Ask almost any long-timer in Winston-Salem where they took their parents when they visited, or where they celebrated something that actually mattered, and Sweet Potatoes comes up. Not every time, but often enough that it starts to feel like a through-line in the city’s food memory.
The restaurant sits on Trade Street in the Arts District, a stretch that has changed considerably since Sweet Potatoes opened in 2003, though the place itself has the settled quality of somewhere that never needed to reinvent itself. The dining room is warm and unhurried — exposed brick, dark wood, the kind of lighting that makes everyone look like they’re having a good time even when they’re just eating quietly. On a rainy Tuesday, which is when I tend to appreciate it most, the room feels genuinely comfortable rather than performatively cozy.
The food is Southern, but the kitchen doesn’t treat that as a limitation. Chef Stephanie Tyson and co-owner Vivián Joiner have been doing this long enough to know the difference between cooking Southern and just listing Southern ingredients. The menu shifts with the seasons, but there are anchors. The shrimp and grits is the dish people mention first, and for good reason — it’s rich without being heavy, the grits loose and well-seasoned, the shrimp cooked correctly, which sounds like a low bar until you’ve been disappointed enough times to appreciate it. The pan-fried catfish and the braised short ribs both have their devoted followings. The sides — collard greens, sweet potato casserole, cornbread — are treated as seriously as the mains, which is how it should be.
Brunch on weekends draws a crowd, and the wait can stretch, especially on Saturdays after eleven. If you’re planning to go on a Sunday morning, show up closer to opening at ten. The chicken and waffles at brunch has become something of a local institution, and the mimosas are poured generously. Weeknight dinners are quieter and, honestly, a better time to actually talk to someone.
Prices are moderate by any reasonable standard — dinner entrées run roughly in the $18 to $30 range, and the portions reflect that. It is not the cheapest meal you’ll eat in Winston-Salem, but it is one of the more honest ones. You’re paying for cooking that knows what it’s doing and a room that’s been run with real intention for two decades.
What separates Sweet Potatoes from other places trying to do upscale Southern food is that it has never seemed to be trying very hard to be anything other than what it is. There’s no concept to explain, no backstory printed on the menu in paragraph form. It’s a restaurant that has fed this city steadily and well for a long time, and the people who work there seem to understand that continuity is itself a kind of accomplishment.
If you’re new to Winston-Salem and you want to understand what the city values in a dining room — not what’s new, but what has earned its place — this is a reasonable place to start.
