Just a few years ago, Daniella Coffey gave up almost everything to keep her father's soul food restaurant going.
She and her husband sold their house and emptied his 401(k) account, but it still wasn't enough to pay off the more than $600,000 in debt they inherited.
“I was still $25,000 short,” Coffey said. If she didn't have the funds in place, she would lose her business to the bank. When she checked the numbers two days before the deadline, she thought she'd made a mistake. “I had $35,000 in my account.”
Coffey applied for a grant, but it was rejected. The person in charge told her they didn't know what had happened. Somehow, her application was reviewed again and approved.
One of Chicago's oldest black-owned soul food restaurants, Saint Rest #2 Country Kitchen in the South Side's Chatham neighborhood, has kept alive a tradition that was nearly lost.
The legendary Edna's, Gladys Luncheonette, and Army & Lou's have all closed. To celebrate soul food, former Ebony magazine food editor Charla Draper, who once ran the iconic test kitchen, created “National Soul Food Month” in 2001. The event is celebrated every June.
But in 2021, Coffey, the new chef and owner of Saint Rest, was still grieving the loss of his father, the Rev. Larry Hopkins, who had died just a few months earlier.
You've probably passed this restaurant hundreds of times – it's right next to Garrett Popcorn Shop (where they have a drive-thru) and very close to Harold's Chicken on 87th Street (55th, widely considered one of the best locations).
Now it's only open three days a week, with regulars queuing up before it opens at lunchtime and sometimes lining up all day, especially on Sundays after church services.
“It feels like you're at grandma's house,” Coffey said. “You'll have great food. There's a great sense of love and family and fun. It just feels like a peaceful place.”
But just like at Grandma's house, be careful with your language.
“We're known for our cornbread dressing,” the chef says, “and some people call it stuffing, but we don't allow people to call it stuffing. Absolutely not.”
why?
“Because it's cornbread dressing.”
Note that the cornbread dressing is only available on Sundays and comes from a family recipe that originated in Indianola, Mississippi.
“My dad was the youngest of 18 children,” Coffey says, “so he watched my mom cook.”
She was a great cook, the chef says, but restaurants weren't her father's calling when he first moved to Chicago.
“He came from a church called St. Rest,” Coffey says, “and that was St. Rest No. 1.”
Hopkins then named his church St. Rest Second Missionary Baptist Church.
“His first restaurant was on Chicago's west side at the intersection of Laramie and Madison and was called Saint Rest Dining Room,” Coffey said, “and it opened in 1973.”
Coffey said his father and mother, Sophia Hopkins, opened the restaurant together, but “my mother was a stay-at-home mom, so this was my father's vision.”
Coffey said her father once owned several restaurants and hot dog stands, all on the West Side. She doesn't know the names of the businesses; one was in business before she was born, but she learned about it from her siblings; the other one she was too young to remember well.
“It was on Fifth Avenue, right around the corner from Cicero,” Coffey said.
Down the street from Saint Rest Dining Room was a restaurant her father owned called Southern Cafe, and next door was Daniella's Fish Market, named after her.
“That's where you get live catfish,” the chef said. “He had three or four places on the same block.”
Her father opened Saint Rest #2 Country Kitchen in 1983.
“When he first opened, he served breakfast, lunch and dinner,” she said. “Where the cafeteria bar is now was formerly the grill.”
Breakfast is cooked right in front of you on a flat-top griddle.
Hopkins put the St. Rest Dining Room under the management of the Coffey sisters, but it soon closed.
He ran Saint Rest #2 Country Kitchen for 37 years until the early days of the pandemic, when he asked his daughter to take over.
“In December of 2020, my dad came to me and my husband and said, 'I'm tired. I'm ready to retire. I've given it everything I've got,' and honestly, COVID made it really hard,” Coffey said. “I said, 'Dad, listen, this is hard work,' because I grew up in this industry. I've seen the sacrifices. The restaurant industry is no joke.”
