What is “The Blackest Thing on the Menu”? When Pensacola’s Five Sisters Blues Café featured a special Juneteenth menu this summer, the answer was Blackened Shrimp and Grits.
But “The Blackest Thing on the Menu” is also the name of this week’s Billboard’s No. 1 Bluegrass Album in the country by the bluegrass/hip-hop hybrid Gangstagrass , whose members include vocalist Dolio the Sleuth, known as Lawrence Durant as a youngster in Pensacola through his graduation from Pensacola High School International Baccalaureate in 1994 before going on to earn a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from prestigious M.I.T.
The group − which took the top spot on the Billboard chart from the previous week’s No. 1, bluegrass wunderkind Billy Strings − took the album title from that Pensacola dining experience, when the band came to town to play at Vinyl Music Hall as part of the Juneteenth celebration and someone inquired about “the blackest thing on the menu.”
“It turned out it was blackened shrimp and grits,” said Dolio. “We were just there having dinner, and I was introducing the band around. I’m pretty familiar with the neighborhood,” noting that Five Sisters now occupies the spot of Gussie’s Records.