Soul Food Universal Register: Erika Council’s Southern Soufflé, Nellie Ozen, Irma Dee’s, Watts Coffee House

A Ya Ka Mein Lady Hard At Work In New Orleans
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Erika Council is the force behind Southern Soufflé, an Atlanta-based food blog, and it’s a good one but we’d kill to get to sit down to her Sunday groaning board of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, collards in their potlikker, cornbread with cane syrup butter, and biscuits. Atlanta Magazine recently interviewed Ms Council. Council’s grandma is Mama Dip, a leading lioness of southern soul food.
Nellie Ozen began cooking professionally in 1950 at the Savoy Club and Minnie Lou’s on the West Coast. 67 years later she’s still going strong with her new venture: Nellie’s Soulfood Restaurant in Oakland. Go here if you want “fried chicken, oxtails, smothered pork chops or fried snapper…collards, rice and gravy, black-eyed peas, baked beans, or candied yams.” Hoodline speaks with the chef.
The Turner family of Louisville is breathing life into their historic family restaurant: Irma Dee’s . The original restaurant opened in 1960, and closed in the mid-2000s. The new menu will be a soul food dream with “neck bones, pigs feet, fried chicken, chili, fish, yams, cobbler and pies”
The Watts Coffee House in LA is celebrating 20 years of operation. Desiree Edwards opened the restaurant and is still in charge two decades on. This is a soul food operation with all the grits, biscuits, eggs, fried chicken wings, hash browns, salmon croquettes, hot links and pan-fried pork chops you could ever want or need.