Mick & Shirley's Catering and Cafe
 Akron, Ohio           Date of Visit  03/19/16           Facebook Page

In Akron. What’s close? Hit Yelp. Mick & Shirley’s Catering and Café? Huh? Never heard anything at all. We pull into the parking lot wrapped around a white cinderblock building, signs right, and in we go. The place couldn’t feel more family run. When we walked in, everyone sort of looked at us, sort of looked at each other, then sort of rumbled into action.
 

We were served by a very quiet young man to start and by the end had been visited by everyone. Seem like real nice people, who take pride in their food. We found out when we arrived the menu is breakfast/southern soul food with a couple of surprises.

We ordered the surprise special appetizer (risotto balls), breakfast (cheese omelet with hashbrowns and toast) and southern soul (shrimp and grits/rib and chicken combo). I gotta be honest, can’t fault a thing.

The arranchini were piping hot, crispy on the surface and filled with molten cheese and rice. A little cup of fresh and chunky tomato sauce reinforced my thinking risotto balls were Italian, but they do them well here.
 

The omelet was stuffed with cheese and the hash browns were crispy brown and dressed with a shake of paprika along with the salt and pepper, simple and just right.
 

The grits were lava hot, roofed with a quarter inch of melted butter in which tender shrimp were bathing. They had just a bit of tooth left to them for texture and were all topped with greens, tomato, and pieces of bacon, new for me, but a delicious addition. Rich and filling, a bunch came home with us, more than we could stick to our ribs.
 

Speaking of ribs they were just up to fall off the bone and served with three house sauces, a sweet tangy original, a smoky bourbon and a spicy. A mix of the bourbon and spicy were outstanding on the ribs. You have an option of fried or grilled for the chicken. I can tell you about the fried. Coarse and salty breading clings to a couple hot and tender full wing joints. You also get a choice between a biscuit and fried cornbread. Yes please. Dense round of lightly sweet corn bread with a brown crispy crust on both sides. Yes please again. After the plate hit the table the very quiet young man returned and asked if I’d like their house made hot sauce for the chicken. Wha? Definitely ask for some of that. Their mac and cheese was…get this…cheesy tasting. Why doesn’t that happen more often? There was also a bowl of…fried corn? I thought it was going to be greasy kernels somewhere between popcorn and sweet corn??? It’s corn, probably sautéed in butter (natural friend of corn) and blended with other more savory veggies for a new experience. Yelp handed us a stroke of luck. We’ll be back, they have soul.
 

Unique (To Me, At Least) Corn Dish