Day Trips

Tracey and Sandie Cooper (Photo By Gerald E. McLeod)

Sandora's Box/The Big Easy Apple in downtown Dallas combines the cuisines of New York and New Orleans for a distinctive Texan flavor. The little diner with its unique styling is the kind of place that gives the local restaurant scene a reputation for variety and creativity.

Fried chicken and a waffle is the house specialty at the restaurant tucked into the heart of the downtown business district. Strange as that may sound, it is a delicious meal that is more than filling. Readers of the Dallas Observer honored Sandora's as the best soul-food breakfast in Dallas in 1999 for good reason. The menu is full of home-cooked favorites that are never boring.

Sandora Cooper brought the idea for the combination of chicken and waffles from her home in New York's Harlem neighborhood. When the neighborhood was at its most vibrant from the 1930s to the 1950s, celebrities like Sugar Ray Robinson and Count Basie owned restaurants in the area. Around the corner from Cooper's house was the famous Well's Restaurant.

When the shows and parties let out of the Cotton Club, the Savoy, and the Apollo, the crowds would fill the uptown eateries. Well's restaurant was one of the most popular. Around 1938, the restaurant invented the chicken and waffle plate for folks who couldn't decide if they wanted breakfast or dinner. Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles turned up in Hollywood with the same platter around 1975. While the combination may be the same, every cook has their own special way to prepare the chicken.

Born and raised in Harlem, Sandie, as she is known to her friends and customers, worked in radio, television, and the music industry for several years. As the road manager for an East Coast disco band, she wrote "In the Bush," which received a gold record in 1979. "They still play that song, especially in Africa and Europe," she says.

After the band broke up, Cooper was looking for her next career opportunity when she met James Peterson, the personal caddie for LPGA golfer Judy Rankin. "I saw him pull up in front of the place I was working in a big Cadillac with Texas plates, and the rest is, as they say, history," she says.

Peterson, who passed away a couple of years ago, moved Sandie and her daughter Tracey to Dallas in 1981. "I was in total depression," Tracey says. "Dallas was completely different than New York City." Tracey, who is a partner in the restaurant with her mother and two others, also works as a supervisor at the American Heart Association, where they often chide her about serving fried food at the restaurant.

After the Metroplex television station where Sandie worked started to make some personnel changes, she decided to go into the restaurant business. "I just didn't want to have to go on any more interviews," she says.

Her grandfather was a chef on a luxury passenger ship and she had worked at her aunt and uncle's cafe in the Sugar Hill area of New York City, so she wasn't completely new to food service. "I grew up in the kitchen," Sandie says.

In 1998, the mother and daughter team opened their first chicken and waffle shop inside the New Orleans Seafood Parlor north of downtown Dallas. She served breakfast while the owners served lunch and dinner. In order to expand the business, Sandie and Tracey moved to a little place of their own on Gaston Avenue. "Six months later the owner turned it into a parking lot," Tracey says.

Their home since April, the new location on Commerce Street has the feel of a New York or New Orleans diner. The room is long and narrow with a low ceiling and dark corners. The lucky patrons get to sit at the bright picture window and watch the traffic pass on the sidewalk.

The menu ranges from New York-style Reuben sandwiches to gumbo and jambalaya. "The recipes are basically my mom's," Sandie says, "with a little bit of my grandfather's styling." The menu also includes fish and grits, po'boys, and a spicy turkey link. The salmon croquettes are divine, two-inch high pillows with just the right blend of flavors. Top it all off with a big slice of New York-style cheesecake.

Of course, the fried chicken and waffle is Sandie's signature dish. The dinner plate-size, golden waffle is good, but it is just a side dish for the extraordinary chicken. Only lightly breaded with a thin layer of flour, the spices Sandie uses are saturated throughout the meat. Before she marinates the chicken overnight, Sandie soaks the meat in kosher salt to tenderize it. The slightly salty flavor of the chicken is accentuated when mixed with the sweet syrup. It is highly recommended that you get an extra order of the chicken to take home with you. It is even delicious cold.

This isn't fast food. Everything is cooked to order, and some days Sandie takes the orders, cooks the food, and serves the food at the counter. The Big Easy Apple is at 1419 Commerce a block or so from the swanky Adolphus Hotel. The cafe opens daily, 11am-3pm, and Thursday-Saturday, 7pm-10pm. For more information, call 214/651-0800 or visit their Web site at www.geocities.com/sandoras_box.

Coming up this weekend ...

150th Birthday Celebration in Luckenbach happens for the third time with lots of food, music, and dancing, May 27. 830/997-3224 or www.luckenbachtexas.com.

Texas Fiddler's Reunion in Athens has been happening since the 1930s, attracting top fiddle players from around the country, May 25.

National Polka Festival in Ennis brings out the Czech food and dancing along with an arts and crafts festival, May 25-27. 972/878-4748 or www.visitennis.org.

In memoriam:

Tom Taylor, the man who helped turned Texas Highways magazine into the premier Texas travel publication and establish the travel information centers at the state's borders, passed away May 10 at the age of 81. Besides a 41-year career with the Texas Department of Transportation's Travel Division, he also served as the mayor of West Lake Hills for 22 years until 1996. Taylor's many contributions to the state and to the community will have a lasting effect on the citizens and visitors.