Students from nearby Columbia University, uptown church ladies, savvy New Yorkers, and VIP's (like former President Clinton) all feel at home in this inexpensive, soul-food restaurant. Owner, Caterer and former Wilhemina model, Norma Jean Darden, serves comfort food based on family recipes from Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine, the best-selling cookbook she wrote with her sister, Carole.

The bright and cozy dining room with its red and white checkerboard tile floor and ruffled strawberry curtains is modeled after their mother, Miss Mamie Jean Sampson Darden's, Alabama kitchen.