Going SOUTH on North Broad, with a helping of jazz

The cuisine of the New South - particularly the Lowcountry of Savannah and Charleston - has been captivating chefs and restaurateurs who have chosen to lighten up a traditionally heavy fare. Kevin Sbraga does it at The Fat Ham in University City, for example.

Take that spirit and add jazz, and you have an idea of what Robert and Benjamin Bynum are doing at their new restaurant - simply named SOUTH Kitchen + Jazz Parlor - at 600 N. Broad St, next to Alla Spina and Vie. It opened Friday, Sept. 18.

They have modified the former Route 6, retaining the open kitchen and bar but breaking off the room along Mount Vernon Street into a 70-plus-seat jazz parlor that features live music six nights a week. Bassist Gerald Veasley will curate a weekly jazz series.

Robert Bynum says the programming is the closest to what they did years ago at their destination Zanzibar Blue, first on 11th Street and then under the Bellevue: a mix of national and local acts.

The Bynums, whose holdings include Warmdaddy's, Paris Bistro, Relish, Green Soul, and Heirloom, brought on chef Paul Martin, a Lafayette, La., native who worked at the Bynum's Heirloom after winning praise at Catahoula in Queen Village. His kitchen stocks Anson Mills grits, Sea Island red peas, sorghum molasses and Carolina Gold rice.

Martin makes his own chaurice sausage (a spicy pork sausage), breads, pickles, preserves, bourbon steak sauce, and hot sauce. (In fact, the housemade pickles are stored in the glass cabinets that line the dining room.) He makes a signature gumbo, based on his mother's recipe, and varies the ingredients.

Menu is here. Sample dishes: Potted Pork Confit with house mustard, cornmeal crackers, peppadew relish and onion jam; Wreckfish with butter beans, grilled corn and crawfish fricassee; and Pressed Lamb Shoulder with farro verde, bacon, mustard greens and fig jam.

The bar stocks 50 American whiskeys, 10 beers on tap, including custom offerings (Tupelo Honey-Peach beer and a Mint Julep beer, from Maryland's Evolution Brewing), barrel-aged and bottle-conditioned cocktails, and infused spirits. Its menu includes a wood-grilled Pat LaFrieda special blend burger with pimento cheese and fried green tomatoes.

Charleston artist Douglas Panzone created three large-scale, custom murals, and floral artist Melissa Palmer of Florum Flowers added Spanish moss and honeycombs to a tree in the skylight.

It's open for dinner Tuesday to Sunday.