Page 52 - Lets Make Waves December 2018

By: Tom Valliere & Charlie Bresenhan

Highlighting small family-owned neighborhood restaurants and food trucks
Not content, Ouida wanted more of a future
for her and her child. She remembered the
summers she spent as a child with her grand-
mother in Mississippi and the delicious food
her grandmother prepared and decided she
wanted a career in food service. With few re-
sources and encouragement from her father,
Ouida bought the ingredients for meatloaf and made 16 plates
that sold out within a couple of hours. In Ouida’s words
“Galveston was a place of refuge for me and I stayed here be-
cause I felt it was what God wanted me to do. It’s about dreams
Soul 2 Soul Café and about some folks spending their entire life’s savings to try to
make those dreams come true”.

“What are you waiting for?”
L

ocated just a few blocks from
the crowded Strand tourist area,
this small restaurant has made a
big splash in the Galveston din-
ing scene. Filling a vacuum for down
home slow cooked southern favorites,
lines now form daily as locals and visitors Heaping plates of aromatic and creative food attest to those
gather to share some of the best and most dreams coming true. A small menu of regular dishes is supple-
unique food on the island. As remarkable as the food is, the mented by a rotating series of daily specials. Notable dishes in-
story behind the owner is even more remarkable.
clude Oida’s fried ribs which are delicious beyond description
and soul favorites like meatloaf, oxtails, smothered chops and a
host of side dishes.
Line up at the counter, place your order, grab a table and drink
and prepare for some of the best home cooking you have ever
experienced.

Soul 2 Soul is open 6 days a week Monday – Friday 11AM to
4PM and Saturday noon to 4PM.
Ouida Cook did not start out in the res-
Ouida Cook did not start out in the res-
taurant business. She was the finance
taurant business. She was the finance
director of a non profit agency when Soul 2 Soul Café
director of a non profit agency when
hurricane Ike left her unemployed,
homeless and the mother of a young
child. Not willing to concede defeat, she 3104 Market Street
found a job at the local county tax office Galveston Texas 77550
and would walk her and her baby to day- 409-539-4351
care and to work each day. wwwSoul2SoulGalveston.com

52 | Waves Magazine | December 2018 Issue