Terry Faye’s has its own little corner of the soul food world
The Moodys keep ’em coming back for more
LANCASTER, Calif.—On the west side of Lancaster, on 15th Street near J-8, a family-run soul food spot is hidden in a corner of the sparsely populated Arroyo Plaza. Terry Faye’s Soul Food restaurant has kept its doors open for more than a year now, serving up some of the Valley’s best portions of smothered chicken, fried fish, ox tails, greens, macaroni and cheese, and signature potato salad.
Homemade red velvet and lemon cakes are delivered fresh and peach cobbler is always on hand.
Husband-and-wife owners Anthony and Terry Moody decided to go into business after a previous soul food restaurant in the same location was closing down.
Anthony has been cooking his secret recipes for more than 40 years. His career as a chef began in the late 1960s when he prepared meals for his Navy colleagues, and for years after that he continued to make mouths water and stomachs bulge from his dishes. But when he moved to the Antelope Valley, he couldn’t find a job as a chef, so he began selling cars.
I got away from cooking for a while, so I sold cars for a living. California is not good to many minority chefs,” he explained. “The opportunity came when the woman who owned the restaurant here was going back home to the South. I saw the need to keep it going.”
Since opening, the Moodys have developed quite a following. They’ve survived some of the worst economic times but still see the effects of the declining dollar. Unlike his dwindling competition, Anthony maintains that he knows the secret to longevity.
“The secret to my success is that you have to maintain good quality of food and it has to be consistent in taste and portion. That’s what people come back for,” he said.
In just the last 10 months, two soul food restaurants closed within weeks of opening. According to reviews from local residents, food portions and taste weren’t consistent at either location, both of which were located also in Lancaster.
Without naming any names, one spot had a great gimmick, but everyday it seemed the recipes changed.
Terry Faye’s does indeed maintain good taste and sizable portions with reasonable prices. There is something for everyone: fried and baked chicken, pork flavored greens and vegetarian green beans.
Despite the strange location in the corner of a ghost town-like plaza, the Moodys keep the good food coming, the fabulous customer service flowing, and customers coming back for more.
Terry’s Faye’s is located at 43937 15th St W, Lancaster, Calif. (661) 942-5200.
“A single bracelet does not jingle”—proverb, Congo
Yams, rice, corn, black-eyed peas, peanuts, okra, melon and other crops came to America hundreds of years ago, because slave traders shipped their human cargo complete with their native cuisine, in order to keep them alive.
Later, on plantations where the master ate the bacon, ham and sausage from “high on the hog,” slaves were given the fattier parts of the pig. And while the folks in the big house ate turnips, the slaves got the tougher greens.
The A.V. community showed up hungry and in a festive mood for the annual Juneteenth celebration at Jackie Robinson Park in Sun Village last weekend. Presented by Friends of Jackie Robinson Park and Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation, the event was billed as a “weekend of unity, sun, music, faith, food, and love.”
