New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
‘THEY FEEL THE PASSION THAT WE PUT IN OUR FOOD’
National recognition for Sandra’s Next Generation ‘puts credibility back’ for soul food
Rebecca Stephens took a 3-hour road trip Thursday from Orleans, Mass., just to get lunch at Sandra’s Next Generation in New Haven.
She and her friend Margie Luck ordered smothered chicken, fried chicken, mac and cheese, collard greens, yams and fried okra.
“I grew up in the South, I’m from Georgia and it’s hard to find good quality Southern soul specialties,” Stephens said. “And when I went on Yelp and I entered ‘soul food,’ this came up, and specifically, I searched ‘smothered chicken’ and this came up.”
It wouldn’t be too difficult to get Sandra’s as a result for those keywords, because the restaurant in the city’s Hill neighborhood recently was ranked 56th on Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat in the U.S. 2023 list.
It’s one of the only two Connecticut restaurants to make the list. The other is YiaYia’s Greek Kitchen in Torrington.
“Friendly, familiar foods that look wonderful and very accommodating,” Stephens said of her first impression of the restaurant. “I’m sure (the road trip) will be worth it.”
What makes the restaurant stand out and last this long, co-owner Miguel Pittman said, is about strategic business management and authenticity of the food. Sandra’s first opened in 1989. During the pandemic, when many restaurants experienced a decline, Sandra’s saw over 200 percent in sales, according to Pittman.
“We have the same recipes that we had when we first opened,” Pittman said. “But we offer a different flavor, we offer a different presentation, we offer a different customer service, that when people eat our food, they feel the passion that we put in our food.”
That’s why it’s called soul food, he said. It’s the type of food that gives a “flashback when you were a child, when you were raised up, probably in the South and when grandma used to cook.”
The food at Sandra’s is available with a twist. For example, Pittman said, patrons can come in and get a “cutting-edge” empanada — one stuffed with soul foods such as mac and cheese, black eyed peas, collard greens, turkey, chopped barbecue or chicken.
“We are creative,” Pittman said. “We are always looking for ways to reinvent ourselves because we know that the time that we stop doing that, we are going to be obsolete.”
He said when the restaurant looks for employees, it looks for someone who doesn’t only cook but also appreciates what they’re doing and appreciates the cuisine.
Velman Lyons, a pastor at nearby Thomas Chapel Church of Christ who goes to Sandra’s once or twice a month, said what she likes about the eatery is that it’s soul connected, family friendly and communitybased.
“It’s easily accessible to the neighbors,” she said, noting she loves Sandra’s ribs, sweet potato pie and macaroni and cheese.
Luck, who lived in Texas for many years, she said she could smell the food from the outside, so her first impression was “yum.”
“This reminds me of Texas also, and it just smells like a great place to have lunch, dinner, breakfast, anything,” said Luck, who now lives in Massachusetts. “It’s going to be very filling, we’ll be taking a lot home for dinner.”
Asked about the ranking, Pittman said it was a good feeling to know his restaurant outperformed every other place in the country. But most importantly, he said, it put soul food at the forefront.
“A lot of times when you have different magazines or different publishers, companies or different places that review restaurants, usually they don’t have a category for soul food,” he said. “With our ranking, it puts credibility back on the table and it’s going to open up the door for other opportunities for people of color like me.”
As it’s difficult to take a restaurant to the finish line, Pittman said his family is happy to share information and their business philosophy to those in need. Like in the restaurant’s name, Pittman said “we’re trying to be a role model for the next generation.”
When it comes to menu highlights, Pittman said it’s the culture behind each menu item, but if he had to choose one, it would be fried chicken.
He said the chicken is made the old Southern way, marinated for three days before cooking.
“When you bite into it, it has the flavor that’s all the way to the bone that’s not overpowering,” Pittman said. “Everything presented in a way that it’s very mild and those items are hard to duplicate. It will give you the history, it’ll give you that flashback.”
Sandra’s Next Generation is located at 636 Congress Ave. in New Haven. Hours are 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, noon-8 p.m. Saturday and noon-7 p.m. Sunday.