The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Soul food eatery gets warm welcome
TORRINGTON — Customers have been lining at newly opened Tequanna’s Soul Food and Sweets, clamoring for the restaurant’s barbecued chicken, collard greens, potato salad, string beans and ribs.
“I knew there would be a lot of people on opening day, but not from Waterbury, Danbury, New Haven and New York,” said owner Tequanna Tyson. “People heard about it on Facebook. We had a line out the door and down the block.
“Some people were so happy, crying, even,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting
at all.”
But even after that successful opening on Aug.
7,she still was apprehensive. After all, Tyson, a Queens, N.Y., native, moved herself and her family to Winsted to complete the opening of Tequanna’s. “I was so happy
it went well, but then I wondered what would happen afterwards,” she said. “But last week, we sold out of food. People were just craving it.”
She reminded customers that “if something runs out, don’t be upset. We get our meat and season and cook it all day, just like at home. So things run out sometimes.”
Tequanna’s, which opens at 11 a.m. and closes around 7 p.m., has continued to welcome the same steady stream of hungry diners in search of soul food.
This past Tuesday, the small menu board behind the cash register offered barbecued or baked chicken, string beans, ribs, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, collard greens and rice and vegetables, along with desserts including banana pudding and chocolate cake. That menu changes daily, and is posted on Tequanna’s Facebook page.
A steam table, protected behind Plexiglas, keeps the food hot until it’s dished into a container by Tyson or her mother, Regina Tyson, or her sister Tiara. A small selection of cold drinks stand in a nearby cooler. The walls are covered with small paintings and plaques, and Tyson added a tree mural on the wall of the dining room. In the background, soul music plays. It’s a comfortable atmosphere, warmed by the smiles of the Tysons as they greet each customer.
“Me and my mom do the cooking,” Tyson said. “We’ve got our certain recipes that we like to use, and we talk about what we’re going to do for the day. I learned to cook from my mom and my grandmother; it’s just nice, good food.”
The restaurant has a collection of tables for dining in, and provides takeout. The massive kitchen, just past the food counter, is filled the aroma of simmering meat on a gas range. More equipment is coming, including another stove. “We defithat
nitely need more oven space, too,” Tyson said. “That stove’s coming.”
The family plans to cater parties, and will continue to expand the menu based on what people like.
“I’m thinking of doing a fish fry, just for one day,” Tyson said. “I’m also getting my liquor license, so we can sell special Fat Tuesday slushie drinks, and things like that. I want to have different things, that maybe nobody else has.”
Before the pandemic, Tyson, her husband, Tymel, and her two children, 6 and 8, were living in Queens, where Tyson was working as a bus driver.
“We moved in June, because we had to get out of there,” she recalled. “The bus drivers were forced to work, and so many people were dying of COVID-19. It was just crazy.”
She turned to nearby Connecticut, and a Realtor friend showed her houses in various cities: Bridgeport, Stamford and Waterbury.
“I said, ‘No, take me further in,’” Tyson said. The Realtor took her to Winsted. They found a
house there.
“It’s so quiet and peaceful there,” she said, adding that she enrolled her children in the local school system, where they are very happy.
“The schools are great, and the kids love it,” she said. “We still go to Queens on the weekends, and it’s so loud. I can’t wait to get back home.”
When Tyson first moved, she drove a bus for the Northwest Transit District while she prepared to open her restaurant, and she’s made new friends in the community. “Most of the people I meet are very nice up here,” she said. “A lot of my passengers are my customers now.”
To make her chicken, pork and beef dishes, Tyson and her mom handpick their cuts of meat from a source in New York, and buy the rest of their ingredients locally.
“We have to see it, know what we want, and take it home,” she explained. “It’s the way we’ve always done it. I don’t use a big distributor. It’s better that way.”
The food appeals to people, she said, because it tastes good and it’s not
too expensive. People can pick up a lunch with two side dishes for under $10, including a square of homemade cornbread, wrapped in waxed paper and kept in a warming basket by the steam table. A man ordered $5 worth of ribs, and Tyson obliged him.
“I’ve had a lot of people thanking me, crying, even, because they were so excited by the food,” she said.
The other day a customer came in to Tequanna’s and asked her whether she’d be interested in opening a second restaurant in nearby Washington. “I don’t even know where that is,” Tyson said. “It was kind of a surprise.”
She was flattered, too, but right now she’s focused on Main Street and her new home in Winsted.
“Moving here was just better for me,” she said. “I’ve started meeting a lot of different people.
“I also want to be unique,” Tyson said.
For information, visit www.facebook.com/ Tysonfamilysweets. The restaurant is located at 21 Main St., next to the Howard building.