Shrimp Lips will have you puckering up to tasty seafood
When the window slid open to begin my initial visit to Shrimp Lips — a South Side all-star occupying a former dairy bar — owner Dorothea Carter nodded at an orange-and-black Slingshot as the three-wheeled vehicle zoomed past. By all appearances delighted to see me, a complete stranger, Carter grinned and said, “That was my daughter, the seafood lady. My son is the crab boss. This is Desiree to my left, she'll take your order. Everyone's family here.”
As greetings go, that's about as good as it gets. As subsequent visits for more delicious food would later prove, I should've expected nothing less from Shrimp Lips.
A fried-seafood-centric, soul-food-leaning eatery whose fare is even more impressive than its name, Shrimp Lips cooks up overachieving dishes that belie an unassuming, to-gooriented setting. That said, the repurposed dairy bar does feature some outdoor seating and a wonderful logo: a cartoon-style shrimp wearing lipstick, yellow gloves on four tiny appendages and a self-possessed, “I've got this” expression.
Other eatery adornments include handwritten cardboard signs advertising specials such as cornmeal-crusted, perfectly tart fried green tomatoes served with on-point remoulade sauce ($6); juicy, tender and peppery collard greens enhanced by smoked turkey, onions and a side of good cornbread ($8); plus something called “Holla crunchy chicken” I'll be sampling on my next visit.
That is if I can remember not to completely fill up on the place's addictive shrimp.
Whether grilled or fried — both versions rock, but I was told most customers pick fried because of its crispy, irresistible breading — the tail-on crustaceans were plump, sweet and notably fresh-tasting. A garnishing one-two punch that boosts nearly every item here added to their deliciousness: sprinkles of zesty house Creole seasoning and lashes of garlic butter.
The eatery's eponymous seafood is sold in multiple groupings. These include a five-piece a la carte order ($8.99); the half shrimp combo — nine shrimp served with two of the uniformly tasty sides ($18.99); and the aptly named full shrimp combo — 18 jumbo shrimp presented with shrimp-boil-appropriate accompaniments ($29.50).
The extras in that last feast, a buffet in a foam box that can easily feed two, were a hefty hunk of kielbasa-style sausage; a half-ear of corn; a properly
boiled egg; and red spuds that, because everything received that aforementioned one-two garnishing punch, conjured the Southern equivalent of Greek potatoes.
Even crinkle-cut fries receive that garnishing treatment, which makes the prefab but cooked-right tubers a fine side for numerous items such as the huge and unusual shrimp taco ($14.99). Resembling a Navajo taco, the gloriously messy assembly had fry bread-like deep-fried pita, rather than a tortilla, wrapped around shrimp, greens and three house sauces — aioli, remoulade and cheese — that together evoked Caesar dressing notes.
An equally eccentric and sloppy take on a Philly steak ($13.99 with fries) came with a similar saucing onslaught. Highly seasoned beef, onion and pepper bits plus a nicely toasted puffy roll completed the distinctly pleasant sandwich.
But the best non-shrimp entrees I sampled were the fried perch and fried catfish meals (both were $16.99 and came with fries and crisp, onion-scented hush puppies) and fried chicken that deserves its own ample praise.
The chicken is sold with fries in sixpiece meals of wings ($12.99) or strips ($10.99) that outclass most others in the area. A recurring special that includes two crunchy-yet-tender breasts and two sides ($17.99) — like the greens and macand-cheese with a decadent, tangy sauce — merits a special visit.
Digging into a slab of good lemon pound cake with a bourbon-peach topping ($6.50) is a sweet — not overly sweet, though — finish to a meal. But whatever you get at this South Side gem is pretty sure to make you feel like it's all family here. gabenton.dispatch@gmail.com This story is part of The Dispatch’s Mobile Newsroom initiative. Visit our reporters at the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Parsons branch library and read their work at dispatch.com/mobilenewsroom, where you also can sign up for The Mobile Newsroom newsletter.