If you have been desperately searching for “good eats” around the city of Baton Rouge, you have found the right one! Cynthia Owens-Green is a native of the city who is arguably making waves with her small restaurant/deli.
After her father retired from Standard Oil (formerly ESSO, currently EXXONMOBIL), he envisioned the need of the community needing a local grocer, gas station and hardware store, he opened Owens Grocery & Market with his wife Emma Johnson-Owens in 1938. The business was a great success and throughout that time, her mother also cooked and fed the community well. However, after her parents grew older, Cynthia Green, left California with her husband and family in 1979, and returned to Baton Rouge to assist her brother, Carl Owens, to continue operate Owens, as it is today. As Baton Rouge continued to grow, larger grocers moved closer to her business with them brought more reasonable prices which decreased her grocery sales. With this in mind, they knew to stay open, they had to go to PLAN B, which was to continue to push the hearty, soulful meals.
Together, they brought different menu ideas for their moms comfort line of foods. Carl invented, what’s still known today as the Truck Driver & Sub-Marine Po-boys. Cynthia’s awesome homemade bread pudding, Obama Burgers, peach cobbler and much much more kept the customers begging for more.
Her line of comfort foods sold on a weekly basis include items such as jambalaya, fried chicken, smothered chicken, pork chops, baked chicken, turkey necks, chitterlings, meatloaf; sides such as mustard greens, collards, cabbage, candy yams, okra & tomatoes; extremely too many to name, but the list goes on and on. Also, there is homemade dessert daily for those sweet lovers.
It is obvious that Green puts her heart and soul into her cooking and truly loves to see people gather around to enjoy a meal at her deli. The family of Owens not only feed those when they don’t have the money for a meal, but when you just need great conversation or counseling, as busy as they are, she and her family is there to listen, advise and lend help with whatever the need is.
So, whether you are looking for a place to satisfy your taste buds or for a good soul who loves the idea of making people happy with good food and fellowship, you are always welcome to dine with the Greens at Owens.
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