Mrs. Thelma’s Southern Cuisine, a brand contemporary restaurant serving fried rooster, smothered pork chops, collard greens, candied yams, and other soul food staples, is making ready to start out shut to the corner of Central Avenue and forty ninth Avenue in St. Pete.
The restaurant, located in a 1,200-square-foot situation at 119 forty ninth Avenue South, is predicted to debut in tedious summer or early fall.
St. Pete native Cornicole Rollins-Holt will characteristic Mrs. Thelma’s with her husband, Melvin. The restaurant is named after Melvin’s tedious mother, Thelma, an avid dwelling cook dinner who dreamed of opening a restaurant of her indulge in.
The Holts concept to honor her legacy by creating a welcoming neighborhood restaurant centered round homestyle cooking and Southern hospitality.
“Mrs. Thelma’s is indubitably one of those areas where we should always always provide that homey, cushty if fact be told feel,” Cornicole mentioned in a dialog with St. Pete Rising. “When we are asserting our motto is ‘Correct Take care of Mom’s,’ I need it to if fact be told feel corresponding to you’re walking into your family’s dwelling whereas you’re at the restaurant. As soon as you hump in, the smells will rob you support.”
The menu will characteristic fried and baked rooster, smothered pork chops, turkey wings, meatloaf, candied yams, collard greens, cornbread, and unlit-eyed peas.
A brand exterior the restaurant advertises the “World’s Most efficient Mac and Cheese,” which the Holts report as an extremely-creamy baked version made with a definite mix of cheeses.
Homemade sweet tea, pineapple lemonade, fruit punch, and sodas will in all probability be served alongside desserts corresponding to purple velvet cake, sweet potato pie, banana pudding, and fruit cobblers.
The food will in all probability be on hand à la carte or as combination platters priced between $12 and $15, reckoning on the protein.
Once the restaurant is up and running, the Holts also concept to introduce rotating weekend specials that contains barbecue ready by Melvin.
The recipes served at Mrs. Thelma’s were passed down from Thelma to her son and can allow Melvin to section the dishes he grew up eating with a brand contemporary generation.
“Every recipe we support is impressed by the warmth she shared around the table,” Melvin wrote on social media. “Every plate is made with bask in, correct like she taught us.”
Even supposing the restaurant will pay tribute to Melvin’s mother, who became initially from Gainesville, the change also holds deepest significance for Cornicole.
Her grandmother operated a profitable restaurant in St. Pete’s ancient Deuces district one day of the 1960s and Seventies, giving Cornicole her indulge in familial connection to the metropolis’s culinary history.
The situation has housed several restaurants over the years, most no longer too lengthy within the past breakfast space Factual Eating, which closed in tedious 2025. Old occupants also included 727 Seafood & Grill and Domino’s Pizza.
Mrs. Thelma’s will provide four tables and a lengthy counter for dine-in customers. Basic vinyl files from the Seventies and 1980s will decorate the walls, whereas a tribute to Thelma will greet customers as they enter.
Having a look forward, the Holts hope to eventually start a 2nd, larger restaurant in other areas in St. Pete that contains cafeteria-sort eating.
“I correct hope we’re in a situation to turn out to be a staple within the neighborhood that’s round for about a years,” Cornicole mentioned. “Confidently, we’ll be in a situation to amplify and assassinate jobs for others as effectively.”
Mrs. Thelma’s Southern Cuisine plans to characteristic from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday after its opening in tedious summer or early fall.
Make certain that to apply Mrs. Thelma’s Southern Cuisine on Fb and Instagram for updates on its anticipated debut.
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