Mexican, Korean, “American,” Thai, Indian, etc. There are so many different cuisines in San Diego stemming from the diverse groups of people living here. However, one cuisine is sorely lacking: Southern food. Ron Suel, the owner of StreetCar Merchants of Fried Chicken, Doughnuts, and Coffee, is trying to bring the world of Southern cuisine to San Diego in this strangely satisfying trifecta. Initially, StreetCar Merchants’ aim was to be a coffee and donut shop that Suel and his partner were going to open. But during a visit from his little brother, Suel realized there was no decent place to get authentic Southern food in San Diego. After whipping up his own batch of fried chicken to appease his brother’s food pangs, Suel was told, “You should do fried chicken, that’s the best fried chicken I’ve ever had.” Suel and his partner entertained the idea and eventually agreed to push forward with the weird fried chicken, doughnut, and coffee combination. “Cooking fried chicken to order is something that’s just not done. It’s difficult to do, it’s difficult to do consistently, and it takes a lot of time, which is why restaurants tend to avoid it.” Suel said. “Our biggest complaint is that our fried chicken takes too long to come out, but we want to stay true to how our family has always made it, fresh piping hot.”
When StreetCar Merchants opened its doors, the popularity of the fried chicken eclipsed those of the doughnuts and coffee. For emphasis, StreetCar Merchants did not start making fried chicken until lunchtime and multitudes of people who visited earlier for chicken left without buying anything else. Obviously, Suel decided to start serving fried chicken all day. From there, StreetCar Merchants spiraled into something Suel never expected. Requests started pouring in for more Southern-style foods like collard greens and mac-and-cheese. Gradually, the array of Southern food on the StreetCar Merchants’ menu grew, on one condition. Like the fried chicken, everything had to be made with the same ingredients and methods as the ones back in the South. To Suel, preserving that authenticity means everything. In order to achieve that level of expectation, he called family back home and asked around for their recipes. Because many of his family members were chefs or cooks, gathering recipes was a breeze. However, gathering ingredients was a different story. Many dishes that Suel wanted to add to the menu had one big problem, the ingredients deemed necessary and readily available in Louisiana were tough to find in California, and to acquire them proved costly or grossly impractical. For example, Suel lamented, “You won’t see a lot of étouffée or things like that from us because it’s very difficult to get the authentic ingredients, very hard to get the large Gulf shrimp that I’m used to having. With other shrimp it just doesn’t taste right, so I’m not going to force it.”
StreetCar Merchants is not just about the food, however. When they started out, Suel and his partner wanted StreetCar Merchants to be a neighborhood gathering spot where anyone would be welcome and an open discussion of ideas could take place. “We enjoy seeing the conversations between sets of people that would never speak in a million years because they have nothing in common,” Suel beamed. “We never truly know what is going to happen when a guest walks in. So it keeps us constantly guessing and it is just a fun place.”
“Another big reason we decided to do fried chicken was because it brings people together. Some people avoid certain foods because they don’t know how to pronounce it,” continued Suel. “But fried chicken is present in so many cultures, everybody’s grandma has made fried chicken.” By uniting people on the common ground of fried chicken, Suel hopes to generate conversation between diverse groups of people. Besides attracting diverse groups of people to sit and share ideas, Ron Suel has several items on his wishlist. For one, he would really like it if the ingredients in the South were more accessible (or less costly) here in Southern California. “What I really want people to know is how we go above and beyond to get authentic ingredients. When I fly home or a relative flies here, I will pay to bring back extra baggage to load up all of stuff I need,” he laughed. “I have been stopped at an airport and asked why I had a suitcase full of hot sauce. It’s because you can only get that hot sauce in the South.”
Another desire of his is for people in Southern California to visit Louisiana and try the food firsthand in its native location. Suel commented on how few people have formed a real opinion or feeling about Southern food because they have not experienced it. For more information on the StreetCar Merchants of Fried Chicken, Doughnuts, and Coffee, visit www.streetcarmerchants.com/ or stop by one of their two locations in La Jolla or North Park. StreetCar Merchants will also be opening up a third location in Gaslamp sometime in the near future.