AURORA – After “Captain” Kirk departed to his final frontier, Jay Berry considered the many gifts his beloved stepfather had left him.
“He was my inspiration,” Berry said of his late stepdad as he sat at Kirk’s Soul Kitchen on a sunny February afternoon.
His stepdad earned the moniker “Captain” Kirk after he survived a horrible car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down.
“Even with all the challenges he had, he never let anything stop him from moving forward,” Berry said. “He taught me about computers. He kept me on track and focused.”
His stepdad passed away in 2011, leaving a strong wish that his family succeed in life. That’s how Berry came to invest his inheritance in opening a new Aurora soul food restaurant seven months ago.
“I was looking to open a restaurant to fill a need. There really wasn’t much soul food in Aurora,” Berry said.
“I want it to serve food from the heart and made from scratch — not processed or frozen.”
The fact that the 27-year-old Aurora native had only had one brief stint working in a restaurant was no impediment. “I was raised around people who were cooking all the time and I always helped,” he said.
When it came time to create a menu for his fast-casual eatery, Berry looked to his family members who originally hailed from Louisiana and Alabama.
“The gumbo, the smothered bone-in chicken and pork chops and the greens come from the Louisiana side,” he said. The fried catfish and chicken came from the Alabama relatives who insisted the items be made to order.
“The chicken takes 10 to 15 minutes … but it’s worth the wait,” he said.
The subject of meatloaf caused a disturbance in the universe because both sides of the family had a cherished recipe. “In Louisiana they like meatloaf smothered in gravy. In Alabama it’s served with ketchup,” he said.
“We offer it with gravy or ketchup and a lot of people have both.” A similar fracas took place over the proper method of assembling the classic banana pudding.
The scratch-made sides include creamy mac and cheese, collard greens, cabbage with bacon, red beans and rice, mashed potatoes, coleslaw and only-on-Friday candied yams. Off-the-menu specials range from traditional blackeyed peas to shrimp etouffee.
For the kids, Berry immediately nixed the idea of chicken fingers. “They get the real food from the menu,” he said.
The lengthy dessert list features Berry’s mom’s peach cobbler with handmade crust and chocolate-frosted yellow desire cake and berry passion cake from Berry’s fiance.
However, when it came to chicken wings, “I used my own recipe,” he said. Despite repeated requests from the Aurora Sentinel, he refused to divulge the secret ingredients in Jay’s Infamous Hot Wings.
But the one dish that draws diners from Aurora, Buckley Air Base and all over Denver is the Kitchen’s bestselling item so far, Captain Kirk’s Seafood Gumbo, packed with shrimp, fish, sausage, okra, crab, veggies and chicken well-seasoned with file.
Berry tweaked and tested the fare in his home kitchen. “It was actually fun to figure out these recipes so they could be reproduced every day,” Berry said.
He’s hoping that the opening of the VA Hospital just down the street and the Aurora light rail extension will bring new business and vitality to East Colfax Avenue. Until the restaurant takes off, Berry continues his longtime position in the accounting department of a local trucking firm.
His uncle is the eatery’s general manager, his brother is a manager and his mom is in charge of human resources at Kirk’s Soul Kitchen.
Jay Berry said he thinks “Captain” Kirk would be pleased to see the enterprise his family has embarked upon.
Kirk’s Soul Kitchen
14107 E. Colfax Ave., Aurora
kirkssoulkitchen.com; 720-474-1996