Chef/owner, Nellie's Place Cafe, 1319 E Jefferson St (Central District), 322-1902.
This is the reincarnation of Nellie's Place Cafe, right?
"It'll be 14 months [for this location] on the 28th of April. Next door, where [the Ethiopian restaurant] Mesob is now, that's where I was for two and a half years. Then I ran out of money because I was financing it myself. Then my father was diagnosed with cancer so I didn't reopen--I just took care of my dad until he died. It's strange how this came about. Mr. Judd Todd, who owns this building... he says, 'It's become a Little Ethiopia in the area; we need some American food.' I came in and cleaned it up, and put all the family portraits up on the wall. It's like you're walking into your grandmother's house at Christmas."
It is really cozy in here.
"When people come here they don't feel like they have to rush back out, like all these other restaurants, y'know? I wanted a place where people could be safe, and where they could just kick back and lounge. The kids... have a place to come now. And a lot of them come in here. They're not allowed to wear baggy pants, they have to pull their pants up, they're not allowed to wear do-rags, they take them off their heads, and if their little cell phones ring more than three times they gotta cut it off, 'cuz I know what that's all about. And then, for the adults, they got somewhere they can come and sit, have coffee, and talk to their friends. It's like a community hub."
Your waitstaff is so young--but you seem like a father figure to them.
"I hire kids from the juvenile detention center--they're on probation. If they stay clean for the time frame of their probation, at the end of their probation the judge wipes that off their record, and they're able to start again. I have some successes, three or four of them who have gone on to other jobs, and then we do have a couple of them who're right back over there. But I try to give them the benefit of the doubt."
Do you ever get time off from running this place?
"I work 24-7. I live here. I really do. Right there on the couch. Because my mother told me that you give everything you've got if you believe in something. And I believe in this. My thing is 'service, quality, and quantity.' Everything here is cooked from scratch. My food is soul food that sticks to you. Best thing on the menu is oxtails, short ribs, and catfish. And they love my chicken."
