Chow! Features Best Restaurants Listings Recipes Back to EW

Going National
Eugene's successful entrepreneurs distribute far and wide.
BY URSULA EVANS-HERITAGE

Eugene is known for many things. The culture in this mid-size town is famous for nourishing the talents of activists, runners, anarchists and meth addicts. One thing Eugene isn't known for is business. But with the rising popularity of locally made products like Nancy's Yogurt, Toby's Tofu Pate, and Yumm! Sauce, maybe it's time to consider adding entrepreneurs to the list. Of course these businesses all have their own unique Eugene flavor, so to speak.

Sometimes a Great Yogurt

The success of Springfield Creamery's Nancy's Yogurt is probably old news to many Eugene residents. The yogurt, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year, reached national distribution five years ago. Viewing the palace-like exterior of Springfield Creamery today, one would hardly expect its humble beginnings. Chuck Kesey (yes, the brother of the late novelist Ken) and his wife Sue started by selling milk to other creameries and Springfield schools in 1960. Ten years later, the couple and their bookkeeper, Nancy Hamren, pioneered what would eventually become a very popular snack food: yogurt.

OK, so they weren't the first people to sell yogurt. But according to Sue, at that time "only bohemian type people bought it." Springfield Creamery was the first to put live acidophilus cultures in yogurt. Wait, but doesn't everyone put acidophilus in yogurt now? "In hindsight we probably should have patented it," said Sue.

Chuck first started learning about the veterinary benefits of acidophilus while studying dairy technology at Oregon State University. He thought perhaps the bacteria could be used to make healthy food for people. He was right. Sue says the company goal has always been to "make the best food at the best price and get it to as many people as possible." With distribution in all 50 states and 2004 sales of $9.5 million, it seems they're on the right track.

Dreams of Tofu

The sterile building near I-105 in Springfield, headquarters for Toby's Family Foods, doesn't exactly catch the eye. But anyone who's ever tasted Toby's Tofu Paté, the company's star product, knows it's anything but ordinary.

The paté has a smooth consistency that makes it ideal for a dip or a spread. "It doesn't taste at all like tofu, which is a good thing for people who don't like tofu," said Spencer Crawford, a 22-year-old landscape architecture major at the University of Oregon after sampling the product.

Toby Alves began experimenting with tofu because she wanted to raise her children as vegetarians and her son Olem was allergic to dairy, wheat and citrus. After awhile, Toby's Tofu Paté was born. Toby started bringing it to women's groups she attended in the early 1980s after her youngest child, Chelsea, was born. The women liked it and Toby began selling the paté in some of Eugene's natural foods stores.

Toby made it into an official business in 1984 when she formed Tofu Palace Products. More than two decades later the company, which was renamed Toby's Family Foods in 2004, is now distributing the paté regionally throughout Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona, and Colorado.

Jonah Alves, Toby's son and president of the company, hopes the products sell as well elsewhere as they do locally. Even though the company is gaining success, he wants people to know that "We're still the same company. Our priorities haven't changed."

Yummmmmy!

Mary Ann Beauchamp began experimenting with sauces in 1980, and opened her first café, Wild Rose Café and Deli, in 1991. Her trademark sauce became known as Yumm! Sauce, and she and husband Mark now own three Café Yumm!s in Eugene.

As its popularity has grown, so has distribution and you can now buy Yumm! Sauce in 25 grocery stores throughout Oregon. "It's addicting," said Anna Kelly, 19, a manager at Café Yumm! on Willamette Street. "Some customers walk in and you know exactly what they're going to order because they come in all the time."

The Beauchamps are working on a franchise package to expand their restaurants to Portland, Ashland and Bend sometime in late fall. Only Original Yumm! Sauce is used at the restaurants, but the company also sells Roasted Garlic and Smoky Chipotle varieties. Selling new products doesn't necessarily come easily. "If it's not blue cheese, mayo or mustard, people don't buy it because they don't know what it is," said Mark.

But someday, these Eugene products may just be household names.

