County favorite opens Hyattsville location

Now, the Carolina Kitchen Bar and Grill, located in the up-and-coming University Town Center, will be celebrating its grand opening soon. Its auspicious beginnings tell a remarkable success story, just five years after the first Carolina Kitchen in Silver Spring burned down. London regrouped and reopened his restaurant in 2005 in Largo, where it continues to prove extremely popular.

And the Hyattsville site is just the beginning of the restaurant’s new growth.

‘‘I understand the power of expansion, and the metamorphosis of Prince George’s County,” London said. ‘‘It’s going through a renaissance of sorts ... the new [county] involves having all the restaurants, shopping, beautiful homes, upscale living.”

The Carolina Kitchen Bar and Grill contributes to the county’s upswing with its whimsically lavish ambience: rich colors set off an array of eclectic, early-1900s artwork, and rice-paper lamps illuminate dark woods and warm paints throughout.

Three different semi-private dining areas each feature themed décor, and even the hallway to the bathroom highlights the accomplishments of the old Negro League. The bar itself — one of the features that sets this location apart from the Largo site — gleams with two-toned wood floor paneling, offers seven video screens and showcases unique works of art that London picked up around the country.

‘‘If North Carolina had a baby with Las Vegas, Nevada, it would be Carolina Kitchen,” London said.

London, whose family moved to Maryland from North Carolina, opened his first restaurant with the help of his grandmother, Pearl Pierce. She passed away while the Largo location was being built, but his menu pays homage to her legacy with a mouthwatering selection of ‘‘Ma Pearl Specialties.”

Among these entrees are such favorites as the Cajun grilled chicken ($10.99), served with rice pilaf and seasonal vegetables or the grilled baby back ribs ($13.99⁄$21.99), basted with a homemade barbecue sauce and served with baked beans, fresh coleslaw and Cajun fries, as well as a number of popular seafood choices like the fried seafood platter ($24.99), crab cakes ($21.99) or the new ‘‘superior stuffed lobster,” a six-ounce lobster tail stuffed with lump crab meat, shrimp and scallops.

‘‘Ma Pearl Specialties” is just one of many specific menu sections detailing the wide range of cuisine — not just Southern, though there’s plenty of that — available here.

There are four different sections of appetizers alone — traditional appetizers, ‘‘Rocky Mount Wings” appetizers — of which the new spicy Thai chili wings ($8.99) are already popular — country favorites, including seasonal fried green tomatoes ($9.95), and Southern seafood appetizers, offering eight choices ranging from $7.45 to $16.95.

The new grilled shrimp Caesar salad ($11.95) is a hot item, but other filling salads are garnering their share of attention, too, like the Carolina fried chicken and apple salad ($12.95) with walnuts, dried cranberries, apricots and blue cheese crumbles alongside the chicken and apples, with a homemade apple cider vinaigrette dressing.

The ‘‘home style meals” section features classics like rotisserie, smothered or jerk chicken ($8.45 to $10.99), country fried steak ($8.99) and baked fish with rice ($8.99), while ‘‘Buckwheat’s Fried Chicken” offers two-, three-, or four-piece dinners ($7.79 to $11.89) — both sections serve their meals with two sides and cornbread.

But the ‘‘Kitchen Combos” section creates especially distinctive pairings, like the baby back ribs with fried shrimp ($21.99) or the filet mignon with fried lobster tail ($34.99).

Carolina Kitchen’s lunch menu offers a variety of sandwiches ($6.95 to $8.95) for every appetite, including chicken, fish, crab cake, hot dog and veggie burger, and the children’s menu offers favorites like macaroni and cheese ($3.99) or chicken fingers ($5.79) guaranteed to satisfy picky eaters.

But diners should save room for one of London’s homemade desserts, like the sweet potato cake ($4.79) with pecan cream cheese frosting, a range of country cakes, rum cakes and hot cobblers, or the Carolina Fried Twinkie ($5.59) served with chocolate syrup and whipped cream.

If any of these tickle your taste buds, it’s good to know you can easily walk in and order to go in the carryout lane, or sit down for a relaxed, indulgent dinner — whatever suits your fancy. London knows what customers want, and plans to take Carolina Kitchen even further in the next few years, within the county as well as in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.

‘‘We think of ourselves as the No. 1 in the country in what we do,” he said. ‘‘Right now we are the Rolls Royce of this.”