By Cliff Lewis

If you love Lancaster City life, visit every shop on the Downtown strip, and faithfully art-walk every First Friday, odds are you still haven’t been to this place. The Brothers and Sisters Café quaintly sits on a far Southeastern edge of Lancaster City, where the lines begin to blur between the city and the County Central Park. It’s a friendly place to find top-notch Southern-style soul food at a reasonable price. To say that it gives KFC a run for its money would be a serious understatement.

The restaurant is owned and operated by Willie and Frances Morant, both natives of South Carolina. In 1998, the couple opened up shop, calling their new restaurant the “Brothers and Sisters Café” to set the tone of “unity among family, friends and loved ones—a feeling Brothers and Sisters desires to offer its customers each time they walk through the door.”

The name is fitting. Just upon walking through the doors, one can recognize the casual and family-like atmosphere. It’s like swinging by an aunt and uncle’s place for Sunday dinner. Frances ran the front counter, and Willie worked back in the kitchen—but he made sure to stroll over to chat with the visiting patrons.

The home-cooked food is generous and authentic: perfect fried chicken, sweet and buttery yams, loaded collared greens, fried rice, black-eyed peas, and a whole lot more. All of this food is available a la carte or at the café’s all-you-can-eat lunch buffet (which rings in at a thrifty $7). Brothers and Sisters also caters all sorts of special events; and right now, Morant says, they’re booked solid.

The Brothers and Sister’s Café is located at 601 S Marshall St, and is open Thursday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.