The following is an extended version of the article that appears in our May 2025 issue.
Hot and new can steal the spotlight, but what about longstanding local favorites? Each month, we’ll visit a Richmond-area restaurant that has been in business 15 years or longer.
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Family Secrets owner Reggie Littleton
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Family Secrets’ jumbo chicken wings
Since 2002, Reggie Littleton has been feeding Richmonders from his Southern food staple Family Secrets like, well, family. “I always wanted to start a Black-owned neighborhood restaurant, everyday cooking where you could go to a place and eat home-cooked meals.”
Those signature dishes include jumbo chicken wings, wood-smoked North Carolina barbecue (Littleton grew up spending summers on a family farm in Rocky Mount) and, according to the proprietor, the most pigs’ feet sold on the East Coast.
Since opening, Littleton has stayed focused on the community. “I work with ex-convicts, nonviolent, non-sex offenders; I’m giving them an opportunity and a chance.” Additionally, he works to lift up the next generation of chefs, taking on apprentices from Richmond Technical Center’s culinary arts program.
The Thomas Jefferson High School grad has also made a name for himself in the catering world, preparing meals for everyone from entertainers to governors. “They consider me the godfather of the soul food restaurants in Richmond,” Littleton says. “In my opinion, soul food is taking something not that expensive and making it taste good. That was the biggest thing, and keeping the cost down. Southern doesn’t have to be fried and smothered in gravy. We have something for everybody that you can eat every day.”
Originally located on North Avenue, followed by a move to Brookland Park Boulevard, Family Secrets is currently at 7103 Brook Road, its largest space to date. Littleton says he wants folks to feel at home coming to Family Secrets. The name is a nod to the notion that, as he sees it, “Everybody has some secret family recipe, some staple. You can come here once or twice a week and don’t break the bank; and it’s comfort. If you come here, you’ll feel the energy.”