She told her father that it wasn't something she wanted to do, but that she wanted time to think it over with her husband.
“And I'll never forget what my dad said,” Coffey said. “He said, 'Baby, what you're looking for out there is right in your hands.'”
“So finally, in January, I said yes to him,” she said.
In February 2021, she and her husband, John Coffey, took over.
“Then in April, my father closed his eyes and took his last breath in my arms,” Daniella Coffey said. “The day after the funeral, we went to foreclosure court.”
Her husband, a retired Marine, asked, “What's the mission?”
“I said, 'Babe, this is about continuing the tradition and saving this business by any means necessary.'”
So they did, and got the recipe.
“My father put his own spin on it,” the chef says, “and of course I put my own spin on it, but it's mostly based on my grandmother's recipes.”
From homemade strawberry lemonade to braised pork chops to silky smooth vegetables, but it all starts with an unusual style of service.
“We call it cafeteria-style with a twist,” Coffey said. “Back in the day, when you went to your grandma's house or your aunt's house, it was like a full course meal.”
“When you walk into a restaurant, you see a beautifully laid out buffet row,” she says, “with meats on one side, side dishes on the other, and a row of desserts.”
Don't get me wrong, there is still someone there to serve you, but it's more of a family atmosphere: Once you pay, your table is set, you have bottles of water and their homemade vinegar and hot sauce, and your server brings you any drinks you order.
“We enjoy gospel music,” Coffey said. “We're a faith-based restaurant business, so we play Christian gospel music.” Old style vs. new style.
“Everything is made fresh from scratch, even our strawberry lemonade,” she added. “Nothing is canned.”
The most popular item is the tender and hearty pork chop, but it's only available on Saturdays.
“The gravy is like liquid gold,” Coffey said.
Served with a golden spoon over red beans and white rice, it's a Saturday special. No matter when you order, dinner includes meat, two sides, and two mini muffins.
“We also have bite-sized corn muffins,” says the chef. Though it originates in the South, cornbread is more Northern in style and is a little sweeter.
But their most popular songs are about black people in the American South.
“Lima beans and black-eyed peas,” the chef said, “plus four-cheese macaroni and cheese, candied yams, and fresh collard greens.”
“On Fridays, I have slick mustard greens,” she said. “My aunt used to make slick mustard and I really loved it.”
Angela Chatman, the chef's niece and the restaurant's general manager, suggested adding smooth mustard greens.
“I remember when we first put it on the menu, customers came back and ordered a second time, a third time,” Coffey says.
The catfish fillets and chicken wings are fried to order – the menu board says they take 15 and 20 minutes to cook respectively – the fillets are golden and crisp on the outside with beautiful white fish filling, while the wings are whole (drumlet, flat and tip!) but a little on the small side.
Hot and sweet peach cobbler and cold and creamy banana pudding are made in-house, while the popular caramel cake is crafted by the restaurant's own baker.
“He's been making our cakes for about 22 years now,” Coffey said.
His name?
“Mr. Hale,” she said, laughing, “I never called him by his first name.”
St. Rest #2 Country Kitchen may be a complicated name, but our family has been committed to it. First as a church, then as a restaurant. It is their legacy and our future.
“My mom is still here,” Coffey said. “She comes when she wants to come. We just take care of her and make sure she's OK.”
Chatman, the chef's niece and the restaurant's general manager, is expected to take over the reins in the next few years.
So do they still own the property where one of Chicago's oldest soul food restaurants has been operating since 1983?
“Clear and unconstrained,” Coffey said.
Centrest #2 Country Kitchen
727 E. 87th Street
773-962-0700
sites.google.com/corporatejewels.com/st-rest2-country-kitchen
Open: Fri-Sun 11am-6pm.
price: $20 (pork chop dinner), $19 (fried catfish filet dinner), $18 (fried chicken wing dinner), $4.99 (caramel cake), $3.50 (strawberry lemonade)
noise: Easy to converse with
Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible, toilets on the first floor
Email: lchu@chicagotribune.com
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