It is very rare to find success or good news coming out Camden, New Jersey usually. Corinne’s Place (CP) has been a thriving business in a tough town and I am sure they would not mind to see a revitalization of Camden while being a part of a plan. It will be no easy task, but creating a friendly business corridor for people to visit has to be one of the city’s top priorities as driving down Haddon Avenue to get to CP is no easy task with the multitude of jay-walkers, drug dealers, drug users, and many juveniles loitering the sidewalk and steps of businesses to get to CP.
The front door of CP is not even welcoming and I had to wonder if I was opening the correct door or if they were even open the day that I came. As soon as I stepped foot inside, I was immediately hit with a decor that I do not have the vocabulary to describe here. The best I can say is that it is a shrine to the owner of the place with various letters, pictures, newspaper clippings talking about CP just tacked on the walls looking more like a teenager’s bedroom than a business with no rhyme or reason about how they are arranged as well as any of the other furnishings or trinkets surrounding the restaurant.
Thankfully after I got out of my initial shock and awe of CP, the staff was friendly and accommodating to me. The menu is of your basic soul food variety choices. I went with the breast fried chicken platter with mac and cheese and cabbage.
The portions were generous and about average price for this style of food around the Philadelphia region. The chicken was moist and tender, but the flavor seemed a little light for my taste compared to other soul food establishments fried chicken near here. It seemed as though my piece just was not seasoned well enough. The mac and cheese was creamy, but again did nothing to have it stand out from the crowd. The cabbage on the other hand had the opposite problem. It was cooked nicely as each bite of cabbage was as smooth as silk, but it was seasoned so heavily with salt that it was almost inedible.
CP was a mix of many things from the adventure to get there, the sensory overload of the interior, and the food they serve. I hear the best day to visit CP is on Sundays for their buffet, and I am sure being able to grab a little bit of everything of the menu can be a delight here. What I can tell you though is that the experience I had was not sufficient enough to have me go out of my way to visit CP. With that being said, I do not have any current or planned business to take care of in this part of Camden so it may be quite a while until they see me again. So until that time comes, then maybe a revitalization of the area will be in the works and it would not be such a hassle to get there and give me a reason to go back and happily walk down the street to get into CP.
BlueJeanFood 