“I can’t breathe.” — George Floyd. “I can’t jog.” — Ahmaud Arbery. “I can’t peacefully protest.” — Black people everywhere. Those messages, stenciled on Virtue’s windows, are chef-owner Erick Williams’s reminder of America’s systemic vice. But inside, he provides the yang to that yin with righteous Southern cooking that upholds the restaurant’s idealistic name: rich andouille gumbo, skillet cornbread with a lavish scoop of house-churned butter, blackened red drum with stone-ground grits and crab étouffée, mac and cheese cooked in a dish shallow enough that you get a spoonful of golden crust with every bite. This is pure hospitality — humble dishes rendered with the immeasurable skills of Williams (pictured below, on the right) and chef de cuisine Damarr Brown (on the left). Witness the gorgeous slab of short ribs, all fall-apart meat with no unrendered fat, in a winey onion gravy with a surprise of creamed spinach hiding underneath. This food is canonical, rooted in history — everyone’s history. 

Price: $$$
Address: 1462 E. 53rd St.
Website: virtuerestaurant.com