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Charlotte’s Cafeteria at lunch on a Thursday is like a flash mob with meatloaf.
In a former American Legion Hall at the southern edge of Phoebus’ busy business strip, you might find a seeming half of the VA Hospital and a comparable portion of Hampton City Hall crowded around Creole-seasoned chicken and heaping fried okra.
They roll in right after Charlotte’s opens, propelled there perhaps by daily Facebook streams from co-owner Lakesha Brown-Renfro, who cheerily introduces each day’s specials.
Oxtails may come the first Saturday of the month. A fish fry arrives, like church clockwork, on Friday. Will your Thursday meal be the $10 baked chicken meat-and-two, with jumbo wings kicked up and herbed like they’re trying to prove Louisiana is part of the Caribbean? Or is it the full spaghetti dinner? Each will arrive with a little knob of aggressively buttery, lightly sweet and salty cornbread — an individual take on the classic that is like the South’s addictive answer to kettle corn.
By noon, the fast-moving line might start at the door, roll past the little station where you pick up your bright orange cafeteria tray, move along a vast menagerie of Southern comfort hot plates from turkey wings to fried chicken, and take you all the way to the register. There, little jars of banana pudding stand ready to make a mockery of your diet.
The room is vast and full, joyfully loud. Brown-Renfro pops from one group to the next, perhaps asking a regular, one of many she knows by name, how she liked her indulgent bechamel mac and cheese.
And then, just as quickly — as if a shipyard siren had wailed a 1 o’clock return to work — the customers are gone. And here you are with your fork in your sweet-potato cheesecake, wondering what the heck happened.
But you are never left wondering why everyone came. They came for the same reasons you did: deeply homestyle cooking at the intersection of soul and Southern and Creole, with just about everything made from scratch and cooked like Mom did it. The dressing for pasta salad is fresh-made, the herbs are chopped from live greens, the tea made daily from leaves and not a mix.
In the case of the meatloaf, the mom in question was named Charlotte A. Brown, and she was mother to Lakesha. And in a restaurant devoted to comfort, the meatloaf offers an extra portion. It is generous, thick-ground and juicy — crumbly because so little bread is used to bind it. It’s also amply seasoned and laced with Worcestershire, smothered in a sauce made from fresh tomatoes that have been reduced into pure umami.
“Oh my goodness,” said Brown-Renfro. “There’s a kitchen sink in that meatloaf. We love that meatloaf.”
Other recipes, including that wonderful cornbread, may extend from sister restaurant Mango Mangeaux up the street. Or they may come from the families of fellow owners Tanecia Willis and Nzinga Teule-Hekima.
Charlotte’s is a very Southern place, but it is also a strong counterpoint to the simplified salt-and-pepper cooking of many Southern homes. It is a place of many flavors, with special emphasis on the thyme and paprika and garlic and pepper of Creole cuisines. But the exact mix is individual to each dish.
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The fried chicken finds its character through a complex blend of seasonings and fresh-chopped herbs. A long-brined thigh and leg quarter is as juicy as the fresh-squeezed mango lemonade by the registers; but especially, it is spiced to earthy satisfaction.
But if the fried chicken is subtle, the baked chicken is so dense with herbal spice it’s almost encrusted, with a tickle of peppery kick. Even the vegetable-stock gravy for the mashed potatoes contains a dense mix of herbs, and so does the breader for the fried okra.
If there’s a caution, it’s that when we arrived on one visit in the midafternoon after a rush, the baked chicken didn’t arrive piping hot — an issue Brown-Renfro says is rare but that they’re working on. When it’s busy as all get-out, on weekday lunch or after church on Sundays, you’ll never even have to think about it: The dishes come fast and furious from the ovens, and steaming hot.
And especially, they come tasting like you’d been invited for a dinner at someone’s home.
The restaurant is only 6 months old, but it feels like it’s been here for years: a Wednesday to Sunday social hour with workmates or church groups seated six to a table. In its feeling, it’s a bit like a cross between a modern soul-in-the wall and a midcentury lunch tray cafeteria. It is a model of restaurant that used to fuel much of American life, but which has become much more rare.
But unlike the more ancient takes on cafeteria, Charlotte’s is big and clean-feeling and domestic, with orange accents everywhere and cast-iron pans hung on the walls. The food is fresh, and lightly elevated but not overpriced. The room is comfortable, and there’s likely room for you in it. It’s a place you can go solo for an instant meal, or with colleagues for a sit-down klatsch that won’t stretch the boundaries of your lunch hour or your budget. And it’s also a spot you can bring the whole family after church and find yourselves accommodated.
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It is, in short, a place that seems designed specifically to be useful — to fill many needs for many people. In its way, Charlotte’s isn’t merely a pleasant and friendly place; it’s also a thoughtful one, a spacious gathering hall with no fuss but plenty of care.
Really, it’s the sort of place you didn’t know you needed until you showed up the first time. And from then on, it’ll just be part of your life — an easy comfort in a life where so few things are easy.
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If you go
The spot: Charlotte’s Cafeteria, 221 E. Mellen St., Hampton
The vibe: A pleasant, spacious, domestic update on the old-school Southern, hot-plate cafeteria with scratch-made, down-home food and friendly charm
Order this: The $10 orange-plate specials, which often include oven-baked chicken, are always the best deal. But the single best thing we’ve eaten is the meatloaf. And the fried chicken isn’t far behind. Desserts are also a particular specialty. And the cornbread is special.
Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday
COVID protocols: Masks required; hand sanitizer at the door.
Prices: A la carte entrees, $6 to $8; sides, $2 to $3; orange plate specials with side and cornbread, $10; salads, $2.29 plus extras; desserts, $5-ish per person
Drinks: Nonalcoholic. Sodas, fresh-brewed teas, fresh-squeezed mango lemonade
Let's Eat
Kid-friendly? Yup
Vegan/veg/gluten: You’ll have to ask, but the restaurant has made numerous accommodations — including herbal vegetarian gravy.
Disabled-access? Yes
Reservations? A raised-platform family table for 10 can be reserved for $50 — granting line-skipping privileges and free cornbread and salads and tea for all. Event reservations also possible.
Parking: Lot
Contact: 757-964-6262, welcometocharlottes.com
Matthew Korfhage, 757-446-2318, matthew.korfhage@pilotonline.com.