BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Down on Hertel Avenue is a restaurant that has been bringing soul food cuisine to the Queen City for the last seven years.
Owner of Je Ne Sais Quoi, Gwendalina Ingram, opened the restaurant with her husband in February 2016.
Originally opening, on Jefferson Avenue, the couple expanded to Hertel from having 22 seats to 120 seats.
With a restaurant that has been in the community for seven years, it of course comes with favorite dishes.
"It's needed. It represents where we've come from. I cook summery cuisines; collards greens, pinto beans, fried chicken, the pork chops, spare ribs. It's what my momma used to cook," Je Ne Sais Quoi owner, Gwendalina Ingram shared with 7 News' Pheben Kassahun. "Most people love the fried chicken and they call it the greaseless fried chicken, actually."
The name was inspired by a colleague at a 5-star restaurant she previously worked for.
"They made macaroni and cheese, and I said, 'Are you going to serve that?' They said yes, what would you different. So, I cooked macaroni and cheese the way I was taught to cook it. When he tasted it, he said it had a certain 'Je Ne Sais Quoi'. I said, 'What does that mean?' He said to go home and study it. Come back tomorrow and we'll talk about it, and I loved what it meant."
The French phrase translates to "an indescribable elegance", and that is exactly the atmosphere that she has tried to create.
Less than six miles south, on Ellicott Street sits a another Black owned restaurant, called Brothers Restaurant and Bar with a different vibe. but the same delicious taste.
Brothers Restaurant and Bar co-owner and chef, Romone Anderson shared, "I like when people come here. It's just a different fit from what they get at a corporate restaurant, or an upscale restaurant. You get the home feel, you get the home cooked food like your grandmother used to do it, growing up as a kid."
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Romone Anderson and his brother Ronnie opened at the end of 2019, which was right before the pandemic.
"Honestly, starting in the pandemic, I believe it was like a newborn maybe that knew how to walk in six months because our business had grown and got extremely busy over a short period of time it was all take out," Anderson explained.
The brothers outgrew their original location on Hertel was a hit and expanded to their current space just over a year ago, cooking dish favorites for the greater Buffalo community.
Fried lobster and oxtails are customer favorites.
It is a dream turned into reality for both owners, and one they hope will continue on for years to come.
"I just love doing what I do. I'm living my dream. I'm living my dream," Ingram said.
