When chef David King surveyed the Bay Area restaurant scene, he was blown away by how many restaurants were serving classed-up versions of mac ’n’ cheese — mac ’n’ cheese with shaved truffles, mac ’n’ cheese with lobster, mac ’n’ cheese with obscure and non-traditional cheeses. In Oakland, there was even an entire restaurant, Homeroom, dedicated to variations on a theme of elbow-pasta-in-creamy-sauce.
King, a native of Memphis, Tennessee — where mac ’n’ cheese is liked well enough — couldn’t help thinking that not enough love was being given to another staple of the American South: grits. When he started planning a new restaurant in Uptown Oakland, he thought, “Why can’t I have three, four, or five grits dishes on the menu, and try to promote grits as the new mac ’n’ cheese?”
