When you order takeout from a restaurant at 4 p.m. on a Wednesday, you expect to hit the lull between lunch and dinner. But at 4 p.m. Wednesday during Memphis Black Restaurant Week, Mahogany Memphis had diners at five well-spaced tables and two parties waiting on benches outside to be seated. MBRW founder Cynthia Daniels said she wanted to boost business at restaurants hard-hit by the pandemic, and based on that evidence, it appears she should congratulate herself.

Mahogany defines its food style as “upscale Southern with a dash of Creole.” There are contemporary frills like avocado toast and kale salad, but we ordered two traditionally Southern plates with sides from the takeout menu.

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The Mahogany fried chicken and waffles falls handily into the you-can’t-go-wrong category. There are plenty of theories about the origins of this combo – one of the most common is that it’s the invention of a 1930s-era Harlem nightclub that was providing dinner and breakfast at once to musicians who’d been performing all night.

John T. Edge, author of “Fried Chicken: An American Story,” told NPR a few years ago that while it’s a Southern dish, it’s most popular with Southern expatriates in places like Los Angeles and New York. Edge says putting waffles under fried chicken likely could be traced back to the country’s Revolutionary years when Thomas Jefferson came home from France bearing a waffle iron.

Mahogany’s batter is well-balanced. It’s satisfyingly dense but melds well with the chicken instead of creating a separate layer from the meat. The salt and spice are noticeable but not heavy-handed. The waffles are thick and fluffy and there was a nice maple syrup on the side. The plate has a light trimming of strawberries and blueberries.

The smoked spare ribs also were notable for their quality – the meat was plentiful and juicy, with little fat. The rub was refined – you couldn’t still taste it an hour after the meal – a fairly subtle blend with not too much sugar, not too much pepper, and guessing by the color, some smoked paprika.

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The vegetable sides are stellar. We had Pot Likka & Greens, with turkey necks to flavor the greens and a cure-what-ails-you broth worthy to stand on its own. The smashed potatoes were mixed with melted cheddar and laced with slivers of bacon.

There are versions of sweet tea and peach tea available and if you get there at cocktail hour, there’s an entertaining drink list, with creations named after Halle Berry, Cardi B, Tom Hanks, Dolly Parton, Kendrick Lamar and many others. A cocktail with Ciroc vodka is called the Ciroc Obama.

The restaurant occupies a sweet spot in the middle of the central lane of Chickasaw Oaks mall, with seating in two small dining rooms, vibrant with large paintings, and a couple of tables on a “front porch” overseeing mall pedestrian traffic.

Mahogany opened in 2018. Co-owner Carlee McCullough, a lawyer who also runs a law firm with a staff of 11, says she and her partner, VeVe Yates, wanted to personalize their spin on familiar food. “It’s not your mom’s, it’s not your grandmother’s,” she said. “We’re foodies. We travel a lot and dine out wherever we go. We bring back a little bit of Miami, a little bit of Chicago.”

Mahogany Memphis, 3092 Poplar; 901.623.7977. Wednesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Brunch, Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.