Southern cuisine and soul food have always been good, but good for you? Enter Chef Shenarri Freeman, who is remaking the classics with a vegan and plant-based twist at Cadence. 
The tiny space packs considerable charm but the kitchen is the one that shines, focusing on building flavors and creating dishes with seasonal vegetables rather than alternatives posing as meat. It's one creative riff after another. Collard green wraps are filled with succotash and set in an umami-rich chickpea miso broth. Then, two large oyster mushrooms are fried and tossed in a buffalo sauce, served over a Belgian waffle and sided by lavender maple syrup for a take on chicken and waffles that's so good it's almost blasphemous.
The wine list spotlights labels from Black-owned wineries.