After Expanding His Soul Food Venture To Detroit, Former NBA Player Kevin Johnson Already Has Plans To Add 10 More Locations

Kevin Johnson’s food venture is rapidly growing.

As AFROTECH™ previously told you, the former NBA player who made headlines for becoming the first Black mayor of Sacramento, CA, is the founder of a restaurant venture named Fixins Soul Kitchen. He opened the first location in that very city, which is also his hometown, in 2019, notes Eater Detroit.

“I grew up in Oak Park, so that was the poor part of the city of Sacramento, and like every city around the country, it was the underserved community,” Johnson told Eater. “I wanted to do our first Fixins in that neighborhood to prove that we could be successful in the neighborhood I grew up in.”

Fixins Soul Kitchen has expanded and now has four locations in the following areas:

• Sacramento, CA (Oak Park)
• Los Angeles, CA (LA Live)
• Tulsa, OK (Black Wall Street)
• Detroit, MI (Paradise Valley)

The restaurant’s menu items were inspired by various soul food spots over the course of a year, which he visited with his wife, Michelle. As a result, Fixins Soul Kitchen offers gumbo, smothered pork chops, fried chicken, oxtail, shrimp and grits, and sides such as charred okra, red beans and rice, and cornbread muffins, per the restaurant’s website.

Johnson hopes to reach more communities looking ahead, with plans to add 10 more locations in cities including Harlem, NY; Atlanta, GA; Baltimore, MD; Denver, CO; and Oakland, CA, mentions Eater Detroit.

In the meantime, he is placing energy towards his most recent location in Detroit.

“We’re a cool neighborhood, A. B) We’re in a cool neighborhood where an African American owns the building as a developer and architect. C) We’re in a Black neighborhood that is doing all this cool stuff in an African American city. There’s just so much momentum, [and] I feel like the African American community is benefiting, too, in a real way, in an intentional way. For us to be a part of the resurgence in Paradise Valley is just very special,” Johnson said, according to the outlet. “The people of Detroit are just so welcoming. It feels like Detroit is made up of obviously Midwest, but Southern roots, and a little bit of New York. It’s a great vibe.”