Greg Brown has always been into eating healthful foods and working out. He eventually became a vegetarian, cooking meatless meals that became part of the catering company he formed in 2004.
Now, Brown and fhis ianc� Naijha Wright are taking the soy rib tips, collard greens seasoned with smoked tofu and soy curry chicken to a new restaurant called
Land of Kush. The 1,200-square-foot business will open at 840 N. Eutaw Street Aug. 1.
The pair spent about $55,000 to start the 20-seat restaurant.
Brown began selling vegetarian food when a friend was searching for a caterer to serve meatless meals at Jazzy Summer Nights, the downtown music event formerly held on the first Thursday of each month.
Though it ended last year, the event gave Brown a small but loyal following of fans. He says he would often sell out of food there and at another summer event, Artscape.
Land of Kush will serve a mix of Southern soul-style cooking and ethnic foods, the tofu and soy mimicking Vietnamese, Indian and West Indian flavors. "I have friends from different cultural backgrounds and that's the kind of restaurant I want to open," Brown says.
He chose the Mount Vernon neighborhood for his new restaurant because the area's diverse mix of residents."I like just walking in that area," Brown says.
The neighborhood is also home to Maryland General Hospital and various state office buildings, whose workers will hopefully patronize the Land of Kush, he says.
Brown expects area residents and students from the University of Baltimore and the Maryland Institute College of Art to become customers, given the restaurant's low prices. Sandwiches will cost around $5 while dinner entrees will cost about $10.
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Mt. Vernon.
Source: Greg Brown, Land of Kush
Writer: Julekha Dash