Cozy takeout restaurant is perfect for woman’s homestyle, Southern foods
When Mia Redmond was looking for restaurant spaces, she knew she wanted to keep things small, just takeout. It was a serendipitous choice for Plate Pleasures Eatery, 2330 N. 124th St., Wauwatosa, which opened for takeout in August.
Focusing on homestyle, Southern and soul foods, she makes everything from scratch.
Asked about her favorite recipes, she immediately thinks of her grandmother Dorothy’s pound cake. Her mom’s influence gets a nod with lemon icebox pie, plus cornbread dressing and banana pudding. Yet Redmond, who catered as Choice Cuisine by Mia before opening the restaurant, says it’s the catfish, gumbo and smoked turkey legs that have turned out to be her bestsellers.
Plate Pleasures Eatery, (414) 897-7100, is open noon to 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Her background
I come from a long line of great cooks: my grandma, my mom, my aunts. … I’m a hairstylist by trade. I had my own salon. I’d bring food to the salon for clients and my staff. People would ask me to make this or that. So in 2011 I took some culinary arts training classes at HeartLove Place. I did some online courses. I would take a class here or there.
People started asking me to make dishes, so I started a small catering business, Mia’s Choice Cuisine, while still working the salon. In 2019, my catering business really picked up. I was renting commercial kitchens, doing festivals. I knew I did not want a full-service restaurant with all the overhead that entails.
I signed my lease in June 2019 before the pandemic. I didn’t even open till August 2020. It took that long. The good thing, I was already planning a takeout place.
Her style
Comfort food, diverse comfort food. It is Southern definitely, soul food definitely. It is homestyle. I do sandwiches, a wide range. I knew I wanted to do the Southern dishes, but also other dishes, like my Italian beef, and catfish and shrimp po’ boy sandwiches, a baked chicken. I do pastas, soups, chili and salad. I wanted variety on the menu.
Made fresh, from scratch
People sometimes are impatient with having to wait for their food. Sometimes they ask what do you have to give me right now. The only thing I have ready is a dessert. Sometimes it is a 10- to 15-minute wait. We pride ourselves on serving our food as fresh as possible. That’s where ‘fresh food, not fast food, came from. It tells customers it will be good and fresh, but not fast. It won’t be long, but it is not that fast.
This is the same food I’d serve if I had a sit-down restaurant. The only difference is you have to order and wait outside or in your car. We’re takeout only.
I always tell people I still do catering, so if there is anything on the menu I don’t serve regularly enough, just order a personal pan. Everything is homemade from scratch, nothing is out of the can.
What she’s known for
Gumbo is a big hit, that’s Thursdays and Saturdays. People love my dressing, and always the catfish. That’s the bestseller from day one.
What she can’t take off the menu
Everybody loves my grandmother’s pound cake. She made it for every holiday, every occasion. Every now and then, family would call her and say ‘Hey, ma, can you make me a pound cake?’
I was working and raising my son as a single parent. When I’d want her to make me a pound cake, I’d go to her house and we’d make it together. I wanted to spend time with my grandmother. I took the opportunity to bond and learn. I wanted to be connected to her. Grandma Dorothy’s Pound Cake, I put that on the menu in her honor. It is always selling out.
Sweet treat
The banana pudding is a family recipe between my mom and I, something I serve a lot in the warmer months. People are starting to ask for it more.
Surprise seller
The turkey leg bed, that has become a big hit. That comes with a jumbo sized smoked turkey leg slowly cooked. Customers can get it with two or four sides. It is big enough to feed two to three people. I can’t take the turkey legs off the menu now. The smoked turkey egg rolls do pretty well, too.
Going for the gumbo
It is authentic. I went to college in Baton Rouge, La. We’d go to New Orleans on the weekends. I’ve always been a connoisseur of good food. Those college days and eating that good creole food in Louisiana, that led me to the gumbo.
When I first started serving my gumbo, there weren’t a lot of places here to get gumbo. It’s hearty, and you can’t find it everywhere.
Her biggest influence
It’s a tie. My grandma, and my mother, Erma. The pound cake is my grandma’s recipe. The ice box pie and the dressing are my mom’s. They taught me the tricks in the kitchen, but so much I learned on my own by traveling and going to nice restaurants.
Picking her place
I was looking for a small restaurant. I wanted and needed it to be equipped with the hood specifically. I sold my salon business in 2015. I’d opened in 2000. I wanted to downsize and focus on my catering. This is an easy area to get to, right off the freeway, it has parking. I have a window for takeout. It’s perfect.
Fork. Spoon. Life. explores the everyday relationship that local notables (within the food community and without) have with food. To suggest future personalities to profile, email psullivan@gannett.com.