Crawford and Son opens Friday

The neighborhood restaurant is located at 618 N. Person St. in a 2,400 square-foot space formerly home to the restaurant Piebird. There will be a mixture of items on the menu, including blue plate specials, raw selections and entrees.

Raw selections include vegetables with sorrel hummus, a flounder crudo with miso and fermented pepper and lamb tartare with olives, anchovy and preserved tomatoes.

Crawford said he and his team are having fun with the menu, which will have some retro-inspired items, including his version of a pot pie featuring rabbit and not chicken. And, since he and Chef de Cuisine Bret Edlund couldn’t agree on the best pot pie crust, they are doing a biscuit on top and pie crust at the bottom.

Other dishes to look out for include Crawford's take on "chicken and rice" - confit’d chicken legs with creamy rice and fall vegetables - and a crispy catfish with boiled peanut and clam hash and butter ham broth.

There will be options for vegetarians as well, including a yellow beet salad featuring apples and feta with a horseradish vinaigrette.

Crawford is also excited about featuring new proteins on the menu, including goat. He plans to do a goat ragout, a braised goat neck with a pumpkin pasta topped with pumpkin seed pesto sauce and goat parmesan.

"It's lean and only mildly gamy," Crawford said about cooking with goat meat.

Also look for a smoked venison meatloaf. For steak fans, Crawford will be serving up strip steak and short ribs as a combo dish.

A malted wheat roll with salted hickory butter, made from hickory syrup, will be available as an optional bread service item.

With former Standard Foods pastry chef Krystle Swenson handling desserts, guests will need to save room. Crawford said she is working on a muscadine sorbet, chocolate waffle and other items. But not everything on the plate is going to be super sweet.

"Krystle is trying to establish balance on the palate," Crawford said.

With fresh approaches on traditional Southern cuisine, Crawford and Son is aiming to keep diners on their toes.

“We want to be a neighborhood restaurant that is exciting," he said.