Move over soft pretzels and pizza slices.
Gator bites, fried chitterlings and conch fritters — not the typical mall food found here in Connecticut — is now offered at the Meriden Mall.
The recently opened We T.H.E.M. Boyz — A Taste of Florida is bringing Southern soul food to the mall at the food court on the second floor.
There’s a gator tail dinner with fried alligator meat and two sides on the menu. Shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes, collard greens and fried okra are also offered, according to the We T.H.E.M. Boyz website. Sweet potato souffle, sweet potato bread and mac and cheese are also served.
The new eatery joins Moz Pizza & Grinders in the food court and is one of only two food vendors in the mall, according to restaurant owner Rhonda Jones, a native Floridian.
Jones relocated to Connecticut earlier this summer, moving from a “little country town,” Oakland, Fla., before coming to Middletown, where she lives now.
“There’s not very much here,” Jones said about her new location at the mall, which was down to 16 tenants at the beginning of the year and at one point housing up to 141 tenants.
But that doesn’t discourage her, Jones said, adding “I get a lot of business. When I came here, I came with a plan already.”
Jones held a soft opening in mid-August and a grand opening Sept. 5 and customers were lining up, she said.
“I have several people saying they’ve been waiting on me for years,” she said about patrons, some who travel from as far as Ledyard, Plainville, Naugatuck and Manchester.
Oxtail dinners and gator bites, made from alligator meat she sources from Florida and Louisianna are “really, really popular here,” she said.
Jones named the restaurant after the Dallas Cowboys’ rallying cry “We Dem Boyz” as she is a “diehard, forever fan,” she said.
Her soul food place was “born from a deep love for the vibrant culinary heritage of the Sunshine State,” Jones said on the website. Every dish, she said, is “a testament to traditional Floridian soul food recipes, passed down through generations.”
Hours are Monday — Thursday, 11 a.m. — 9 p.m., Friday — Saturday, 11 a.m. — 10 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 8 p.m. She posts daily menus on her Facebook page We Them Boyz A Taste Of Florida.
Dining and Cooking