Black Woman Entrepreneur Kimberly Velazco on Building a Legacy
5.03.2021
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LISC StoriesEconomic Development
Kimberly Velazco grew up watching her grandmother, Alice, feed her community.
From as early as she can remember, she would stand at her grandma’s hip, enamored as she stirred a pot of gumbo for hours at a time and welcomed friends and family into the house for home cooked meals and vibrant conversation.
“There was just so much depth and love to her storytelling that went with her food that I was just entranced with – as a child, I would rather stay in the kitchen with her than go outside and play with my friends,” said Kimberly. “And as I got even older, and I started to learn to make these foods myself, I could then start to understand exactly what it meant to her to feed people and to share your love, through a plate or bowl or pot of gumbo in particular.”
Today, Kimberly is the founder and owner of Alice’s Southern Comfort, a restaurant which she describes as a “love letter” to her grandmother. After years of hosting annual gumbo parties for her friends, family, and neighbors, Kimberly saw how deeply her grandmother’s recipes resonated with the people in her community. With her existing network of support, Kimberly took the next step of opening Alice’s Southern Comfort in order to bring those recipes – as well as the stories, culture, and community that came with them – to Southern California.
Kimberly Velazco, her two children, and her grandmother Alice.
This Mother’s Day, LISC LA is honored to celebrate and uplift Kimberly’s journey as she continues her grandmother’s legacy. As a Black, woman-owned business, Alice’s Southern Comfort is not just a love letter to Alice, but to the experiences, stories, and family recipes of Black women across Los Angeles and beyond.
“Especially as a Black woman, my grandmother would always tell me “never let them see you sweat” – you’re not trying to prove yourself, because you’ve got this, but take that and leverage it and show them who you are,” said Kimberly. “Show them how strong we as Black women are and can be, not just through adversity but through success as well.”
Restaurants like Alice’s Southern Comfort have unique power within our communities to build bridges between people, inspire storytelling between generations, and facilitate equitable economic development in local neighborhoods. It’s businesses like these that LISC LA is grateful to highlight as part of our Black Economic Development Agenda, which empowers Black owned businesses and focuses resources on closing the racial wealth gap.
Alice was the daughter of a sharecropper and a homemaker. Now a mother to two boys, Kimberly cherishes the stories of her grandmother’s history – both hardship and success – in making her food and sharing those stories today.
“It's the history of my grandmother and many other Black grandmothers that have laid these foundations for us to continue to thrive,” said Kimberly. “It all starts as a five year old literally standing at my grandmother’s hip watching her make a roux, wondering why she’s standing there for an hour and a half just stirring this pot and she has not moved. And I get it now – now my boys wonder the same thing, and I tell them ‘pull up a chair, let’s take a look, let’s talk’. And now they’re learning the same, to keep the legacy going.”
Kimberly's gumbo, as served at Alice's Southern Comfort.
In addition to her work running Alice’s Southern Comfort, Kimberly is currently collaborating with Regarding Her, which is a new organization whose mission is to highlight and support women owned resturant businesses. Equipped with her experience in the non-profit and philanthropic fields, she has been working with the organization as a consultant, where she said her passions collide to support non-profit organizing in addition to building community through food.
This Mother’s Day and every day, LISC LA celebrates Kimberly, her grandmother, and Black, women-owned businesses across Los Angeles, for doing the work of building community and creating economic resiliency locally and nationally.
“I’m very, very proud of her legacy and where I’m taking it, and I’m super proud of the Black woman I have become,” said Kimberly. “With Alice’s Southern Comfort, I’m thrilled to keep these pots going and share this space with the world in any way I can.”
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