I love a good humid summer afternoon on the north side of Milwaukee, including the drive there. It usually means I am about to experience a part of the city I don’t usually get to, because my entire personal and professional world is a stretch of the south side that I rarely leave. In this instance, I am headed to 9207 W. Capitol Dr. to eat at Luxe Kitchen and soul food lounge, which hasn’t even been open for a full year at this point.
Luxe is the restaurant created by Katrina and Dan McHenry, who previously owned a food truck but decided to scale up to a brick and mortar on Milwaukee’s northwest side. Katrina used to park her food truck at a business park on Mill Road, where she worked until she decided to make a go of it in Milwaukee’s bustling food racket.
Soul food is a different kind of cuisine—almost all of the dishes taste like they have been made with the expert touch of someone who has made them a million times before. It is the only original American cuisine, made by generations of Black folk who had to make do early on with the scraps they were given. It then evolved into a certified culinary flag, planted in the ground of the antebellum South, which spread like wildfire. Often imitated but never duplicated, soul food is a statement made by the Black Americans who built the United States.
Katrina and Dan both sharpened their chops in their grandmothers’ and mothers’ kitchens, but at Luxe, it is Katrina who creates the recipes. Dan handles the business side of the venture and dabbles here and there in the cooking process.
“We are trying to get a bar put in here and I am hoping [Alderman] Lamont [Westmoreland] will grant us one. For now, we have these drinks that I myself created,” Dan tells me. Frozen hibiscus lemonades and slushes spin slowly behind him in the machines, giving the charge needed to compliment the meals made at Luxe.
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I had to give Luxe a try when my algorithm sent me pictures from their social media account. It did not disappoint in the slightest. The meal I ordered looked exactly like the photo. I ordered meatloaf with mashed potatoes, collard greens, and macaroni and cheese. I also ordered wings with a hot honey sauce that was incredibly balanced—the wings were fried and the sauce came on the side and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Dessert came in the form of a banana pudding made with Biscoff cookies.
In soul food culture, I understand that macaroni and cheese is the dish that is taken most seriously, and is the subject of heated contention between aunts and mothers at Thanksgiving and picnics. I have eaten my fair share and can honestly say the flavor is usually not the goal, because that is always spectacular. The goal is the consistency. Luxe has a very special mac and cheese, and when it’s mixed with the gravy from the meatloaf, it really does something to melt your brain.
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Before leaving, an older gentleman came in wearing a George Webb T-shirt, and he handed me his card. (The Luxe space was once home to a George Webb.) He said he made his own dishes as well, and was given permission to add to the menu at the George Webb franchise he owns on Oklahoma. “This is the only place I come and eat when I don’t make my own. It’s the best dressing in town,” he said. “What is dressing?” I asked, like a noob. He rubbed his chin. “It’s like what you all call stuffing,” he said.
Everything I ate was wonderful and had me feeling like I was going to burst. One word comes to mind when eating at Luxe: correct. The food tasted like it was supposed to. It was made correctly, lovingly, and by someone who probably makes her aunts stand down on the regular. She might not want trouble, so I doubt she would admit it.
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