Chef Paul's is only open for lunch

————

We were in the parking lot of his gym

when I presented to him

a clipping from the newspaper

about Chef Paul’s Café,

952 F Street, a soul food restaurant,

as a potential place

to have lunch this Wednesday afternoon.

A new restaurant,

somewhere neither of us

had been to or had eaten,

or so I thought.

He ran the clipping before his eyes’

reminding me he had not been there

but his sister often picked up

take-out from there

on her way home from work.

(this was impossible because Chef Paul’s

is only open for lunch and closes at 3,

his sister didn’t leave her job

at the Hall of Records until 5:00 P.M.)

I insisted we go there,

it was my turn to pick the location.

We drove an expeditious route

to Chinatown, under the railroad tracks,

into the Fresno Street subway, then left

on “F” Street, one block.

The café was on the northside.

At once upon entering

under the stripped canvas awning,

we found a table in the middle of the room.

The place was nearly filled

with late lunch diners like us.

The waitress arrived with menus

and we began our slow study.

Paul marveled at all the dishes

you don’t normally see on every other menu:

Braised oxtail, shrimp and grits,

Fried okra, meatloaf.

He ordered the home-style

fried pork chop plate,

I ordered the BBQ Combo:

Memphis pork ribs, Santa Maria tri-tip,

hot link, and BBQ shrimp.

It wasn’t five minutes and both

orders arrived hot with sides

of Chef Paul’s own BBQ sauce.

I slowly savored the individual meat

scattered across my Styrofoam container,

while Paul surgically removed

layers of pork chop in a neat fillet

with heavy handled steak knife,

largely filling his mouth.

He ate as if this were the end

of lunch as we knew it, and it was.

All of the restaurants closed down

the next week, our Wednesday lunches finished.

I had a piece of German Chocolate cake

for dessert, the best part of the meal.

By Stephen Barile

From: United States