Joe Slakey wants you to know American food isn’t just cheeseburgers and barbeque, so Redline Taphouse and Kitchen offers a nuanced version of American cuisine. Joe and his partner Liz also own Glebe’s Flying Fajita Sistas).

Breakfast offers porridge-like corn grits topped with fresh apple and cornmeal-battered soft-shell crab. And there are soft dough biscuits smothered in a sausage gravy. At dinner orders shift to jambalaya (a heavily spiced Louisiana rice dish made with andouille sausage, onion, celery and capsicum); firm, tart fried green tomatoes (battered in cornmeal and fried in bacon fat); and St Louis-style barbeque-sauce-smothered pork ribs. There are also New York-style pizzas and succotash, a stir-fry-style corn and vegetable dish.

The drinks are far more local and include Batch, Stockade, Young Henrys and Wayward.

Tap beers start at $5, kids meals at $6, and the space has a simple, sunny fit-out that opens onto a park.