Hank’s Cuisines has a lot of heart

By GABRIELLE LAWRENCE

My mother still laughs about the times she tricked my siblings and me into eating something we didn’t know we were eating. With glee, she remembers how she told my dad that we were eating “Bambi’s mother” for dinner one night. Another night, she horrified my sister and me when she told us that what we had been eating was liver.

As it turns out, I’m not above that type of behavior. We ordered the fried fish meal ($11.99) during one of our recent trips to Hank’s Cuisines, and my son grabbed a big piece of lightly battered fish and started taking huge bites. My husband and I locked eyes as we waited for a “why does this chicken taste weird?” that never came. He ate the entire piece of fish for the first time in his life, and I told him what it was. He was indifferent.

Hank’s Cuisines is on the northwest side of the city, located in a former Quality Dairy. There are a few booths available if you want to eat there, but they were running a nonstop-busy takeout service one evening while I waited for my order. We had a smash burger and fries ($11.99), and while the fries were nothing to write home about, the burger was something special. I can’t get enough of the texture of a smash burger — the way the edges of the burger get crispy and caramelized from the griddle and the flavor becomes concentrated in the thin patty. This was an excellent version.

The steak and shrimp dinner ($29.99) boasted hearty portions of protein, seasoned generously and served atop white rice with some thinly sliced, sauteed peppers and onions. The rice was cooked to death, and the steak, while having an excellent flavor, was an unidentifiable cut and texture that I didn’t love. The shrimp were large, juicy and flavorful, and I focused my attention on that part of the dish.

On a return visit, I had to try the French toast fried chicken sandwich ($13.29), which sounded like the perfect interplay between savory and sweet. While all I could manage was a few bites, it was indeed a uniquely genius sandwich. The thickly sliced Texas toast hugged the juicy fried chicken, and I think this would be an excellent bite-sized party food if the size of it were scaled down since I couldn’t imagine eating the entire sandwich myself.

After several years of following the pop-culture obsession with protein and insisting on cottage cheese, eggs and smoothies filled with protein powder for breakfast, I’ve recently remembered how delicious French toast is. When I was in high school, there were many nights when I would come home from swim practice and inhale a stack of French toast. My children fall further toward the pancake side of the breakfast starch spectrum, and when I make French toast for a weekend breakfast, sometimes Mr. She Ate and I end up eating all of it. That’s perfectly fine with me because it’s an elite, decadent breakfast, and Hank’s has a stuffed cheesecake French toast that I’m dying to try. If you really want to prime your taste buds, check out the video of this dish being made on the restaurant's Facebook page.

The fried chicken wing meal ($11.99) included half a dozen extra-large chicken wings, but the breading was much too thick for my preferences, and the fries, like the ones from our previous visit, were unseasoned and unspecial. The fried fish, however, was some of the best I’ve ever had. It was breaded with a light coating of cornmeal, which is key for me. I’ve spent so many years attending mediocre fish fries during Lent that when I find a delicately fried fish that still has tons of flavor, it makes an impression. The fish at Hank’s checked all of these boxes and even convinced a discerning 7-year-old to chow down.

BRYAN BEVERLY

Just as the kitchen often functions as the hub of a household, a restaurant can stand as the backbone of a neighborhood. Looking around the Lansing area, our region is full of locally owned and operated eateries with importance well beyond that which is served on a plate. From a gathering place for meals, special occasions or even a mental health check-in with a dear friend to a place to be seen, catch up on the latest news (or gossip) or find stable employment, these “mom-and-pop” restaurants perform critical roles in fostering a sense of community. When one of these neighborhood mainstays closes, it leaves a social void in addition to a flavor vacuum.

Such was the case on Willow Street in northwest Lansing when DeLuca’s Restaurant closed in 2021. Not only did Lansing lose some of the best pizza in the area, but the neighborhood lost an icon that had housed joy and deliciousness for many decades. This was on the heels of the neighborhood’s local Quality Dairy closing in 2018. The Old Oakland and Edgemont Park neighborhoods were without many options to anchor their community around.

Enter John Douglas and Quantel Mckissic, the owners of Hank’s Cuisines, which opened in September and serves up soul food, breakfast, burgers and more. The pair purchased the former Quality Dairy and, after delays associated with the pandemic, renovated the space into a sit-down restaurant with multiple booths and tables, but the bread and butter of the operation is takeout.

Mckissic and Douglas see their small business as playing a large part in the vitality and strength of the neighborhood. On one of my visits, I witnessed Douglas providing instruction and feedback to a worker he’d taken a chance on while also correcting a young boy who was speaking out of turn to his mother. This exhibition of leadership and civic presence is emblematic of someone who’s invested more than just money into a business but also sweat into a community. What Hank’s Cuisines represents is just as important as what it cooks up on the daily. And the food is also darn impressive.

What’s good

The southern flavors found at Hank’s rival any of your favorites around town. The dirty rice ($4.99) is cooked to perfection and packed full of savory, crumbled meat. It pairs well with any of the proteins offered on the menu, including the sauteed shrimp ($6.99).

The spaghetti with Texas toast ($8.99) is a baked noodle dish with intense flavors and plenty of cheese. It’s the epitome of soul food spaghetti, with nods to both Italian and Southern cooking.

The smash burger ($11.99) with bacon ($3.30) is also very solid. The Hank’s sauce, akin to a sauce found near the golden arches, marries well with crunchy bites of the smashed, flat-top-grilled burger.

What’s really good

The breakfast options at Hank’s are served all day. Breakfast bowls, bagel sandwiches, and steak and eggs are joined on by several French toast options, including Cinnamon Toast Crunch and stuffed strawberry cheesecake. The Fruity Pebbles French toast ($14.99) comes with eggs and a choice of meat, but the star of the show is the glazed Texas toast that’s coated with flakes of sugary cereal. It sounds sweet because it is. This dish is not for the faint of heart or the prediabetic.

The fried chicken sandwich ($11.49) is also seriously good. A thick filet is battered and fried hard to a crusty perfection. Tossed in Nashville hot sauce ($2.08), the sandwich hits all the right notes of sweet heat: paprika, cayenne, honey and brown sugar. This sandwich is so very pleasing.

Best bite

As good as the chicken sandwich is, this month’s best bite goes to the spicy fried fish and grits ($13.99). I’ve been yearning for another bowl of those lush and creamy hominy grits with cheese and Creole seasoning since I finished the last one. The three pieces of fish are battered with a combination of cornmeal and flour, and they pair impeccably with the grits. Add a drizzle of the hot honey sauce, and you’ll be planning your next visit to the northwest side of Lansing.