For months, Gregory Dulan has lost sleep over his South Los Angeles soul food spot, Dulan’s on Crenshaw. In late August, he announced that his 33-year-old soul food restaurant was struggling and launched an online fundraiser to save it. Days after making a public plea for support, Dulan was met with an outpouring of it from the Los Angeles community and beyond.
Dulan tells Eater that in recent weeks, he’s met visitors from Bakersfield, Santa Clarita, and Palmdale; in late August, chef Roy Choi visited. Dulan’s on Crenshaw has been breaking projected food sales goals; Dulan has hired three new employees in recent weeks, and business is up more than 40 percent. “People are coming out,” he says. “I served a young lady from Russia and another from Argentina yesterday. We have a party of 100 coming, and I don’t know where I’m going to sit everyone.”
Dulan’s on Crenshaw is one of Southern California’s longest-running soul food restaurants. It opened in 1992, serving classic dishes like smothered pork chops, fried chicken, collard greens, and candied yams. Dulan was nominated by the James Beard Foundation for Outstanding Restaurateur in 2023. Throughout the decades, Dulan’s on Crenshaw has become an essential part of the neighborhood.
In 2018, the neighborhood around Dulan’s on Crenshaw was in the midst of a massive redevelopment as multiple projects broke ground at the Crenshaw Corridor (the slim stretch of Crenshaw Boulevard that meanders through West Adams, Baldwin Hills, and Leimert Park), including a new Metro line and the 1.3-mile-long open-air museum Destination Crenshaw. Dulan recalls housing and new developments being built at a rapid rate, which diminished street parking capacity, a crucial element for his restaurant and the neighborhood; Dulan says that 40 percent of his customers are seniors who drive. In 2020, Dulan hoped to secure a million-dollar facade improvement grant from city councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson’s district. He didn’t receive it, but realized that he needed to upgrade the dated interior…