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A falafel bowl from Soul N’ Vinegar
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Soul N’ Vinegar’s new shop is double the size of its previous building.
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Window seating at Soul N’ Vinegar
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The dining area inside Soul N’ Vinegar can seat about 20-30 guests.
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Spring rolls served with housemade chile oil from Soul N’ Vinegar
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Michelle Parrish at the original Soul N’ Vinegar in 2019
Sometimes life presents us with a blessing in disguise. For the Church Hill North food shop Soul N’ Vinegar, that blessing was catering.
The less glamorous and often overshadowed facet of the dining industry helped the business stay afloat in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic while connecting it with the community since its opening nearly five years ago. Catering has also been the major catalyst for expanding Soul N’ Vinegar from its original space, a converted 572-square-foot brick studio apartment at 2832 R St.
Nearly two years after pausing public operations and signing a lease at a new building in mid-2021, the fast-casual, health-conscious eatery is open to walk-in customers again, now at 2910 Q St.
“I feel excited, like, OK, this is our spot now,” owner Michelle Parrish says of the reopening.
Launching Soul N’ Vinegar in 2018, the name an homage to her African American and Korean ancestry and cooking roots, Parrish says that when she decided to open the business, she didn’t realize the vital role catering would play in its growth.
“When I opened the shop … I thought, I’ll do catering, but I had never worked for a catering business, and now 100% of our revenue is catering,” Parrish says.
A month into the pandemic, Parrish says she received a phone call from a cargo airline company looking for catering seven days a week, twice a day. She thought it was a scam, but it turned out to be the real deal. Soul N’ Vinegar has been partnering with the company ever since.
“A lot of times, people just don’t think about their impact on other things, but this airline thing is huge for us. ... The whole point in us having recurring clients is what makes it so we didn’t have to depend on people walking through the door,” Parrish says.
Having a steady client base has also given Parrish and her partner, William Rimmell, formerly of Lemaire and Shagbark, the flexibility to offer a sliding scale to catering clients in terms of pricing.
“Probably 80 to 90% of our clients are nonprofits,” Parrish says. “We work with Art 180, Oakwood Arts, Robinson Street Theater, Church Hill Activities and Tutoring. … They’re people who don’t have a lot of money, but they’re people that deserve nice catering.”
Around the corner from the former building, and nearly double in size, the new digs will grant the small crew adequate space to continue catering operations, while providing a casual dining area for guests.
Inside, the Church Hill North cafe is dotted with two-top tables, and there is a cozy nook with window seating and plenty of plants. The menu features a blackened shrimp bowl with cilantro rice, chipotle sauce, crispy tortilla strips, red cabbage slaw and black beans; a falafel bowl featuring cucumbers, pickled beets, hummus, chickpea fritter patties and a zippy, tangy green sauce; a turkey sandwich; and carrot-ginger and sweet potato soups. Sides include southern collard greens, honey-butter cornbread and housemade focaccia. Patrons can always expect a handful of fresh baked goods from chocolate chip cookies to gluten-free banana-walnut bread, and Soul N’ Vinegar staples such as Bangin’ Pimento Cheese and spring rolls with housemade chile oil will be stocked in the cold case.
The beverage lineup includes the On Vacation smoothie with pineapple, coconut, passionfruit, lime, kefir, flax seeds and hemp hearts; espresso drinks; Thai iced coffee; Blanchard’s drip coffee; and Ninja Kombucha.
With the new shop situated in the ground floor of a mixed-used development, Parrish hopes tenants from the attached apartments and other neighbors, many of whom have been peeping their heads in to check on the progress, will become regulars.
“Now this is me testing things out, me learning, and this is like my school, figuring out how to run this business, how to enter different fields,” she says, “so we’re just going to open these doors and do everything we can to succeed.”
Soul N’ Vinegar is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
