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Grits and the Florida Grill

Two facts about grits. You can't eat just one. And if you're a stubborn Yankee, you probably haven't even tried to eat just one.

I speak as such a Yankee, recently converted to grits loving. Where I grew up in northern Pennsylvania, grits was the stuff that fell off sandpaper. John Wayne later introduced me to the inner fortitude concept of "True Grit." All of which has nothing to do with fine bits of tasty corn that you cooked and ate with eggs in the morning if you live south of Gettysburg.

A lot of important people keep an eye on chef Derek McPherson at the Florida Avenue Grill. He cooks 3000 pounds of Washington's best grits every year.

Here come the grits!Waitress Evelyn Ward pauses on her way out of the kitchen.

Metro Connection Producer finishes interview with scrambled eggs and prepares to talk to the grits.

Breakfast without light and flaky biscuits with a good crust? We hope not.

With the zeal of a new convert, I began the search for the best grits served in the Washington area. Trusted crummy but good scouts and writing friends told me to try the Florida Avenue Grill, which was excuse enough to visit this 60-year-old Washington institution.

Except it's very hard to get there from here. Florida Ave. is one of those irrational Washington streets that suddenly turns and disappears. But the Florida Avenue Grill waits patiently for we who are lost and serves breakfast and grits until 1:00 PM. I'm told coming later is better, because the early breakfast line can be long, especially on Saturday.

Chef Derek McPherson made us soul-challenged folks feel right at home in a soul food restaurant. My constant companion (and wife) now claims he makes the lightest and fastest scrambled eggs ever, and she has been dragged to a lot of breakfast places. Me, I like my eggs a tad looser, not runny mind you, but loose enough to be in a sociable state for mixing with the grits.

Derek cooks about 10 pounds of grits every day -- "15 on Saturday" -- and somehow keeps them nice and light. For the radio review, he served producer David Furst and me grits four different ways -- with butter, brown gravy, cheese and red-eye gravy. I brought real maple syrup, my preferred grits dressing, but Derek's red-eye gravy, "with a secret ingredient," was a good second choice.

A picture of the old singing group The Commodores watched over our table as we ate. Photographs of more than 100 Black celebrities line the walls and most are signed testimonials from fans of the Florida Grill. Owner Lacey Wilson pointed to my seat and said proudly, "Senator Strom Thurmond sat right there and said I had the best corn bread and collard greens he ever ate."

A lot of good eating has gone on at the Florida Grill, and like any hard-working 60 year-old, the place does show interesting signs of wear and tear, wrinkles and age spots. It is what it is, a gritty place that is home to the best grits in Washington.

Let us know if you agree or disagree. Two Challenges are out there:

1. What restaurant has the best breakfast grits in Washington?

2. How far North have you been able to order breakfast grits in a restaurant?

(Previous winners of the Northernmost Grits trophy include an oil camp on the North Slope of Alaska and an alleged restaurant in Duluth, Minnesota. The oil camp has been declared ineligible because of its non-public restaurant status, and several prominent Minnesotans have since denied the existence of grits in Duluth. We need a new champion of grits in the North! Find our new champion, the northernmost restaurant serving breakfast grits, and get a free breakfast on us!)

Send your winners and comments to our Crummy But Good Food Editor, Donovan Kelly, at crummybut@aol.com.