Frenchy's & Houston Soul Food

Houston's Black neighborhoods — the historic Third Ward above all — have fed the city with a soul-food tradition that runs deep and delicious, seasoned with Louisiana Creole spice carried in by generations who moved west along the Gulf. It's a cuisine of Sunday tables and corner joints: fried chicken with a peppery crust, smothered pork chops, oxtails, greens cooked low and slow, red beans and rice, and desserts your grandmother would recognize. This drive traces the anchors of that tradition, from the spot where a New Orleans transplant named Frenchy Creuzot started frying chicken in the late 1960s to modern soul-food rooms that carry the flame forward. Several of these places have moved or expanded over the years, so it's worth confirming hours before you go. Come with an appetite, and treat the Third Ward stops as more than a meal — they're part of the living history of Black Houston.