BRYAN, Texas — Black history month may be coming to a close, but you can't talk about black history without talking about soul food, and one woman has made it her business to bring that flavor to the Brazos Valley.
Ms. Lashonda Mitchell-Davenport is a Bryan native and creator of Lu-Berta's Southern Comfort Food and Catering business. She hoped to bring some of her southern roots right here to the BCS area as someone who had already been cooking since she was a little girl, but wasn't satisfied with the lack of soul food options in town, specifically on Sundays.
"There's not one [soul food restaurant] in Bryan and I'm tired of going to Houston to get some soul food!" said Davenport. "I said okay so that's what I'm gonna do for Lu-Berta's, imma do a southern style comfort food and then on Sunday have a soul food Sunday."
She does just that with tons of residents always wanting a plate every Sunday.
She wants to get back to the roots of soul food, which she believes is embedded in the black community, as it's been passed down through generations from African American ancestors.
"Well for me my grandmother, she grew everything. She had her own garden, her own cows, her own chicken, and all that," said Davenport. "So I learned a lot from my grandmother, you know?"
The recipes of soul food date all the way back to slavery, when blacks were given scraps to make a meal because the bits were considered unwanted parts of a meal. They would use what they were given along with the little that they had on hand to transform it into what would eventually become some of the most iconic dishes in black cuisine today.
Now, Mrs. Lashonda serves all the soul and southern food she's got to the Brazos Valley community with the hopes of owning her own restaurant for everyone to come try her food in the future.
"To bring this dream, this prophecy, and this manifestation but it's gonna come, in due season and due time," said Davenport. "I'm just trying to get there and hopefully be in a restaurant real soon."