 

 

Gelato Nation
Bringing a little Italy to Oregon.
BY SARA BRICKNER

Getting Lucky

Located right across the street from the 5th Street Market in downtown Eugene, Café Lucky Noodle is well-known locally for its classy atmosphere and delicious cuisine. But the first thing you notice when you walk in the door is a small ice cream case filled with gelato, a traditional Italian frozen dessert made with milk instead of cream.

But watch out, strict vegetarians: traditional Italian gelato gets its name from gelatina, or animal gelatin. And at Lucky Noodle, they're purists, making their homemade gelato Italian-style.

After all, it's the gelatin that gives gelato its name, as well as the velvety consistency. Its irresistible taste and texture have made it increasingly popular in America as a more delicious, less fattening alternative to ice cream. Joshua Keim, the owner of Café Lucky Noodle, said, "Gelato in Italy is a way of life."

The restaurant and bar are slightly separated from the gelato nook, where customers can sit at two small tables next to the window with their gelato and a cup of coffee. Café Lucky Noodle is open until midnight on weeknights, and 1 am Fridays and Saturdays. It's also all-ages, a bonus for the under-21 crowd. With cool gelato, it may become the hot late-night spot when the temperatures rise this summer.

What Lucky Noodle lacks in variety (there are only five flavors after all), it makes up in quality. When I visited, the featured flavors were chocolate, vanilla, coconut, chocolate chip banana and peach fruttosa. Fruttosa is the same as sorbetto, a dairy-free, but not gelatin-free, version of gelato. Unlike sorbet, which melts quickly and tastes more like fruit-flavored ice, fruttosa stays together better and retains the smooth texture sorbet lacks.

Both the fruttosa and the chocolate chip banana have fruit chunks in them, which adds to the flavor. However, the banana seemed to overpower the chocolate chips. I probably wouldn't order it, but banana lovers should take note. And though I'm not usually a big vanilla fan, the vanilla gelato tasted like a vanilla bean in ice cream form.

The best flavor was a tie between coconut and chocolate. The coconut flavor has bits of real coconut in it, and tastes like the real fruit minus the weird artificial aftertaste you sometimes get from store-bought ice cream brands. The chocolate flavor was a rich, cocoa-y goo that tasted as rich as double chocolate cake, but didn't leave me with the sick feeling that often accompanies consumption of overly rich foods.

Living the Sweet Life

My next stop was Sweet Life, on Monroe between 7th and 8th streets. Already renowned for their pastries and other baked goodies, the coffee shop, café and bakery-in-one also features gelato imported by a Michigan company. In line with Sweet Life's philosophy of cooking in small batches, the gelato is made with all natural ingredients.

Part of Sweet Life's allure is the combination of baked goodies and their gelato. For five bucks, customers can order a brownie sundae with their choice of different brownies, gelato, whipped cream, fudge and a cherry on top. Or, gelato can be added to any pie or cake slice for only a dollar or two more. It's a popular feature, and Sweet Life employee Jodi Benham said they have a fair share of gelato lovin' regulars. "There's this guy who comes in every day at two o'clock and gets a scoop and a half," she said.

Like Café Lucky Noodle, Sweet Life rotates different flavors, and carries at least two sorbettos and two flavors of Coconut Bliss (see story, page 5) in addition to gelato. Their offerings are usually a combination of tried-and-true flavors and unlikely taste combinations. Some of the combinations sounded odd, like malt with malt specks and bourbon caramel gingersnap. The flavors I was excited to try, Italian pistachio and mixed berry, weren't as impressive as their more creatively named cousins.

Besides their vanilla, which I liked better than Café Lucky Noodle's, I found myself drawn to the weird-sounding combinations. I was especially impressed with the Nocciola, or smooth hazelnut, which perfectly captured the nutty hazelnut taste without losing any ice cream sweetness. And even though I normally hate malt balls, the malt with malt specks was one of my favorite flavors.

