Chatsworth's Les Sisters Southern Kitchen Announces 2nd Location

CHATSWORTH, CA — When so many small businesses are shutting down, it’s heartening to hear that a beloved local restaurant is opening a second location.

“It’s been very chaotic - very, very, very chaotic for me, but in a good way,” said Jessica Huling, owner of Chatsworth’s Les Sisters Southern Kitchen & BBQ, which announced Jan. 25 that they planned to open a second location in town, just in time for the restaurant’s 35th anniversary in May. “My best explanation would be like a caterpillar, trying to bust out of its cocoon. We’re busting out of our seams.”

Before the pandemic, the soul and Cajun restaurant was crowded with customers desperate to get a taste of the catfish, po’boys, or crawfish jambalaya cooked from recipes passed down by Huling’s grandmother Clara. Huling had been looking to expand the restaurant that Clara started for a long time.

Then came 2020. All too often, a sad series of events follows that sentence, but Huling said that after the George Floyd protests in June, a social media blitz to support Black-owned businesses provided the restaurant with more customers than it ever had.

“People were tagging, people were sharing our story, lots and lots and lots of sharing and word of mouth going around, and that brought more people and more exposure to us than we had ever had - it’s been incredible,” Huling said.

Huling said she had been searching for a second location for many years, but in summer 2020 she finally found the perfect location. She located a shuttered catering facility on the corner of Nordhoff Street and Mason Avenue, within walking distance of the current location. Huling said that the new location will be a quick-serve restaurant - like a Jack in the Box or In-N-Out - that will have limited indoor seating. Huling also plans to incorporate some new menu items customers have asked for, like chicken and waffles, shrimp and grits, and biscuits and gravy.

“That particular location had fallen into my lap and checked all the boxes for me, in terms of location, and the landlord was eager to work with me,” she said. “The fact that this is relatively close to the original location is good for me because it gives them a chance to piggyback off each other.”

Huling announced her plans in a jubilant Facebook post that garnered 880 likes, 241 comments, and 103 shares. “I was afraid this small restaurant would make it just only on take out only,” Huling wrote. “But you showed us the opposite. Matter fact, the kitchen had to waive the white flag a few times. But when I tell you, I say with my hands up praised to God and tears in my eyes....we’re finally gonna try to run 2 locations right here in Chatsworth!!”

“I was expecting sad news and I’m so glad it was quite the opposite,” wrote one commenter. “I had many great nights eating at your place and am so happy for you and the family.”

“I was at Les Sisters opening day in 1986, and will be at your next opening day,” wrote another. “Havent heard ANY success stories, during Covid, as yours. You deserve it all. You have been a hard working family restaurant and are reaping the [benefits of] your hard work!”

Clara Huling, a native of Yuma, Oklahoma, grew up working at her mother’s restaurant, according to an account on the restaurant’s website. She moved to Chatsworth, and made friends with Roda Hadi, a Cajun chef who ran the seafood bar at the former Fireside Inn in Encino, and Willie Stanford, the owner of popular Northridge bar Our Place. They struggled at first, but its unique cuisine drew rave reviews from newspapers and customers. Eventually, Roda and Willie left due to personal setbacks and illnesses, and Clara ran the restaurant by herself.

Rhoda Hadi, Willie Stanford, Clara Huling. Photo credit Jessica Huling.

In 1992, the Rodney King riots were decidedly less beneficial to the restaurant than the 2020 protests. Huling remembers rioters ransacking the restaurant, so much so that earlier this year three hired people slept over at the restaurant to protect the restaurant. Just months after the ‘92 riots, Clara died of a sudden stroke, and her son - Huling’s father Kevin, took over the restaurant until 2014. In 1994, the restaurant crumbled in the Northridge earthquake.

But the resilient restaurant rebuilt, and continued to whip up the spicy Southern food the Valley didn’t know it craved before Clara came to town. Now, Huling is in a hurry to raise the $200,000 she says she needs by April to get the new location operational by May. A GoFundMe campaign has raised just $1,587 out of its $200,000 goal as of Monday.

But the little Cajun restaurant that could is full of surprises.

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