There are three generations of love and secret family recipes in the soul food cooked by Allison Byrd, owner of Georgie’s Kitchen Restaurant & Catering.
Picture love mixed with fried chicken, smothered pork chops, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, candied yams, fried fish, honey corn bread and more, including vegan versions.
Byrd, 34, already has a strong catering business and in late September/early October, will open a space in the food court at the Shoppes at Buckland Hills in Manchester.
Ikesha Guy whose family threw a surprise 50th birthday party for her catered by Byrd, describes her food as, “Southern style with a modern twist.”
“Her food is great. It makes you feel at home,” Guy said. “She’s a small time person trying to make it in this world and she’s faced a lot of adversity.”
Byrd isn’t one to rail on about her troubles, but she’s seen more than her share of heartbreak.
In 2015, she lost her mother for whom the business is named, in 2021 she had a still born son and in 2022 her older brother – her biggest business champion – died from COVID-19.
Months ago Byrd fulfilled her dream of opening a restaurant on Farmington Avenue in Hartford, but had to close within a month because an issue occurred.
“It was an unfortunate situation,” Byrd said. “Despite it all, I’m thankful for that lesson.” She recovered part of the money.
Byrd named the business after her late mom, Georgia Byrd, whose nickname was Georgie.
Georgia Byrd, who taught Allison how to cook and who learned from her mother before that, always dreamed of opening a restaurant, but congestive heart failure held her back. The elder Byrd catered instead.
“My mom always cooked. That was her thing,” Allison Byrd said. “I always watched her in the kitchen. She would show me what to do.”
Soon after mom died, Allison Byrd said she wondered, “How am I going to take care of myself?'”
Then it hit.
She started selling plates of food, then her brother (who later passed from COVID) turned his backyard into a cookout area with griddles and picnic tables so she could cook for others.
People were amazed at the flavor and told Allison they could “taste the love,” she said.
“This was her dream (mom’s). Now I’m keeping it going,” Byrd said, of her mom. “Sometimes it’s bittersweet.”
When Allison Byrd starts cooking, she gets in the groove by listening to a playlist of mom’s favorite songs from the 1970s and 1980s, including Lenny Williams’ “Cause I Love You,” and lots of Teddy Pendergrass.
Allison Byrd also got cooking lessons from her maternal grandmother in Virginia, as she spent summers there as a child.
“I personally think everything my grandmother made was good, but my grandmother baked really well,” Byrd said.
Byrd, who grew up in Hartford’s North End, now lives in the Rockville section of Vernon.
She had an interesting start in life, as doctors removing her mother’s fibroids found Allison growing between two of them, so her birth was a total surprise.
Her mother originally thought she was pregnant, but doctors told her there was no baby showing up on sonograms.
So Georgia Byrd, mother of two sons, woke up in her 40s from surgery with a daughter weighing 2 pounds and a few ounces.
Allison Byrd said she still has her 88-year-old dad and “He’s proud of me.”
Allison works as a psychiatric technician at Hartford Hospital’s Institute of Living. She gets fulfillment in that job as well and will go per diem when the new eatery space opens. “Helping others gives me purpose to keep going.”
Catering client Shaquana Leggett describes Byrd’s food as “amazing, especially the fried fish, mac and cheese and yams.
She thinks highly of Allison Byrd the woman, as well.
“She is extremely sweet, caring and always gives back to the community when she can,” said Leggett.
Byrd, for example, donated her time and did a fish fry to raise money for Leggett’s daughter’s Klassy Kat dance team.
“She is very passionate about cooking and on the short amount of time she had her restaurant on the south end of Hartford she was the talk of the town. I couldn’t scroll down my Facebook timeline without seeing someone talking about her food, Leggett said.
Another catering customer, September Chatfield, said Allison Byrd’s wings “are to die for, fall off the bone.”
“I’m proud of the steps she has taken to expand her entrepreneurship,” Chatfield said. “There aren’t many soul food restaurants in the area so when I do purchase food from Ally I’m expecting to receive great service, delicious food and the amazing presentation.”
Allison Byrd is hopeful about her new business venture.
“I feel like at the end of the tunnel there’s something great for me,” she said.
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