San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
A new home for Mrs. Kitchen in Windcrest
It’s not just the soul food that keeps customers coming back to Mrs. Kitchen. To be sure, customers rave about the fried chicken, cornbread, macaroni and cheese, candied yams, meatloaf and collard greens that the East Side restaurant serves in generous portions.
But patrons also return because the atmosphere is laidback and the owners and staff are friendly. The fare and the feel remind some of the comforts of home and hark back to their grandmother’s cooking — which is the inspiration for owner Garlan McPherson.
As McPherson prepares to move from the cottage at 2242 E. Commerce St. that houses Mrs. Kitchen to a far bigger space at 5237 Walzem Road in Windcrest, he believes his grandmother is smiling down on him.
“You did well,” he thinks she’s thinking.
McPherson, who grew up on the East and North sides, decided to open the restaurant in 2011 after serving as a probation officer for Bexar County. He wanted to work for himself, he said, and as a child he had watched his grandmother cook.
Some had doubts about whether he would make it in the neighborhood.
“I said, ‘No, you can,’ ” McPherson said.
Mrs. Kitchen became popular with both San Antonio residents and out-of-towners. Staff started taking ZIP codes to see where customers were coming from; they came from all over the city,
McPherson said.
He said he sought to give back to the community, employing friends in the neighborhood and offering large portions that could feed a family at affordable prices.
As more customers packed into the roughly 1,700-squarefoot house and griped about finding parking, McPherson said, he started praying and looking for a bigger place to lease several years ago.
The coronavirus pandemic that took hold in San Antonio last spring made the spacing constraints even more difficult. McPherson closed the restaurant and set up a makeshift drive-thru for to-go orders, but business took a hit.
He was primarily searching for a new location on the East Side, he said, but finding a large venue that had ample parking and was readily available was tough.
Plans to move into another location down the street didn’t pan out.
Then an opportunity to take over a roughly 8,000-square-foot space in Windcrest arrived, with tables, chairs and plenty of room to spread out customers.
“We have to take a chance on opportunity when it’s presented to us,” he said. “Now, bring the
tour buses, bring ’em all.”
McPherson had been specific in his prayers — he wanted a kitchen with a red floor and drainage, for example — and he said God answered.
“When I looked down I saw that floor, I said, ‘God is so real,’ ” he said. “It just (brings) tears to your eyes, how wonderful he is during this time.”
Mrs. Kitchen will open in its new digs soon, and McPherson plans to make some additions to the menu. Prices will still be reasonable, he said, though portions may be slightly less plentiful. Rent is higher in Windcrest.
He may open more businesses eventually.
“I got plans to come back and do things,” McPherson said of the East Side. “Now I can come back, and eventually things will get better to where I can open up another business on the East Side.”
Betty Braden, who lives near Mrs. Kitchen’s former East Commerce location, said she’s sad to see the restaurant go.
The fried chicken, pork chops, collard greens and green beans at Mrs. Kitchen are favorites of her and her husband, Gene. The prices are good, she said, and the servers are friendly.
The couple, real estate developers, often took clients to the restaurant. McPherson looked at space in a former Handy Andy distribution center near to the
AT&T Center that they are redeveloping, Braden said.
“Their food is wonderful,” she said. “It’s that good home cooking.”
The Bradens may make the trip to Windcrest every now and then, she said, but it will be a planned outing instead of a quick trip down the street for lunch.
“I don’t know of any other restaurant like Mrs. Kitchen in the area, so I think that type of food … there’ll be a vacancy there,” she said.
Tee Tee Bass-Merritt, who has been dining at the restaurant for about four years, plans to clear her schedule for Mrs. Kitchen’s opening day in Windcrest. (McPherson hasn’t settled on an opening date yet.)
She recently took a tour of the new location and is thrilled it’s bigger and also closer to where she lives in the Converse area.
“Once I went to Mrs. Kitchen, I was hooked on the food,” BassMerritt said. “It’s just like home.”
She first found the restaurant while looking for local soul food and Black-owned businesses.
Aside from the food — “everything I’ve had is good,” she said, though she has a weakness for the smothered pork chops, candied yams, and macaroni and cheese — the service, prices and family ownership stand out.
“It’s a little bit of everything wrapped up in one,” she said.