Here’s the part of the Ellen’s story most people don’t know: Ellen wasn’t a great cook. Founder Joe Groves named the restaurant after his mother, and by his own account she was famously bad in the kitchen — which makes Ellen’s Southern Kitchen either an elaborate inside joke or the most honest kind of tribute, food good enough to make up for whatever happened at her stove. Either way, it’s a better story than the generic Southern-name-on-a-sign approach most comfort food restaurants take, and it’s worth knowing before the original West End location reopens this month after a nearly two-year absence.
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