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Living Connected: ‘Simply Wholesome’ making a difference through food
Brooke Thomas takes us to this neighborhood staple in South Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES - It’s been a staple in Los Angeles' Slauson neighborhood for nearly 40 years. Simply Wholesome is a family-owned, family-run business that is half restaurant, half wellness store.
Owner Purcell Keeling says their curry chicken and jerk chicken patties helped put the business on the map, and he pays that forward by helping jumpstart other small businesses.
"It's kind of like an incubator. They've just given these smaller business individuals a chance to display their wares and their product where some of the big stores might not get will probably not, might not. They would not give them the opportunity," Keeling said.
Both of Keeling’s daughters work with him here, but even celebrities have become like family. You may have noticed the restaurant in one of the opening scenes of the Netflix movie "You People" starring Eddie Murphy, Lauren London and Jonah Hill.
There’s even a secret menu item based on the late rapper Nipsey Hussle’s favorite order. All that said– one of the best parts of doing business for Keeling is still how the love of his restaurant gets passed down through generations.
"People are coming in and they're ordering things and they're bringing their kids in. And then they'll say ‘Hey, do you remember me?’ And I'll say ‘No, not really.’ Or maybe I'll kind of catch the voice and say ‘Hey, I used to come in with my father,’ you know, and they would have been about seven, eight years old," Keeling said.
This is the part that makes Keeling realize why he’s in business in the first place.
For more information go to SimplyWholesome.com.