The sorbettos were also delicious. Because ice cream is so sweet, I tend to dislike fruit flavors because they don't resemble fruit. But the raspberry and passionfruit sorbetto contained chunks of fruit. The passionfruit was tangier than the raspberry, which was still a bit too sugary for my taste. I found that Sweet Life's sorbetto had a slightly more even texture than Lucky Noodle's, but I'd gladly visit either to get a gelato fix.

Up North

For Corvallis residents, Francesco's, located on 2nd Street in downtown Corvallis, offers a wide variety of gelato. A small café with wrought iron outdoor tables, old-world décor and a classy yet casual atmosphere, Francesco's looks like a bona fide Italian coffee shop. Francesco's imports all of their 26 gelato flavors from Italy and makes the gelato at the café with American milk.

The gelato is piled high, artfully spread into a swirling, creamy mound in the metal bins. The fruit flavors have garnishes and big chunks of fruit, while the chocolate flavors have chocolate drizzled over the top. They also offer several flavors of sorbetto, including peach with huge slices of peach mixed in.

It's presented so artfully, the gelato looks like colorful, fluffy clouds sitting on top of the containers. Standing there, I found myself fantasizing about cannonballing into it with my mouth open, kind of like Scrooge diving into a vault of edible cash.

When I finally tasted the stuff, it was smooth, creamy and light but tasted more like ice cream than the gelato at Café Lucky Noodle or Sweet Life. The fruit chunks were enticing, but my wariness of frozen fruit-and-cream combinations returned.

I had nothing to fear. Like the gelato at Sweet Life, Francesco's has mastered the art of making a good, creamy fruit gelato. The lemon gelato was sweet, yet tart, like the perfect glass of lemonade in frozen form. The orange was almost as good, though a tad sweeter. The other fruit flavors were also excellent, but my favorite was strawberry, another ice cream flavor I usually avoid.

The one flavor you can usually count is chocolate, which the chefs at Lucky Noodle do right with a rich, chocolately flavor that blows any chocolate ice cream I've had out of the water— AND it doesn't give me an "ugh, too much rich food" stomachache. Though visiting the Lucky Noodle first might have spoiled me, I found that Francesco's chocolate tasted too much like cream and not enough like chocolate. The Roman Holiday flavor, vanilla gelato with chocolate and caramel swirled in, was much better. Cinnamon and cappuccino were delightful if you've got a sweet tooth.

Chocolate fans and night owls, Café Lucky Noodle is your best bet. For Eugenians with a lot of time on their hands, Francesco's is worth the trip for their variety and the unbelievable lemon gelato. And Sweet Life is an all-around great bet for good gelato and an even better brownie sundae.

 

 

Bliss On the Lips
Larry and Luna's frozen adventures
BY MOLLY TEMPLETON

It's not every day that you wander into the back room of your place of employment and find a delicious array of frozen desserts just waiting for you to taste. Rows of white paper pints with exotic names and flavors — who could resist?

The Margarita flavor was kicky, with a spicy bite. Lavender Wild Blueberry, sweetly delicious with zingy little dried fruits, was universally praised. But nothing beat the citrus bliss of Don't Worry, Be Happy, one of three "Herbal Alchemy" blends.

And it's all made with coconut milk. No dairy-laden stomachache this time.

Tastings like this — a spread of flavors and two smiling faces serving small scoops — have been a large part of the Coconut Bliss story. In a way, it all begin with $1.50 and a half-off sale at Goodwill, where Larry Kaplowitz picked up an ice cream maker. He and Luna Marcus had moved to Eugene from the Lost Valley community in Dexter, and they were sorting out what to do next. "We were pretty sure it would be something to do with food, probably something to do with desserts," Larry explained. "We thought about chocolate for a long time."

Then the ice cream maker presented itself. "We both really love ice cream and always have," said Larry, "and over the course of many years, as we developed our own consciousness about food and diet, both in terms of health and ecology, we moved away from eating dairy products for a host of different reasons." Neither Larry nor Luna found the various soy and rice-based frozen treats very satisfying, but they'd tried coconut milk ice cream in Thai restaurants before and decided to give it a try on their own.

