Tony's Southern Comfort Restaurant

This is one place where "Southern comfort" doesn't refer to the whiskey.The phrase refers to the down-home cooking at Tony's Southern Comfort Restaurant, a recent addition to Sixth Street east of Interstate 35.Owned and operated by the family of chef Tony Herring, the restaurant features a relatively limited menu strong on frying and old-fashioned fare.The chicken fried steak ($7.25), made with a hand-breaded, tenderized cube steak, was large, tender and flavorful, with a good cream gravy.It was served with mashed potatoes and green beans -- two of a half-dozen options that day. The potatoes were thick with remnants of the skin, my favorite style, and the green beans were well-cooked with chopped onion that added a nice touch without the heavy salting that plagues so much Southern cooking. On another day, the hand-breaded, fried catfish ($7.50), which was nicely seasoned, was served with plump hushpuppies as well as two vegetables, grilled zucchini and broccoli. The chicken quesadilla appetizer ($4.25), a nod to the predominant cuisine of the neighborhood, was made with large tortillas filled with chicken, melted cheese, green onion and tomatoes. It could easily serve as an entree for a diner with a moderate appetite.The pork chops ($7.50), fried rather than grilled at the suggestion of our server, were flavorful, but only moderately tender.The desserts, a sweet potato pie ($1.29) that was not overly sweet and a red velvet cake ($2) that harked to the 1950s, were delightful.With food that good, it's time that the building stopped morphing. Since the longtime Hernandez Cafe closed two years ago, the space has housed an Italian restaurant and a Mexican seafood spot.Let's hope the third time is a charm.