New Stanislaus County soul food restaurant serves food that ‘feels like home’
You know the feeling that the holidays bring: comfort, warmth, nostalgia? That’s what soul food does to the body, and a new Stanislaus County restaurant specializes in it.
Chicago native Muriel Askew made Patterson home in 2020. She stamped her commitment to the city by opening a restaurant on Renzo Lane in April.
Muriel’s Southern Comfort Food had a line wrapped around the building when it opened April 17. Askew’s motivation behind the restaurant is her mother, Grace, and her love for cooking.
“My mother was the backbone,” Askew said. “She had all these children and we just loved to see her make biscuits and make collard greens and candied yams.”
Several of Askew’s 15 siblings also own or owned restaurants in other states. Following the footsteps of their mother, she said, they all “love to cook.”
Food at Muriel’s “feels like home”
The tagline for Muriel’s Southern Comfort Food is “where every bite feels like home.” A number of the menu items are named after Askew’s family members, including one in honor of her mother: Grace’s slap your daddy fried chicken.
“When I tell you that chicken is so good it makes you want to slap somebody, and it just might be your daddy if he’s close by,” Askew said.
Another popular dish, Keith’s screaming catfish, is named for her husband. It comes with two sides, as do all signature plates. The catfish is prepared and fried separately to prevent cross-contamination with allergens.
Sides include collard greens, candied yams, fried okra, red beans and rice, and succotash. Other dishes are shrimp and grits, meatloaf, beef short ribs and chicken and waffles.
“That’s what you eat in the souf — not the South, the souf,” Askew said.
Dessert options rotate and include banana pudding, pound cake, peach cobbler and German chocolate cake.
Askew said she plans to host karaoke, comedy shows, poetry readings and other events at the restaurant.
Muriel’s Southern Comfort Food is open at 2985 Renzo Lane in Patterson on Wednesdays from 4 to 8 p.m., Thursdays through Saturdays from noon to 8 p.m. (closed for lunch between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m.) and Sundays from 4 to 8 p.m.
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