Even their first attempt went well. "The first recipe we found had all sorts of strange things in it, like corn," said Luna, laughing. "We left that out. We're both intuitive cooks, so it was more inspiration than anything. And it was actually pretty good."

Luna and Larry played with their recipes over the summer, and by fall they were ready to invest in a real ice cream machine. In January, the tasting parties began. "People would come and just hang out," Larry said. "It was a party. We did about eight of these and started having these little survey forms. So people would be sitting there rating each flavor and having impassioned discussions."

A few flavors had to go, even if they got high marks from the tasters. "We had these weeks or months where we could not stop thinking up flavors," said Luna. Eventually, they had to set a limit. Currently, Red Barn Natural Grocery stocks 16 flavors of Coconut Bliss in their ice cream case, and ten flavors are packed in pints and sold at other stores. Sweet Life also has a few flavors in their gelato case. Lavender Wild Blueberry has been the most popular, with Chilcacahuatl, a zesty mix of chocolate and chili, coming in second.

All ingredients are organic, and agave was chosen over organic sugar. "It's raw, so all the nutrients and a lot of minerals are preserved," said Luna, who also noted that agave's low glycemic index means it doesn't spike blood sugar the way other sugars might. As for coconut oil, "There's a lot of research coming out showing that it's really beneficial for your body," Larry said. The idea was to make a product with a small, simple ingredient list, one that's understandable to people and packed with as many local products as possible.

Production is currently in a small trailer in their driveway, but a bigger space is planned, along with bicycle carts for sidewalk scoop serving. They're also thinking of expanding to Portland, Seattle and beyond. "In a city like Eugene or Portland, there could be a lot of people on the streets making a living peddling Coconut Bliss from their bicycles," Larry said.

Every step brings a lot of questions, from transportation to pricing to franchising the business in other cities — all with a great deal of concern for community and sustainability.

Meanwhile, Larry and Luna said they're thrilled with the reception their frozen concoctions have gotten. Red Barn Natural Grocery has been supportive from the start, and recently the Kiva, Friendly Street Market and New Frontier have started carrying Coconut Bliss. Luna and Larry have set up shop at Saturday Market as well. "There's a really beautiful network of people in the natural foods industry in Eugene, and it's been really nice becoming part of that community," Larry said.

"That's what we're really looking for," Luna finished. "How we can include our community, and how we can be in our community."

Coconut Bliss is available at these locations:

  • Red Barn Natural Grocery 357 Van Buren St.
  • Sweet Life Patisserie 755 Monroe St.
  • The Kiva 125 West 11th Ave.
  • Friendly Street Market 2757 Friendly St.
  • New Frontier 1101 West 8th Ave.
  • Saturday Market 8th Ave. & Oak St.

 

 

Hot & Cold Quickies
Sundance has the fresh, organic "grab-n-go" grub.
BY VANESSA SALVIA

It's the start of the workday in the tiny Sundance Natural Foods kitchen, and Beverly Lynn Bennett walks past rows of shiny silver pots, heading straight for the cutting board where a pile of fresh, organic veggies awaits her.

Bennett is not just any chef, she's The Vegan Chef, with her own website (www.veganchef.com) and a freshly-inked publishing deal with Penguin Books for The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Living. She's just one of a dozen skilled employees in Sundance's kitchen responsible for lovingly preparing primarily organic vegetarian and vegan dishes.

Sundance's hot bar and salad bar are local treasures, well-known by people seeking ready-made, tasty fare. There's no excuse for choosing fast food when you're in a hurry with hot dishes like scrumptious shells and cheese, enchilada pie or vegan Asian phyllo pie with tempeh, cabbage, ginger and onions available. Delicious cold salads beckon, like Bennett's favorites tomato Florentine and cilantro slaw.

