts ($2) are better. The pies, despite a share of the name, are good but not spectacular ($4.50/slice, $30 whole). Refreshingly tart and crispy apple pie filling was undone by a dull and too-soft crust. The key lime was better, with a pungent graham cracker crust and custardy, lime-sour filling.

Despite the hype, Pies ‘n’ Thighs isn’t much like most buzzed about restaurants. It lacks a celebrity chef, a source-touting menu, exotic ingredients and cuttingedge techniques. What you get instead is unpretentious, country kitchen stuff—the best thing about it is how little it’s dressed up. C

>> PIES ‘N’ THIGHS 166 S. 4th St. (betw. Driggs Ave. & Roebling St.), Brooklyn, 347-529-6090.

Brooklyn’s favorite artery clogger:

Fried chicken at Pies’n’Thighs.