Southern Comfort

"Why did we order all this?" Lou Jane asked as she stuck a fork into a fried mushroom. "It's almost too much."

But that's what soul food is all about, I told her, quoting cookbook author Kathy Starr, who describes soul cuisine as the opposite extreme of haute cuisine: "I'm not talking about small slivers of skinned chicken breast surrounded by miniature carrots ... I'm talking about something to eat."

Forget talking — or dieting, for that matter. The Peach Tree is a place for eating. Let's move on to the silvery bread basket heaped with dense sweet-potato muffins and the most gloriously fluffy yeast dinner rolls. Can you ignore the temptation of rolls the size of softballs? We absolutely could not.

Marilyn had skipped lunch that day, so she could indulge guilt-free on a plate of crispy fried chicken (vastly improved since my 2003 review). She added steamed okra and chopped tomatoes on the side. Lou Jane deftly removed the luscious, tender oxtail meat from the jumble of gravy-slathered bones on her plate. Braised oxtail is a signature dish here, and it's excellent, even if it requires a little work extracting the meat from the bone.

I wavered between the baked neck bones and the baby-back ribs but finally decided on the meatloaf because it sounded like the perfect comfort food for a cold night. Ditto for sides of macaroni and cheese and more simmered collard greens. I was surprised that the dense meatloaf slices were so thin and dainty, but those mysterious "Peach Tree seasonings" turned an ordinary loaf into something delectable.

Over the past few years, the Willises have added a couple of desserts, including thick slices of an iced chocolate cake. It's the classic Southern sweets — the standards at the buffet restaurant — that really score here. There's the spicy hunk of soft bread pudding glazed with vanilla frosting, the peach cobbler baked under a thatch of pastry, or a wedge of smooth sweet-potato pie.

The restaurant attracts a mix of diners that's all ages, races and social strata. The lunch crowd is mostly downtown business types, but there's a livelier group during the dinner hour. The place runs like a well-polished machine, which only adds to the comfort level. After all, it's not just good, home-style food that soothes the soul but also the calm and inviting atmosphere. That's why the Peach Tree Restaurant isn't just a bright spot in the redevelopment of downtown Kansas City. It's a beacon.