After endless meals from the campus dining halls, college students often find themselves looking for new places to eat in the absence of home-cooked meals. They can now look to Mama’s Southern Kitchen, a restaurant opened two weeks ago by Skyla Jones, a current student at The University of Alabama majoring in general business.
Jones said the restaurant, which serves a variety of southern foods, is named after her own nickname.
“Everybody has always called me Mama because I cook amazing food, and I just can’t stand when things are unorganized,” Jones said.
Jones, originally from Birmingham, Ala., opened the restaurant while being a full-time mother and wife.
“I opened the restaurant because everybody always told me how good my cooking was,” Jones said. “Cooking has always been a passion of mine, so I decided to follow my heart and start the business. ”
Jones said she wants to make her business degree count and become her own boss.
“I don’t want to go to work and have it just be work,” Jones said. “I want to really do something that I love do to everyday.”
Mama’s Southern Kitchen menu features classic southern foods such as fried chicken, catfish, cornbread, chicken salad sandwiches, pork chops, as well as an array of desserts including her homemade peach cobbler cupcakes.
“I had a woman come in and buy a whole plate of cupcakes,” Jones said. “And in about 10 minutes, she came back and bought three more!”
Mama’s Southern Kitchen will deliver food to students, and Jones said she would like it to become very popular among the campus community.
Kathleen Starke, a freshman majoring in business, said she is excited to try the new Southern-style restaurant.
“I absolutely adore southern food, it always reminds me of being back home,” Starke said. “It would be nice to finally have a place to eat that has home-cooked Southern-style food, especially after living on a diet of peanut butter and jelly and Easy Mac.”
Starke said she plans to try the restaurant this weekend.
“I think that it will be a place that students will really enjoy, especially since they deliver to the dorms and apartments,” she said.
Jones and her husband will be passing out flyers and coupons around campus this week. The restaurant also has a food truck that will be visiting the campus. Mama’s Southern Cooking is located at 5001 JVC Road in Cottondale, Ala. and is open from 11 a.m. to 7:00 p.m..
