David Anderson has been the head chef at Second Home for just over a year and he's made some big and welcome changes to the menu. One of the first things he wanted to tackle was the appetizer portion of the menu. "Everybody has a crab cake. The one we were serving was a little ambiguous and it just wasn't doing it for me."
He wanted to keep the crab but make it cool. Inspired by Edward Lee, he came up with these beignets, filled with crab meat and served alongside fried green tomatoes.
The secret is in the batter—he adds a Fat Tire Amber to it and it keeps the beignets light and pillowy. This works well with the cajun-spiced fried green tomatoes and the spicy remoulade at the base of the dish.
"This sells well because our servers love it. It's hands down their favorite item. Well, also because everybody loves fried food. I would recommend splitting this dish with the rest of the table."
Anderson also says it won't come off the menu as long as he's around. The dish is representative of what the restaurant tries to serve: elevated comfort food. "It's simple in it's preparation, but complex in it's flavors. It's different. You're not going to get this somewhere else."