Have you heard the Applebee's Restaurant slogan, “Eating good in the neighborhood?”

Well, the eating is just as good at the Neighborhood Soul Food Restaurant located at 504 1/2 West 42nd St.

Nestled between Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard and Burroughs Street, Neighborhood Soul Food specializes in the very best of southern cuisine for breakfast lunch and dinner.

Some of the restaurant's specialties include among other things smothered

shrimp and grits and salmon croquettes for breakfast, and turkey wings, baked or fried chicken, smothered pork chops, greens, macaroni and cheese, yams and potato salad for lunch and dinner.

Cooking is one of the great loves in the lives of owners Willie and Ida Gadson.

Willie took over the restaurant a little more than a year ago from a cousin.

Previously a manager for the kitchen at the United House of Prayer on Ogeechee Road, Willie's career in the food service industry spans more than fifty years.

Ida and Willie Gadson, owners of the Neighborhood Soul Food Restaurant Gadson got his start as an employee with Morrison's Restaurant originally as a dishwasher, and soon worked his way up to cook. He went on to become a part of Morrison's traveling team, and helped to open several restaurants.

It was during this time that Willie met Ida, and the two were married in 1969. The couple have three children and three grandchildren.

Ida jokes that grandsons Tyrese and Te'Shawn are really the owners of the restaurant.

Ida joined Willie full time at the restaurant in late 2008, and the two manage a staff of 5.

Their love for people is the driving force in their business lives.

“It's the people,” Ida says. I try to always make them feel welcomed”.

“We emphasize cleanliness and good service,” Willie adds.

Aside from decadent meals, the restaurant also specializes in delectable desserts, including sweet potato pie, peach cobbler, bread pudding, and the hottest dessert feature red velvet cake.

In addition to the food being down right delicious, it is also reasonable.

You can get breakfast for under $6, and lunch and dinner starts at $6.50.

The Gadsons can also cater your next special occasion.

The next time you're in the mood for good, oldfashioned soul food, stop in the Neighborhood, where eating truly is good!