Pammie's Restaurant
 Akron, Ohio      Date of Visit  07/25/15       http://www.pammiesrestaurant.com 

We’ve been planning on trying a couple of Q/soul food restaurants in the area. Pammie’s is up first. It’s a tiny storefront on Copley Road with terrible parking…most of which is taken up by the trailer with the smoker. Very little and rickety seating, a couple of windows in the wall for ordering and delivery. It ain’t pretty. Having been lucky enough to have dined as some Q stops in the South and some of the best have been far from pretty.
 

What really had me thinking of the South was the frighteningly and fierce friendliness of the service. If you’ve ever been, you almost can’t walk down the street without making a dozen new friends. The woman working the counter at Pammie’s was fun, funny, helpful and seemed genuinely interested in our experience. Our brief interaction with others was the same. I instantly wanted to love the place…and there was a fair bit to love.
 

We ordered two combos (rib & ½ chicken) (fish & shrimp) which came with four sides and although the menu said premium sides were extra we were told pick whatever you want. That ended up being coleslaw, fries, mac and cheese and potato salad. The slaw was mostly cabbage and tasted much like cabbage and little else. The potato salad had a much more active set of ingredients resulting in a creamy and tasty balance to their sauces. The fries were brown and crispy and I will have them atop their polish boy at some point. The mac was also more southern than you would typically see ‘round these parts…not noodles in a dairy based sauce but sauced noodles baked in bunches of cheese. It’ll do.
 

Ribs Were Big & Weren't Bad
 

The ribs were huge, meaty, and tender, not competition quality but then again, who's is? The chicken had noticeable smoke. I found myself hoping for some additional flavors supporting both.

Their sauce(s) lean towards a mild heat based. Think very lightly spiced tomato based hot sauce. There isn’t much in the way of sweet, veg, herb or spice that shines through. I would have liked a more noticeable rub or a couple other layers in the sauce, but it is a unique combo of flavors I haven’t seen elsewhere.

We did get a couple cups of orange sauce with the combos. I would do shooters of this stuff. There is a light sweetness underlying the round warming spice, kinda like honey mustard with hot sauce instead of the mustard. Almost licked the cup. We were told they do everything from scratch.
 

The shrimp were fat and coated with a batter, which brought extraordinary texture and flavor. It even stayed crispy after long lounging dips in the hot sauce. There have been times we’ve had seafood battered with something that turns out leathery and distasteful. Pammie’s is what those wanted to be. It looked like it was going to lead to disappointment but was, instead, stupendous. The catfish struggled. Likely long frozen it turned to absolute mush in the fryer. Is there baby food made of fish? Baby fish? Even so, with the addition of the orange cup of happiness, we ate it all.

On the way out, we took a couple desserts to go. Can you get any more Southern than peach cobbler and banana pudding? The cobbler was fine…seemed spiced like apple pie, but the banana pudding with it’s classical thick rich vanilla custard, slices of fruit and ‘nilla wafers…so good. Pammie’s had fairly good Q served by really nice people. They seem to do a lot of takeout…I’ll be back to try the polish boy…with extra orange joy.