To make a healthy choice even simpler, the kitchen produces a selection of wrapped-and-ready food to grab on the go like delectable dolmades, vegan pakoras, hot soups and to-die-for vegan chocolate cake. A polite sticker warns that the cost of organic ingredients pushes up the price customers pay for prepared foods, but hey, it's a small price to save planet Earth from pesticide poisoning.

The chefs take care to have sides available that complement the hot entrees, so you don't have to worry about bringing home two tastes that don't taste great together. For instance, chef Bennett's spicy rice with cashews pairs up with chipotle tempeh diamoniques and roasted yam and black bean salad. Chef Joel Straw has created a soul food plate of red beans, coconut thyme corn and garlic greens to round out his unchicken strips. (See recipe p. 14)

Kitchen manager Kevin Kuney said their hemp nut chocolate chip cookies fly off the shelf, and they can't stock their cold salads fast enough, even in winter weather. With typical selections such as artichoke hearts, croutons and peas, and fabulous marinated tofu and tempeh, a gourmet salad is as easy as lifting a few spoons. Top your masterpiece off with Toby's or Annie's dressings or Sundance's own wasabi dressing or agave Dijon. It doesn't come cheap, however. Piling on those baby corns, un-bacon bits and grated carrots adds up to the tune of $5.39 a pound. It's worth the extra bucks in time saved not washing and chopping, and for two to eat a hearty pile of organic grub it's less than what you'd pay at a moderately-priced restaurant.

Kuney proudly states most of the kitchen's ingredients are organic (95 percent) and unprocessed, which adds hours to the prep time. "We choose to maintain a lower markup than the industrial standard and we choose not to pass on that significantly high cost of our ingredients as much as possible," Kuney remarked.

Sundance purchases locally-grown produce in season when possible. "We try to use whole food, whole grains and unprocessed products of every kind," Kuney said. "The dry storage areas have only a few canned products. Everything else we try to get as fresh or as wholesome and local as possible."

At Sundance, you can get take-out without the karma-clogging guilt of Styrofoam and plastic, thanks to stacks of compostable, plant-based plastic containers and biodegradable forks and spoons made from cornstarch. One taste of the gingered greens, spicy sesame noodles or the mélange of veggies the kitchen calls "organic space food" and you too will be a Sundancer. Give the hot bar a try next time your tummy growls!

 

 

Starry Aspirations
New owners of health food store have high hopes.
BY URSULA EVANS-HERITAGE

Oasis is back, but with a new name and some older and wiser employees. Reincarnated as Capella Market, the store is still located at 2489 Willamette St. and opened on March 17. The store's logo incorporates two stars, a visual reference to the double star Capella, the sixth brightest star in the sky.

Wild Oats, which had been at the location since it bought Oasis in 1997, closed its south Eugene store in January 2005. The chain natural foods store is still doing well in other places, but the Eugene market didn't respond well to its "cookie cutter approach," said Mark Lew, the owner of Capella and a former manager at both Wild Oats and Oasis.

Because Wild Oats is headquartered in Boulder, Colo., decisions about what goods to supply were made at the corporate level. This meant products were streamlined and the company didn't work closely with local vendors. But Eugene is a leader in natural foods and Eugenians want locally grown and made products. "It was like putting a kindergartner in with a bunch of Ph.D. students," Lew said. Eugenians "aren't stupid."

In a 10/23 Register-Guard article, Wild Oats' Spokeswoman Sonja Tuitele said the Willamette Street location was too small and that Wild Oats would be interested in a larger store in the south Eugene area if an appropriate location were available. But with record net sales of $1.05 billion in 2004, it seems Wild Oats will be all right without the Eugene market.

Capella should be a better fit for Eugene since its management works closely with local food vendors. Walk into the produce section and you may be overwhelmed by the sweet smell of fresh strawberries. Sample tasty organic tomatoes. Check out the pink rosebuds and eucalyptus leaves available in the spice section. And who knew there were so many kinds of soy milk? Chances are if it's healthy, you can find it at Capella.

And if you need help, you're in good hands. The staff knows natural foods — 44 of the 56 employees used to work for Wild Oats or Oasis.

