Even though we promised ourselves this would be a good time to eschew the temptations of dining out, we caved the first night. Working on the list all day got us excited about some of the things we were reporting. Oxlot 9 in Covington is one of our favorites, and when we saw that they were doing mostly their menu from the barbecue place they owned called Smoke, a place we dearly miss, we decided to get right back into it.
ML picked up a hot fried chicken sandwich, Smoke fries, and I ordered mostly sides like coleslaw and potato salad and cheese grits. They brought out a smoker and kept it outside. It may be like the soda crackers and Vienna sausages I had once in a Native American village at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, but this was impossibly delicious. Granted, the Smoke fries were nothing like we remember them. They were made with pulled pork which was very good, but the fries not so much. The chicken sandwich, on the other hand, was large, sticking out both ends of the very nice bun, stiffly crunchy with a thick batter. The “hot” was lost on us, but there was nothing wrong with this sandwich. It was served with creamy aioli and some housemade pickles. (we like Jeff Hansel’s) The coleslaw was extra-creamy and the potato salad very good. Cheese grits were equally perfect. Maybe it’s a disaster or the context that elevates something very good and makes it seem sublime. That was what I thought as our family sat outside on the deck eating our takeout, keeping a large dog snout from scoring anything. It was a very low table but he’s a very good boy.
And at that moment I thought how perfect it all was. This meal was about gratitude and togetherness. And the food was pretty great too.
Oxlot 9
428 E.Boston St. Covington
985-400-5663
