Indigo Kitchen - Great Kansas Style BBQ & Soul Food

We are so happy to have chef Lance Knowling back in town. We were always fans of his original place in Montclair, years ago. Tonight we dug into a real nice sampling of his refined and more focused menu. What NJ Monthly called “new-city” soul food in an upscale setting."

We liked what we saw and what we ate.

We opened up dinner with a very good Malbec, Lote 44, from Cuarto Dominio, of the Uco Valley in Mendoza, Mendoza. Reviewed the 2010 last year, the 2011 is even better. Malbec is great wine for this type of food.

Started off with these delightful home made mini biscuits and corn muffins. Very fluffy and rich.

Then had this, straight from the farm, not local but fresh, Indigo blue cheese salad with bright red vine ripened tomatoes, mixed leaves, a luscious creamy and zesty blue cheese, and a well crafted white balsamic dressing.

With that we had the jumbo shrimp & grits with a lemon butter sauce and green onions. We were not crazy for this preparation and the shrimp were not as fresh as they could be. A more intensely flavored sauce might have hid that, but the lemon butter is light and delicate.

On to the main course, we choose the Indigo Sampler. This is Knowling's award-winning recipe. He smokes the meats low & slow with a blend of hickory & apple woods.

We got the ribs, chicken, brisket, pulled pork combo. Really best for one or two people, but we had three sides, as wellas fries and slaw, so it was fine for three light eaters.

In the old place they had a few different types of ribs. I like that they are focusing on doing just Kansas City Style really well.

Served with tasty indigo fries, that could have used a little finishing salt and a cole slaw which I thought was exceptional.

For our sides we had the mac and cheese, of course, it did not disappoint. Collard greens with cabbage had very good flavor, the greans are made with smoked turkey. And the little house-made corn fritters, oh boy I could eat a whole plate of those.