Lew has high hopes for the store. The south Eugene area is a great customer base for health food and the staff is knowledgeable and enthusiastic. "We're working hard right now, but we're laughing twice as hard as we ever have before."

 

 

Quick Bites
BY SARA BRICKNER

Rogue Brews New Chipotle Ale

Beer is a good companion for spicy foods, but now pepper lovers can have the best of both worlds. Rogue Ales brewer John Maier has created a new Rogue Chipotle Ale spiced with smoked jalapeno peppers to celebrate Cinco De Mayo, Mexico's independence day. It's a deep amber ale with a hearty aroma, and is available on draft and in 22 ounce bottles in stores and at the brewery at 844 Olive St. Rogue Ales was founded in Oregon in 1988 and was one of America's first 50 microbreweries.

 

Plaza Coffee Shop Closes

The Plaza Coffee Shop at 57 W. 29th is now closed. After being in the same location for more than a decade, owners John Lee and David Lee have grown tired of their two and a half year search for a new location and have closed their doors "permanently, for now," said John Lee. The Plaza Coffee Shop once shared a building with Rite Aid Pharmacy. Now Rite Aid is expanding into the part of the building that previously housed the Plaza Coffee Shop.

 

New Corvallis Restaurants

Two restaurants have opened recently in Corvallis. Cork's Old Fashioned Donuts, a small doughnut eatery, opened at 336 SW Jefferson.

Bada Bean, a two-story restaurant located at 225 SW 4th St., opened on March 29. Bada Bean is a restaurant and coffee shop with free wireless Internet and a casual bar. The baristas brew up a mean latté, serve it quickly with a smile.

 

 

 

PAPA'S GOT A BRAND NEW BAG!
SOUL FOOD "SO GOOD IT'LL MAKE YOU WANNA SLAP YO MAMA"
STORY BY STEVEN SAWADA - PHOTOS BY TODD COOPER

I have obsessed over Papa's Soul Food for nearly three years now. One day, when he ran his firecracker red BBQ cart on 7th Avenue and Polk Street, I ate three meals there.

These were big, heaping plates stacked with hearty servings of (forgive the cliché) "stick to your ribs" soul food. At lunch, I coaxed my coworker into grabbing me a stack of gooey BBQ ribs, a side of the BEST macaroni and cheese you'll ever eat (one of Papa's best selling items), and a large dollop of potato salad.

At that point I was relatively new to the cuisine. I had never seen, smelled, let alone tasted black eyed peas or collard greens. I didn't know what a black eyed pea was! But I got a quick education at dinner. Tender, runny, smoke-infused (we're talking real smoke, none of that liquid junk) pulled pork, tangy collard greens and peppery black eyed peas and rice gushed down my pipes as if I were a frat boy executing my best beer bong. But it didn't stop there. I made sure to grab a Jamaican jerk chicken sandwich for later. It was seasoned so perfectly it was as if all the greatest spices from the East were rubbed on that chicken thigh.

And that was how my obsession with Papa's soul food started. On a different yet equally gluttonous day, I didn't even wait to get home. I pulled over on the side of the road to start eating. "Oh yeah, the smell gets to you," Papa says as he sits back in his green plastic chair after graciously handing me two slices of Wonder Bread to go with my meal. "I still have problems when I eat it. Sometimes I forget to breathe."

Inside the new Soul Food Kitchen, the perfume of clothes-staining BBQ sauce, smoked pork and fried catfish fills the air. This new, permanent location sits unassumingly on 11th Avenue, camouflaged from the street behind a few trees, book-ended by a laundromat and corner market.

The 600-square-foot space looks more like a waiting room in a doctor's office than a restaurant. Best suited for take-out, the only place to sit or eat inside is a long, vinyl-covered bench. A refrigerated display case full of desserts such as sweet potato pie and peach cobbler sits next to a Formica counter, separating the kitchen from the small waiting area. Outside, plastic chairs and tables offer a quaint seating area that should prove popular in summer.

