Mary Ellen’s: Food for the Soul honors owner’s late mother featuring her recipes

Celebrating Black-Owned businesses in Lincoln for Black History Month

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Charles Phillips started a food truck in 2017 to honor his late mother, Mary Ellen; he has since expanded to a full sized restaurant near 27th and Pine Lake Road.

“It’s food for the soul,” that’s what owner and pitmaster Charles Phillips calls the food at Mary Ellen’s, and when you taste the food, you understand what that means.

“I basically just started cooking her recipes just to kind of keep her thoughts and memories close and it kind of morphed into a food truck where I just got out and found a spot on 29th and Cornhusker and I basically just sat out there and cooked,” said Charles.

The only publicity he and his now-wife, Sunya Phillips, had was word of mouth to grow the business and because of that, they realized something.

“Like I love my mom’s food I found out a lot of people in Lincoln and the surrounding areas love her food as well,” said Charles.

After nearly three years with the food truck, Charles and Sunya added a sit-down restaurant during the heart of the pandemic in 2020.  Even despite the struggles from the pandemic, they are still thriving.  Charles says it was his mom’s personality when asked why people love the restaurant.  He said his mom was the kind of person to invite a stranger off the street inside the house and feed them a meal.

The food at Mary Ellen’s is all thanks to Charles’ and Sunya’s family recipes.

“A lot of the smothered potatoes, the baked beans, the potato salad, all those are my family recipes,” said Sunya.

With all those different recipes the menu changes daily.  Today they had fried hot butter chicken, made with a blend of spices and hot sauce; fried catfish, which one guest said was the best-fried fish he’s had in a long time; and of course Sunya’s famous baked beans.

The duo believes it’s the spirit of Mary Ellen that gives them the dedication to continue the business.

“It’s the reason why we have so much passion and we really love it, because it’s Mary Ellen’s, it’s my mom,” said Charles.

After closing time, they don’t just clean up and go home.  They go next door to the new event space they just acquired and continue work and finish the last details together.

The new event space is called “A Suite.”

The hope is it becomes a destination for people to host medium-sized get-togethers for office parties, wedding rehearsal dinners, and other parties.

They will open the new space on Valentine’s day for a special dinner with live music, a full bar, and desserts made by another Black-Owned business, Sweet Things by Marcy.

The event is reservation-only and space is limited; you can reserve a spot online or send them message them on Facebook.