Lou’s Luncheonette offering casual, fried comfort food

Restaurateurs Chad and Erika Harris seem to like change. Certainly not as much change as has rocked our worlds this year, but still, the couple is adaptable. Consider their highly popular Fremont Diner, which debuted back in 2008 next to a vineyard on Highway 121 in Sonoma-Carneros, then closed suddenly in June of 2018. The duo reopened the space as Box Car Chicken and Biscuits just four months later.

Then, this past fall, Box Car closed, but the couple sprang back quickly with a new idea, called Lou’s Luncheonette.

“Lou is a family name,” Erika said. The moniker conveys the “just casual, counter service” theme.

Yet, hold on. Box Car was already counter service (changed from Fremont’s table service), and the Luncheonette menu is pretty darn similar to Fremont and Box Car offerings. Plus, the Harrises are expanding service to dinner sometime in mid-June. So what’s so different?

Think casual, really casual. After seeing an explosion of take-out orders since the shelter-in-place mandate, the Harrises have added online ordering and are experimenting with delivery. Folks can dine at umbrella-shaded picnic tables out back, and as restrictions loosen, likely at tables, too, spaced as well as they can be in such a tiny dining room.

For Sonoma-Southern food this good, I doubt anyone would complain if they had to eat in their cars, however. Indeed, Erika notes that “people have been very flexible and happy” with all the ongoing adjustments.

Here’s the best part of the transition: many of Fremont’s original dishes have been brought back, enhancing what was Boxcar’s focus on fried chicken, a few appetizers and a couple of salads. The couple also reinstalled the bar back - for when we’re allowed to sit at a bar again - serving wines by the glass and bottled beers.

It felt terrific to be sitting once again in public on the patio, stuffing myself with a half dozen golf ball-sized piping-hot hush puppies laced with cheddar and jalapeno and dunked in lemony caper-studded remoulade ($4.99). Crispy on the outside, cornmeal-cakey on the inside, they’re delicious.

Fried oysters have never tasted better, either, nested with thick, handcut fries glistening with good grease and salt and partnered with a little cup of remoulade and lemon wedges in a basket lined with red-checked paper ($8.95).

There are healthy things on the menu, such as a pretty salad of County Line greens tossed with tart apricots, fennel, Laura Chenel goat cheese and hazelnuts ($4.99 small/$9.99 large), and ... well, that’s it, really, unless you count a half dozen deviled eggs that are lightly whipped and seasoned with pickled mustard seed and paprika ($5.99).

But I’m here for the fried stuff, since this kind of food tastes so wonderful straight out of the oil. Fried chicken to-go is pretty great, but when it’s immediately fresh, it’s amazing. The kitchen brines the small birds for extra juiciness, cloaks them in a thick batter and serves them in myriad ways.

Get it as boneless breast on a homemade drop biscuit with honey butter and housemade Sonoma chile hot sauce ($4.25); as a sandwich with lettuce, tomato, tangy house pickles and spicy mayo on a bun ($10.75) or as a half chicken served on tin tray with classic white bread, pickles and your choice of country mild or Nashville cayenne hot ($12.99).

Add a scoop of creamy mac ‘n’ cheese, rich with Vella sharp cheddar ($3.50), and crunchy, mayo-free coleslaw dressed with lime, cilantro and green onions ($3.50), and you’re set.

Barbecue is another bestseller, Erika said, featuring brisket or pork by the pound or as sandwiches. I got a half pound of brisket to go, since the slow-cooked meat travels and reheats so well. It made a perfect supper with the included soft white bread, pickles, onion and homemade vinegar barbecue sauce ($10.50). To round the meal out: soupy stellar boracho beans crafted with plump white and magenta speckled Jacob’s Cattle beans slow cooked with guajillo chilies, tomato and Fogbelt red ale ($3.50). These are some of the best beans I’ve had, and I finished the entire container in one sitting.

I also grabbed a box of the fluffy, custardy biscuits to go, with a side of ginger rhubarb jam, planning ahead for my breakfast the next day. Because after all these months, what a treat it is to enjoy the beloved Fremont, um, Boxcar - OK, Lou’s - once again.

Carey Sweet is a Sebastopol-based food and restaurant writer. Read her restaurant reviews every other week in Sonoma Life. Contact her at carey@careysweet.com.