Ferguson’s Country Brings Sweet, Funky Southern Comfort to North Brooklyn

By Scott Lynch

Ferguson’s Country is located at 732 Lorimer Street, at the corner of Bayard Street across the park, and is currently open Wednesday through Sunday from 5:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., with weekend brunch coming later in the fall. 

Scott Ferguson grew up eating this stuff—the hush puppies, fried okra, shrimp and grits, and the country fried steak. Heck, back in Alabama, where he spent much of his life until moving to Brooklyn a few years ago, Ferguson’s Uncle Wayne used to throw catfish frys out in the middle of nowhere, filleting dozens of the whiskered swimmers while the party raged around him.

This is all to note that Ferguson, who recently opened Ferguson’s Country restaurant and bar across the street from McCarren Park, approaches his love of homestyle Southern cooking with a deep connection to its spectacular spoils.

Photo by Scott Lynch

“Scott owned this space for two years, ran a flea market out of it, and he used to come to BABA and hang out, which is how we became friends,” Gabriella Mann, BABA’s owner and Ferguson’s business partner in this latest venture, told Brooklyn Magazine. “One day he showed me the place and asked, ‘Do you think you could do anything with it?'”

“At first, I was like… ‘Uh, It’s very narrow.’ But then thinking about Williamsburg and the things that do well here—like Pete’s and Bernie’s—I felt like we could make something work. I haven’t seen much Southern food in this neighborhood before.”

Homestyle ribs with cheesy grits, $26 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

The menu at Ferg’s is filled with well-executed Southern crowd pleasers. There’s a half rack of sweet, funky, sauced-up, literally falling-off-bone ribs, which come with your choice of side. I went with a bowl of cheesy grits and unashamedly dredged chunks of the pork through the sticky, creamy grains.

Hot chicken biscuit, $18 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Equally rich and messy (in the best way) is Ferg’s fried chicken sandwich, the plump, juicy bird topped with pickles, smothered in tangy Alabama white sauce, and set inside an enormous buttery biscuit. This monster kind of all falls apart about halfway through, but that’s why they invented forks.

Front porch fritto, $18 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Warm pimento cheese, $15 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Both my appetizers—which could easily function as bar snacks—were excellent. The pungent pimento cheese is served warm in a cute little skillet, with a crock of cool red pepper jelly on the side that gets all melty when you spoon it on top, and the “front porch fritto” platter is a delightful mix of fried shrimp, okra, green tomatoes, sweet onions, and thin slices of lemon.

An intriguing option: You can order “All the Sides”—collards, mac & cheese, field peas, slaw, sweet potato fries, cornbread, and those gooey grits—for $44, which sounds like it could be a fun little feast for two.

Photo by Scott Lynch

So the food is all very good and a solid reason to hang at Ferg’s—that, and the jukebox inside that spins actual 45s—but Mann said the most popular order, in the early going here, may be the Moonshine Flights, which gets you three different one-ounce shots of the stuff for about twenty bucks.

Now, the “moonshine” tag may conjure up images of backwoods stills cranking out high-proof elixirs under the light of the, uh, moon, but Mann explained that the liquor “is essentially whiskey that hasn’t been put in a barrel, so that’s why it’s clear.” Either way, Ferg’s offers an impressive list, shipped in from Mississippi, Tennessee, Nova Scotia, Mexico, and from Brooklyn’s own Kings County Distillery in the Navy Yard. Cute bonus: each flight gets served with a bowl of corn nuts.