FSR May 2023

KANDI BURRUSS

RE A LI TY RE S TA U RA NT FROM TO

KANDI BURRUSS is a Grammy Award– winning songwriter. She’s starred on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” for more than 13 years, won Fox’s “The Masked Singer,” and appeared on CBS’s ”Big Brother.” She’s the owner of Kandi Koated Entertainment, Bedroom Kandi, and Kandi Koated Cosmetics. She’s a producer in television, film, and on Broadway. But none of those ventures compare—at least in terms of difficulty— to what she and husband Todd Tucker have experienced while running Atlanta culinary staples, Old Lady Gang and Blaze Steak & Seafood. "I always tell people that the restaurant industry is the hardest business that I've ever been a part of ever in my life," Burruss says. "There are a lot of things that we had to learn and that we are still learning." The idea to enter the food and beverage space came from Tucker, who fondly remembers Sunday dinners with Burruss’s family at her aunt Ber tha’s house. They would enjoy "amazing feasts of Southern cuisine," hang out, and play Pokeno and Tonk. The gathering was routine for Burruss. But for Tucker, a Bronx, New York, native, it was an immersive, Southern expe rience of family and friends that he wasn’t used to in the Northeast. "It felt like Thanksgiving, but every Sunday," Tucker says. "So then I was like, ‘Man, we should recreate this and let other people have this same feeling.’" BY BEN COLEY

‘Real Housewives’ star, award winning songwriter, and entrepreneur Kandi Burruss is making her mark on the Atlanta dining scene—and doing it with her signature flair.

MAY 2023 35

FSRMAGAZINE.COM