{"id":2280,"date":"2018-05-01T18:32:46","date_gmt":"2018-05-01T22:32:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/?p=2280"},"modified":"2018-05-03T15:29:50","modified_gmt":"2018-05-03T19:29:50","slug":"just-the-way-mama-j-envisioned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/2018\/05\/01\/just-the-way-mama-j-envisioned\/","title":{"rendered":"Just the Way Mama J Envisioned"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Velma Johnson, aka “Mama J” (Courtesy Southern Foodways Alliance)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

by Noah Maggin<\/p>\n

The sign hangs proudly, centered above the bar, in the tornado of commotion within Mama J\u2019s Kitchen. \u201cWelcome to our home,” it reads, “where great memories are made with family and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

What better way to comfort diners and encourage them to feel at home?<\/p>\n

Opened in 2009, Mama J\u2019s truly is home for whoever walks through that front door\u2014whether you are a relative, friend, loyal customer, or tourist. Despite its growing reputation as one of the most notable soul food restaurants in the country, Mama J\u2019s has never drifted from its family roots.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It all started with Mama J herself: Velma Johnson. Ms. Johnson grew up in Richmond, helping her mother and grandmother prepare big family meals in the kitchen. Those handed-down recipes for meals such as Mama J’s signature fried chicken (left), are treasures that other soul food eateries in town would do anything to get their hands on. From Mama J’s perspective, those storied recipes are meant to remind community members of the good old days in Jackson Ward\u2014 and inspire the rebuilding of a once vibrant neighborhood through black entertainment, food, commerce, and religion.<\/p>\n

Mama J’s Kitchen would, as its website says, help \u201ccelebrate the family tradition of going to grandma\u2019s house for Sunday dinner.\u201d Sundays are the restaurant’s busiest days, in fact, as Jackson Ward’s churchgoers head over after services to socialize, dine together, and, most importantly, feel at home.<\/p>\n

Nearly every person I talked to at Mama J\u2019s raves about the food.<\/p>\n

Ask the bartender Reggie, a two-year veteran, and he\u2019ll tell you the three best dishes are the fried pork chops, the fried chicken, and the catfish\u2014\u201cthe best I ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bartender Malika Trower<\/p><\/div>\n

Speaking from personal experience: The spare ribs cut like butter, the corn muffin sides taste like mom made them, and the mac n\u2019 cheese sends the taste buds to a happy place. It\u2019s southern comfort soul food at its finest, and it tastes like home.<\/p>\n

Bartender Malika Trower stands on the other side of the bar with a big smile on her face. Her energy and high spirits radiate from her before she even speaks a word. Trower\u2019s favorite aspect of working at Mama J\u2019s is \u201cthe coworkers, the music, the atmosphere, and just everything\u2014it feels like home.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there’s Mama J herself.<\/p>\n

Passersby might see a full restaurant with table cloths, orange and yellow colored walls, and a nice bar, yet it’s Velma Johnson who makes the difference.<\/p>\n

Mama J \u201ccan be strict when she wants to be, and she has to be for the business,\u201d says Trower, the bartender. But she’s built a powerful community around this restaurant, where everyone feels welcome for Sunday dinner, every day of the week.<\/p>\n

Just the way Mama J envisioned.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nhttps:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/files\/2018\/04\/My-Movie-3AEEDB1B-2BB4-4E27-B795-0F5937735AD2.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  by Noah Maggin The sign hangs proudly, centered above the bar, in the tornado of commotion within Mama J\u2019s Kitchen. \u201cWelcome to our home,” it reads, “where great memories are made with family and friends.\u201d What better way to comfort diners and encourage them to feel at home? Opened in 2009, Mama J\u2019s truly Read more about Just the Way Mama J Envisioned<\/span>[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4013,"featured_media":2200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[85512,64665],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-doing-business","category-rejuvenations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/files\/2018\/04\/IMG_3563.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7o53H-AM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}