Kelly Rowland Reminisces on 'Delicious' Houston Restaurant She Frequented with Destiny's Child (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Kelly Rowland.Photo:Pepsi

Pepsi

ForKelly Rowland, home is where the food is.

Some of the Grammy winner’s best memories of growing up in Texas include enjoying meals atHouston This Is It Soul Food, where she felt like a family member. Now, she’s teaming up with Pepsi to highlight the spot as part of the beverage brand’s new Local Eats Better with Pepsi program.

“This Is It has so many memories in my heart that I share with my oldest son to this day,” Rowland, 43, tells PEOPLE. “The owner, Mr. Craig [Joseph], would come around asking anybody if they needed anything. It was the personal experience that you got. It was the fact that this Black business owner had this establishment that made people feel so loved, so seen and, of course, fed them beautifully.”

Kelly Rowland.Barry Brecheisen/Getty

Barry Brecheisen/Getty

“It was more so about fellowship than anything,” recalls Rowland. “We were coming from church, so we were talking about so many different things under the sun, but it was usually about what we heard at church and just silly things and being kids because we were kids at that time.”

Destiny’s Child.FrankMicelotta/ImageDirect/Getty

FrankMicelotta/ImageDirect/Getty

As part of the Local Eats Better with Pepsi program, theMea Culpastar wants others to enjoy one of her favorite This Is It meals — peppered steak with rice and gravy, green beans, peach cobbler and a fountain Pepsi. It is being sold for $15 at the eatery’s two Houston locations from Aug. 27 through Sept. 24.

“Everything in This Is It is absolutely delicious, but this particular meal, the green beans remind me of my mother, the peppered steak with rice and gravy just is warm and full of love, and the peach cobbler is an out-of-body experience,” says Rowland. “You chase it all down with a really cold Pepsi, and it’s just incredible.”

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Kelly Rowland.Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images

Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images

Rowland recently filmed her own commercial at This Is It for the campaign, and the experience brought back fond memories. “I was literally transported when I tasted that peach cobbler all over again. It’s been years since I had it. My eyes rolled in the back of my head,” she says.

About three decades into her career, the chart-topping musician, actress and mother of two has branched out into other areas of the entertainment industry, from judging reality singing competition shows to writing books. Would she ever open her own restaurant?

Kelly Rowland.Jerod Harris/WireImage

Jerod Harris/WireImage

“I thought about opening a breakfast restaurant, but I quickly changed my mind after I told my friends what the title would be,” says Rowland with a chuckle, before revealing the hilarious prospective name: “Morning Wood.”

“I was going to literally design the whole place in this beautiful wood, and it was going to be gorgeous,” she explains. “They were like, ‘Kelly, no.’ I said, ‘I’m just saying, you can make really cute, sexy puns like ‘bottomless mimosas’ and stuff like that.’ They were like, ‘Oh, please don’t do this.'”

Morning Wood may not be coming anytime soon, but Rowland has lots of respect for anyone in the business of dining. “I admire my friends who do have restaurants. It’s so much work, but it also takes passion,” she adds. “It sounds like a wonderful business.”

source: people.com