Dorothy “Dot” Hewitt operated her north Austin soul food cafeteria for 24 years until 2004, when a devastating fire burned the structure to the ground. Dot was uninsured, and she suffered a massive financial hit. Thankfully, Dot was able to overcome adversity and re-open Dot’s Place last fall in Pflugerville. My brother Eric was unable to join my father and me on the first leg of our weekend feeding frenzy. Thankfully he arrived in time to make the short drive up I-35 to soul food nirvana.

Dot’s Place shares a strip mall – Windermere Center – with TaeKwonDo Plus and YMCA of Austin, among other diverse tenants. The new incarnation is half the size of the original, but still has several rooms. The edifice features minimal décor, but a window mural depicting Dot in action was a nice touch.

When Texas Monthly published a cover story showcasing the best comfort food in Texas in 2005, Dot’s placed in 5 of 9 categories: Okra + Greens, Meat Loaf, Cornbread + Biscuits, House Specialties (for chicken and dumplings) and Pie + Cobbler (for yam pie and peach cobbler). The accolades were just words on paper until we sampled her fare. At that point, my father, brother and I all subscribed to Dot’s motto: “Love at first bite.” Dot began to cook when she was 20, learning from her father and mother. Evidently, those were some powerful lessons.

After we saw the first span of cafeteria line, we knew there would be some tough decisions. This section alone featured fried catfish fillets, beef tips, and the dumplings for Dot’s locally famous chicken and dumplings. A plate featuring a choice of Meat & 2 Veggies cost a paltry $7.50. Dot not only knows flavor; she knows value.

A single cafeteria span featured chicken and dressing, pork roast and tomato-sauced meat loaf, along with down-home delicacies like mac & cheese and collard greens.

Before we reached the register, we came face-to-pie with an array of tantalizing sweets. Given a low price of $2 per dessert, there was no chance we were going to limit ourselves to a dessert apiece.

I was ready to eat when we discovered a second triple-deck dessert tower. Thankfully, we remembered Dot’s lauded cobbler, which was keeping warm in the kitchen.

My father filled his plate with a bed of pillowy flour dumplings, juicy baked chicken, green beans with onions, and outrageous candied yams, which weren’t syrupy or overly sweet, and tasted of cinnamon and nutmeg.

My meatloaf was blanketed with a spicy tomato sauce. I paired the loaf with tangy collard greens and textbook mac & cheese.

My brother’s scintillating pork roast featured a salty crust and luscious interior meat. For his sides, he chose subtly spicy pinto beans and more mac & cheese. Behind me in line, my brother was instructed to choose different sides, so we could sample as many of Dot’s specialties as possible, but his passion for mac & cheese proved too powerful.

A cornbread muffin or roll was included with the meal. The rolls looked fluffy, but none of us could resist the cornbread muffin’s pull.

Dot’s bakes sweet potato pie with filling that was eerily similar to candied yams. I was happy, since her candied yams were revolutionary.

Warm peach cobbler featured crusty swaths of pastry and fresh fruit.

I’m not a chocolate lover, but my brother is a chocoholic, which is how we ended up with a slab of lightly glazed chocolate cake. It tasted like a gigantic chocolate donut, good in small doses.

One dessert per person just wasn’t enough. Cherry pie was pretty good, but a little too syrupy sweet, and no match for our other selections.

Austin is known as a smoked meat Mecca, with good reason. But there is certainly more depth to the area’s cooking. I’ve eaten good comfort food at Hoover’s Cooking and Tony’s Southern Comfort, but Dot’s Place just might take the prize.