‘I learned from my grandmother.’ This soul food favorite opens in Wynwood

If not for his grandmother, restaurateur Kevin Kelley might’ve just stuck to law.

But even during law school, the Dallas-based attorney, who is opening his nationally popular Southern soul food restaurant in Wynwood this week, couldn’t shake his memories of the past.

He remembered the joys of frying catfish with his grandmother and learning to season the collard greens just right so that they’d come out perfect every time. He fondly recalled childhood days on his family’s Arkansas farm, where he’d get into trouble for chasing piglets or dutifully throw kitchen table scraps into a bucket, then head outside to feed the hogs.

He couldn’t help it — family is his biggest inspiration.

“I grew up eating at my grandmother’s table,” says Kelley, whose family moved to Dallas when he was 7 while his grandmother remained in Arkansas. “She had 17 grandkids, and I was the first, which means I was the favorite. I grew up watching her cook. People always ask me, ‘What can you cook?’ And I can cook! I learned from my grandmother. Man, every Friday was our Catfish Friday, and we’d eat catfish. Her squash and potatoes were fantastic. I loved her collard greens and fried pork chops. Everything she made was something that we just loved.”

Like all good stories, those memories ignited something even as he studied torts, contracts and legal analysis. He got his degree and practiced law, but in 2020, Kitchen + Kocktails by Kevin Kelley was born in Dallas.

The new Miami restaurant is the seventh location of the successful concept, which over the past five years also opened locations in Chicago, Washington D.C., Charlotte, Atlanta and Philadelphia.

Though the restaurant, which opens in the former Bottled Blonde space on Jan. 17, reflects an upscale style and sensibility, Kelley says that Southern comfort food and warm hospitality remains at its heart, despite the glam setting.

“When you think of Southern food, soul food, you’re thinking about hole-in-the-wall places where you walk in, you get food out of a bag, and it’s comfortable. ” says Kelley, who is also the force behind the sports bar Kanvas by Kevin Kelley and the Latin nightclub Club Vivo, both in Dallas. “I think about dining at my grandma’s home. It wasn’t costly. It was something that tasted good, and everybody enjoyed it. And there’s a lot of love behind that.”

The Miami restaurant is cavernous, more than 8,000 square feet, with room for 208 diners. It boasts the brand’s trademark Rose Wall, which virtually begs you to snap a selfie, as well as the signature blue onyx bar in its main dining room, which is gorgeous enough to be worthy of its own closeup. There’s also a secondary bar and room that can accommodate overflow, with space for a DJ.

The menu includes the usual Kitchen + Kocktails crowd pleasers like shrimp and grits (served with a fried lobster tail on the side), fried chicken and waffles, Caribbean jerk lamb chops, seafood gumbo and the aforementioned catfish. You’ll also find sides like candied yams, fried green tomatoes and mac and cheese. And of course, there’s peach cobbler for dessert as well as the Peach D’usse Frose, a frozen peach drink that comes in a bottle for the table and is the no. 1 cocktail for the brand.

Kelley says that Kitchen + Kocktails attempted to tailor its menu to new cities but learned focusing on their strengths made the most sense.

“When we went to Chicago, everyone said, ‘Chicago is a steak city. You’ve got to have a steak on the menu!’ ” he recalls. “So we had the best steaks I’ve ever had. We had three of them, a traditional tomahawk, a jerk tomahawk, which was amazing, and an Asian cognac steak with charred sauce, and that was fantastic. And nobody bought the steaks! Why was nobody buying them? I learned over time that people don’t come to us for what other places do. They come to us for what we do. And so we have to focus on doing what we do the best.”

Opening in Miami, he believes, was inevitable — but he wanted his team to be ready for it.

“Miami is a little bit different of a proposition than other cities, because Miami is a big, bad place,” he says, laughing. “I think Miami has the best food scene in the country. But now we come here with confidence, because we know that we’ve won in D.C. and Philadelphia and Charlotte and Atlanta and Dallas. We’re prepared. We’re ready for Miami.”

Unlike many hospitality entrepreneurs from out of town, Kelley isn’t talking about showing Miami how to do things right — “I think Miami mostly gets it right,” he says. A fan of dining who loves all kinds of restaurants, from mom-and-pop spots to clubstaurants, he appreciates the city’s diversity in clientele and in the sort of cuisine available.

But he does have strong feelings about hospitality and how customers should be treated. When you enter an atmosphere that prides itself on Southern hospitality, you should feel immediately welcome — and that doesn’t happen everywhere in Miami, Kelley says.

“Sometimes the hostesses act as if they’re Celine Dion or Beyonce,” he says. “They act like they’re special, and they’re the stars. But they’re not. The guest is special.”

“When I created this restaurant, I created it because I wanted a place for family and friends to go to and hang out,” he says. “It wasn’t a plan to scale the restaurant or thinking ‘We’re going to go to Miami or Philadelphia next.’ Five years later, that attitude is still the same. I want my customers to feel like this is their place. I want them to feel like they’re welcome here. That’s why we say ‘Welcome home’ to everyone. I take that very, very seriously.”

It remains to be seen how Miami embraces Kelley’s concept, but Kelley already has the most important seal of approval. After he opened the first Kitchen + Kocktails, he was able to buy his grandmother a house in Dallas. She would eat at the restaurant every week — and she always ordered the catfish.

“She kept coming every Friday,” he recalls. “She loved it. If she didn’t like it, I’d have had to switch the recipe.”

Kitchen + Kocktails

Where: 2838 NW Second Ave., Miami

Opening: Jan. 17

Reservations and more information: kitchenkocktailsusa.com