After working for nine years in other Eugene restaurants including Café Zenon, Adam's Place, The Oregon Electric Station, and (believe it or not) West Brothers BBQ, the lunch cart was Papa's first step to realizing his dream of owning a restaurant where he could create and serve his own unique dishes. "I remember my first day in the cart," he said. "It was one of my happiest days, and I made a whopping $36. And I was out there all day long! If it wasn't for my family I probably wouldn't have made that."

After spending a brief period cooking in the Southern U.S. and Jamaica, Papa started his career in Eugene as a line cook. "I worked my way up into the ranks until I could get as far as they'll let me get," he said. "You put out good food, but you get left in the mix."

Staring out at the passing cars, he paused for a bit to reflect and explain his statement. "I've suffered racism in the ranks of cooking here in town. One of the chefs that I worked for was taking his dad in for a tour around the place, and he actually looked at me and said, 'You got one of these guys working here?' That blew me away."

Not to mention that his personality and philosophy were stifled working for other chefs. "I got tired of making food that I can't say I would sit down and enjoy myself," he said.

Between the cart and the current home of the Soul Food Kitchen, Papa had a year-long engagement as the featured chef for Joe's Bar and Grill. But even with the freedom to prepare his own dishes, he says it still wasn't a true expression of himself or the Soul Food Kitchen. "No matter how you slice it, it was still going to be Joe's Bar and Grill," he said. "You went into a loud bar where you could grub on some good soul food and listen to some loud Metallica music."

The new 391 West 11th Ave. location was the final step, a place Papa can finally call his own. He shifted in the green chair again and smiled. "I just like the idea of having that little neighborhood joint that I used to go to when I was living down South … without waiting in the long lines, without feeling like you didn't dress up good enough to go in there," he said. One of those secret treasures in every U.S. town where "the locals eat" and the food is good and cheap, the Soul Food Kitchen needed that relaxed, personable atmosphere directly connected to its food.

The interior of the new restaurant is curiously decorated, revealing a little bit of Papa's soul, his personal history. The artifacts blend together to give a quick glimpse into his life. Art and advertisements including posters, photos, African sculpture and mechanical dolls of James Brown, Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles give it a slightly "lived-in" feeling, eclectic and cozy.

An illustrated poster advertising a Lee Perry concert sits right alongside a classic print from an old photo of a Southern baptism where dozens of black people in suits and dresses watch anxiously as the baptized are dipped swiftly in a still pond (a relic that traveled with Papa from the lunch cart). A poster of Rick James hitting a spliff hangs on the back wall. And a photo of Muhammad Ali with that eagle-eyed look watches carefully over a display case housing original Papa's Soul Food Kitchen merchandise.

Papa & his son D'angelo

The menu reflects an amalgam of Papa's lifelong experience preparing various black cuisines. His cooking education started in California. The son of two '70s Black Panther members, he spent a lot of time around his mother's restaurant, The Colonial.

"She used to cater to a black motorcycle club called the Great Kings of Africa," Papa said. His mother's restaurant specialized in everything from Monte Christo sandwiches to "down home pigfeet," and Papa worked there from the time he was 6 to 16 doing everything from cleaning to cooking. "I remember brushing the felt on the pool tables," he said with a sentimental smile and a sigh. His mother has since passed away.

"When I got back from the South I went back to visit mom and we cooked food side by side," he said. "For some odd reason she still thought that she had it going on over me. But I surprised her a little bit. Every now and then we'll put in some of my mom's recipes. Like some of her smothered chicken and rice or some of her oxtail stew."

He won't share any of the ingredients in his signature sauces or seasonings. But following in the tradition of his mother as well as some of his cooking mentors, everything served at the Soul Food Kitchen is made from scratch. From the signature rub applied to the smoked pork, chicken and ribs to the sausages used in the gumbo, Papa adds his touch to everything.

So when Papa says, "You'll have to wait just a little longer for the collard greens to finish," it's probably in your best interest to marvel at Ray, James and Louis for a just a little longer. You can't rush greatness.