Southern Hands Home Style Cooking has been serving southern soul food classics from their Hickory Hill location for nearly a decade. Not just soul food but great soul food. The restaurant is one of the busiest in Hickory Hill, with a packed parking lot at midday and often evenings too. 

“There's nobody in Hickory Hill that doesn't know us,” said co-founder Cassandra Pye.

The Hickory Hill location at 6025 Winchester Road attracts people from Southeast Memphis and across the Mid-South. There are two other locations, one in Raleigh and one in Olive Branch.

The menu includes appetizers, 11 classic southern-style entrees, a plethora of well-seasoned sides, and desert. A personal-sized loaf of cornbread accompanies every meal. 

It's worth noting that Southern Hands passes one of the best test of great soul food restaurants — it lists spaghetti as a vegetable.

Pye said the fried chicken and meatloaf are the most popular dishes, along with Kam’s Pork Chops topped with gravy, onions and peppers. 

The prices are more than reasonable and the portions generous. Lunch platters run from $7.29 to $8.99. The most expensive dinner entree is less than $15. 

Terrance Adams is a repeat customer at the Hickory Hill location.

“It's delicious. The food is always fresh and warm. Everything here is very tasty," said Adams. "The customer service is awesome, and the prices are really good."

The Hickory Hill location is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Terrance Adams prepares to tuck into his lunch at Southern Hands Homestyle Cooking located at 6025 Winchester Road. (A.J. Dugger III)

Handing it Down

Pye is equal partners in the business with her siblings Daryl Green, Racquel Adams, Earlena Brown, and Earl Baskin. The siblings manage each location and are accustomed to filling in wherever they're needed, from seating customers to cooking and washing dishes.

Pye and her siblings learned to love cooking in their mother’s kitchen. Their mother, Betty Baskin, was also foundational to the development of the Southern Hands restaurants. She helped run the business until her death in May 2018.

“My mom was a great cook,” said Pye. “I asked her 18 years ago to open up a restaurant. I talked her into it, and we opened up our first spot in 2002 on Danny Thomas. It was a carryout place ... That was our first shot at it.”

After briefly moving to a location in Collierville, the family relocated the business to Hickory Hill in 2010. The Raleigh location opened in 2016 and the Olive Branch location in 2017.

“Hickory Hill chose us,” said Pye about their decision to relocate. 

Pye said they will open a fourth location on Millbranch Road in April 2020. Longer-term plans include restaurants in Jackson and Nashville, Tenn.

World Overcomers Church owns building at the Hickory Hill location. It stands alone at the northern edge of the former Hickory Ridge Mall complex. The church purchase the entire property after its closure and rebranded it as a town center. It's now home to faith-based meetings, government services, and locally-owned shops, boutiques, and food vendors. 

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Pye said Hickory Hill doesn’t have many sit-down restaurants for families and friends to gather. Southern Hands helps serve that need while serving to their delicious dishes.

The Hickory Hill location was previously an Applebee's.

Its history is indicative of the large number of big-box and chain restaurants that left the neighborhood beginning in the late 1990s. It's also a great example of the many local entrepreneurs who've moved in to fill the spaces left vacant and needs left unmet in their absence. 

“It gives people somewhere to go,” she said. “There's not many restaurants like that, especially on Hickory Hill and Winchester roads.”