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Neely's Barbecue Parlor to Serve Up Southern Brunches

By Amy Zimmer | August 12, 2011 6:43am
Food Network stars Gina and Pat Neely opened Neely's Barbecue Parlor on the Upper East Side in July.
Food Network stars Gina and Pat Neely opened Neely's Barbecue Parlor on the Upper East Side in July.
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Neely's

UPPER EAST SIDE — The "Velvet Elvis," a southern concoction with a dash of Upper East Side, may tempt adults and children alike when Neely's Barbecue Parlor debuts its brunch menu this weekend.

It's French toast stuffed with peanut butter, bananas and marshmallow fluff from the jar — with Jack Daniels (for the adults). The creation is the brainchild of the restaurant's executive chef Wade Burch, who is overseeing the menu at the first New York outpost of Food Network stars Patrick and Gina Neely.

"It's like Bananas Foster meets Willy Wonka," said Burch of his creation.

The restaurant at 1125 First Ave. near East 62nd Street, opened in July to big crowds — including the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, who ate there Monday. It will have a soft brunch opening this Saturday for friends and family, followed by its first official foray into the weekend ritual meal on Sunday.

Burch, a Texas native, will be serving up such filling down-home dishes as fried chicken and waffles, country fried steak and eggs, and smoked brisket hash.

"I don't have diet food," Burch said.

When Burch came up with the idea for the Velvet Elvis, during a bourbon-laden brainstorming session, he drew his inspiration from Elvis Presley's favorite meal: a peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich cooked in bacon grease.

But Burch — who recalled seeing the King perform in Houston when he was a kid — said he skipped the bacon and bacon grease in case some people don't eat pork.

"If you want to go to Graceland, you get a side of bacon and shove it in," Burch said.

The Neely's restaurants in Tennessee have more limited menus that are all "about pulled pork and pig," Burch said. On the Upper East Side, he has added such dishes as a Cobb salad to appeal to lighter palettes, but he puts in fried green tomatoes for a southern kick.

While he is serious about living up to the southern hospitality envisioned by the Neelys, who own three barbecue restaurants in Tennessee and host the Food Network's "Road Tasted with the Neelys," he still wants the experience to have some degree of "authenticity."

"When you walk into Neely's we hope you feel like you are at Gina and Pat's home or one of their aunts'," Burch said. "Like you're transported and you don't know you're in New York."

But New Yorkers are reluctant to give up their penchant for salad, he said. "New Yorkers are so accustomed to getting whatever they want whenever they want, but this is Neely's. This is southern. I want to extend that southern hospitality, but I don't want it to take the southern from the menu."

Burch refuses to make a Cesar salad, he said, and he won't stock balsamic vinegar, which he said is not commonly used in southern cooking.

"There is no balsamic in the building," he said. "Until last week, I didn't even have olive oil in the building, but I broke down. It's something you get at an Italian place. There's no olive oil in southern cooking."

Salad eaters weren't happy when he offered them lemon or soybean oil instead, so he eventually caved.

He is making some other compromises.

"We're doing an omelet, much to my chagrin," Burch said. "People are going to ask for an egg white omelet on rye toast. We don't have that."

Instead, he has cornbread, brioche, buttermilk biscuits and other calorie-rich breads.

Besides not heeding any diet crazes, Burch also eschews the local food trend, preferring to haul in his food from trusted purveyors. He's flying in his bone-in ham steak from Missouri, and his stone ground grits come from Anson Mills in South Carolina — the same place that celebrity chef Tom Colicchio gets his.

For barbecue that takes five to six hours to make, the key is "not wanting to hide it or cover it up with sauces or emulsions," Burch said. "You want it to taste like the food that it is."