Video story produced and reported by Emari Craft. Web edited by Siham Kharfan, Jasmine Buie, Rayna Kanas, Angelica Schriefer, Stephanie Rivera and Jessica Perlaza Medina.
Shundra Wright is an expert in soul food, prepared and served with love.
A former lieutenant for the Michigan Department of Corrections, Wright invested her retirement money into her passion project. In January of 2020, Shundra’s Soul Smokehouse was born.
Shundra’s Soul Smokehouse is a barbecue-style restaurant in Greater Northdale in Tampa that serves in-house smoked meats and scratch-made sides. When crafting her dishes, Wright draws inspiration from her Jamaican and Southern roots.
“I love to cook, and growing up in a family from Mississippi and Jamaica, it was, like, so many different things that I had to learn,” says Wright.
Wright and her family opened the restaurant a mere two months before the World Health Organization declared COVID a pandemic.
“It was scary at first because I didn’t know what was going to happen being a new restaurant owner in the first place,” says Wright. “And then in March, the state shut down, and it kind of made everything shut down.”
But while times were unpredictable, Wright and her family persisted.
“I just figured as long as I keep giving people good food, they were going to come back,” she says. “And we survived the pandemic.”
Florida is home to over 181,000 Black-owned businesses, the third-highest number in the United States. Shundra’s Soul Smokehouse is unique – it is family-owned, as well as Black-owned.
“When you come here, you’re going to eat home-cooked food. I put love in it. My husband puts love in it,” says Wright. “If I won’t eat it, I won’t serve it. I won’t sell it to anybody.”
Her high standards and inherited recipes have brought a loyal clientele to this soul-food sanctuary on the corner of Northdale Boulevard.
“We live all the way out in Gibsonton and we come here quite often. We love the food, the service,” says DeAngelo Fletcher, a regular at Shundra’s. “You know, it’s the connection that you have but the food, definitely. And the service and people. It’s just great people here.”
Fletcher is not the only one making regular trips to the smokehouse. The restaurant’s most well-known dish, the Shut the Hell Up Mac N’ Cheese, is named for its ability to make guests “just shut the hell up and enjoy the taste.”
“I like the Shut the ‘H’ Up,” says one young customer, Reagan Fletcher. “I like that one, it’s my favorite.”
All Wright’s regulars have their own favorite dishes that keep them coming back for more.
“I love the collard greens, the brisket, the sausage, the Shut the Hell Up Mac N’ Cheese,” says Paula Rohm, the winner of Shundra’s 2021 Thanksgiving Dinner Raffle. “I’ve been wanting to try the dessert. I haven’t tried those yet, but I’m sure they’re good.
Wright, like her guests, is thankful to have the space to showcase her craft.
“It’s… it’s Shundra’s. It’s home-cooked food,” she says, beaming. “Everything’s made from scratch.”
Shundra’s Soul Smokehouse has over 30 different menu items, including four of Chef Shundra’s specialty dishes. The restaurant is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday, from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Online ordering and catering options are available at shundrassoulsmokehouse.net.
