Chef Jonny Rhodes opened the popular Houston restaurant Indigo in 2018, and in the time of a declining restaurant industry, Rhodes is making the best with what he’s been given and serving the community while doing so.
Chef Rhodes will be opening a grocery store in the north Houston neighborhood Trinity Groves — also the same location as Indigo.
The grocery store, Broham Fine Soul Food & Groceries will start operation on April 1st. According to CultureMap Houston, the grocery store will feature products made in the Indigo kitchen like jams, preserves, deli meat, bread, pastries, and other items to appeal to “people of Afro and Indigenous descent,” as Rhodes puts it.
Although Rhodes has been wanting to open a grocery store for years, he was pushed to do it now because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Not only is this an essential business, but it will aid in Indigo’s staff staying employed during this chaotic time.
In an interview with CultureMap, Rhodes shares: “You think about this epidemic that’s going on, one of the things you see is grocery stores can’t keep things on the shelves. Over here, there are no shelves to be empty, because there are no grocery stores. Instead of there being empty shelves, there are empty bellies.”
If you’re looking for soda, you can expect to find homemade strawberry, blueberry, sage, and juniper berry soda flavors.
You can expect to find desserts such as chocolate chip muffins, banana bread and pineapple rolled cake.
For everyday staples, you’ll find smoked turkey, bacon, brisket pastrami and even vegetarian ham made from cured and smoke pickled turnips.
“Since this has taken place, a lot of them are surviving on chips, soda, candy. That’s only going to make what’s going on right now worse. Now, you don’t have the immune system to fight it off, because we’re poisoning ourselves. We just want to be able to provide [an alternative],” says Rhodes to CultureMap.
All fresh produce will be sourced from local farms that usually supply Indigo, but Rhodes is planning on planting his own farm.
“Every chef wants to have a restaurant, that’s the dream. Where’s the dream for the hospitality behind everyone having something to eat. For me, I eellike at this point, having my restaurant may not be what I think it should if I can only provide great quality food to the highest bidder,” says Rhodes.
Broham Fine Soul Food & Groceries will officially open on April 1st. The location is 2019 Bennington Street in Houston, Texas.
Store hours are Monday – Friday from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m.
You can keep up with Broham Fine Soul Food & Groceries here.