New Columbus soul food restaurant will honor black history and Top Hat’s fried chicken
A new restaurant paying homage to a famed Columbus fried chicken institution is set to open in mid-to-late February.
The Straw Hat will be headed by owner Christi Murrell and Jarrett Farley, a popular Columbus Facebook chef with more than 12,000 followers on the social media platform.
The menu changes daily and features soul food classics including oxtails, baked chicken, chitlins, beef tips, greens and yams.
Two items are nods to the famed and now closed Top Hat Cafe. One is the strawbird, a spicy battered fried chicken. They’ll also serve two bone-in chicken breasts sandwiched between pieces of white bread — a dish that sticks out in the minds of Columbus residents who reminisce about Top Hat.
Both will be served daily, Murrell said.
“When I was little, my mom used to take me to Top Hat to cheer me up,” she said. “I remember … biting it and all my tears would go away. It just did something to me. And you could taste the love and the seasoning in the food.”
The goal is for the restaurant to serve as a community meeting place and a friendly safe haven, Murrell said. They plan to host community events and give back to the area. Business cards and other community announcements will be posted in an area of the restaurant Murell has named the “plug wall.”
The name, artwork and menu are meant to honor black history and culture. A small mural towards the back of the restaurant features black field hands picking cotton. The straw hat name is an acknowledgment of the headgear’s history. Straw hats offered slaves shelter from the heat and allowed them to signal for help, Murrell said.
“I tied my food and menu into that because back in those days we were given scraps and we had to make do with what we had,” she said. “I wanted to make everyone aware of where the original soul food came from. ...We were given trash and we turned it into treasure.”
Murrell and Farley got to know each other after she tasted some of Farley’s homemade plates he sold via Facebook. When she moved back to Columbus to open a restaurant after finishing culinary school in the Atlanta area, Farley reached out and said he’d like to join up with her. The pair decided to open the restaurant together, Murrell said.
“I’m gonna be a little bit more at ease now that I have someone else in the kitchen with me and helping me,” Farley said. “We both put it together and make something beautiful.”
The restaurant is located at 3360 Buena Vista Road Suite #11 and will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday.
“(Diners) should expect southern cuisine and hospitality at its finest,” Murrell said.
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 6:00 AM.