Tom sits on a stool at the counter in the front window of Odessa’s, newly opened soul food restaurant on Jefferson Street between Montgomery and Warren, previously the location of Southern Flava. He reflects on his career in cooking, begun in 1974 at the then Holiday Inn on East Genesee Street. There were opportunities for higher paying factory jobs back then, but the factories have all now closed. “You don’t have to worry about lay-offs if you’re cooking,” he observes. He has since put in a lot of years at stoves in “the chains” as he calls them. He simply got tired of anticipating the “pre-done” taste. He now cooks in tandem with Melvin, who owns the business. The place is named after Melvin’s mom.

“Everybody seems to want what’s bad for them,” Tom observes, echoing the bad rap which hovers over soul food, overly fat and lacking nutrition. “But you’ve got to be consistent with soul food. I use low sodium cheese and one percent milk. I try not to use a lot of pork.” On first visit the cheese melted smoothly into the grits, runny but negotiable with a fork, and the cat fish was bite size without any sense of pre-done in the taste. Salmon patties were promised for the next day, and ribs and black-eyed peas announced for dinner. Takeout seems the real deal while Odessa’s gets itself together, waiting for a water pipe for the coffee machine and saving up for a really big refrigerator. For now six seats are paired at tables, with three stools in the window for watching the Jefferson Street Parade.

Call ahead

Tom explains it’s best to order ahead, on the phone at 218-6441 or fax to 2218-6442. The atmosphere and R&B CDs are upbeat, with freshly painted walls and deep purple trim. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are available Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., closed Sunday. Lunch specials can be had for $5.

Caucasian Cousins

While soul food constitutes a generally accepted menu nationwide — fried chicken, greens, corn bread, sweet potato pie — its southern Caucasian cousin has yet to catch on much outside the likes of Mount Olive and Rollin’ Fork, Miss.. But for those seeking an alimentary adventure, recipes for Perlow, Hoppin’ John and Crepes a la Creola Le Beau (left-over collards, tortilla chips and mayonnaise heated with a can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup) can be found in White Trash Cooking by the late Earnest Matthew Mickler, from Ten Speed Press in Berkeley, Calif., although the 1986 classic (along with the 1988 companion Sinkin Spells, Hot Flashes, Fits and Cravins, which addresses Possum, Squirrel, indeed anything that goes good with a grape Nehi) may be out of print.