So much of the study of great American barbecue surrounds regional traditions and family recipes that a visit to M&D’s Cafe is a must for true soul-food lovers.
But once members of this opinionated culinary clique make their way to M&D’s pre-war corner storefront, experiences might be mixed.
Consistency seems to be a challenge lately at this long-standing eatery opened by Mack and Daisy Shead around three decades ago. Members of the Shead family continue to run M&D’s today.
This is a place that embodies the South with a menu of fried green tomatoes and barbecue rib tip pieces to start; ribs, hot link, pork, chicken and beef, along with fried catfish and red snapper sandwiches; and oversized entrees featuring one or a combination of the above, with such traditional sides as baked beans, yams, mixed greens, green beans, mac-and-cheese.
Still, with its kente-covered tables and portraits of black cowboys, M&D’s also is distinctly a creation of the American West. That cultural dichotomy makes it special.
The service oscillates between aloof and so attentive it borders on nosy. What comes out of the kitchen can be equally unpredictable. The cornbread, for instance, is warm and doused in butter. But it sorely needs that, as the bread is otherwise dry. And M&D’s lemonade, advertised as homemade, exhibits few characteristics to distinguish it from grocery store brands.
Yet there are glimmers of the finger-licking, belly-rubbing comfort here. The yams are buttery sweet. M&D’s ‘cue sauce is tangy, tart and hearty enough to stick to a bone. And the restaurant’s pecan pie couldn’t be prettier in its molded puff pastry crust with sticky sweet filling that tastes as good as the dish looks.
When M&D’s first opened, there were few other restaurants around catering to the barbecue crowd. But these days, barbecue is flourishing in Colorado, which means folks expect each day’s batch at their favorite spot to be as good, if not better, than the last day’s.
Some days, M&D’s is just that good. Plus, the cafe continues to host the kind of community-minded specials – free kids meals on Wednesdays, “bucket deals” on the weekends – that helped make it a local eating institution.
M&D’s Fish & Barbecue Cafe
Barbecue|2000 E. 28th Ave. (at Race Street), Denver, 303-296-1760,|$4.49 – $20.69|Tuesday- Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.; most major credit cards.
Front burner: Mac-and- cheese so creamy it warms your heart in bite one, perfectly crispy and flaky catfish batter, warmed desserts, and cozy R&B overhead.
Back burner: A banner outside M&D’s advertises a $2.25 PBR happy-hour special 5-7 p.m. during the week. Our group arrived at the designated time, flopped down at a table and promptly ordered a round of PBRs, only to find out there were none in stock. “We do have Red Stripe,” our server declared. Now, that squat brown bottle of Jamaican lager is more than acceptable for washing back M&D’s signature sticky-sweet sauce. But it also cost twice as much ($4.75) as the advertised deal.
