We have to do what is necessary to help the community, and Chef Jonny Rhodes has come up with a way to do his part! Rhodes, who is from Houston, has converted his popular soul food restaurant, Indigo, into a grocery store. The store will give low-income families better access to high-quality food. The decision to make the conversion came about due to the current coronavirus pandemic, according to BlackBusiness.com.
The entrepreneurial chef opened Indigo two years ago in the north Houston neighborhood of Trinity Groves. He recently changed that business to Broham Fine Soul Food & Groceries as it opened this week on April 1 at 2019 Bennington Street.
Opening a grocery store was always in Rhodes’ future but the coronavirus pandemic accelerated his timeline. The store will provide him with a way to keep his Indigo staff employed while the restaurant is closed and it also fulfills a need in the community.
“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’s empty bellies,” Rhodes tells CultureMap.“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].”