Ask Julia Broome to name her favorite dish on her restaurant’s menu, and she thinks for a moment.
“It’s the crispy chicken wings in honey garlic,” she said. “They’re sticky, sweet and spicy.”
She pauses. Or maybe it’s the crock of baked mac and cheese blanketed in creamy cheddar.
“I have that too often,” she admitted.
Having to pick the perfect comfort food at Kin Hospitality LLC – which does business as Kin Southern Table + Bar – is an occupational hazard for Broome, who launched her 50-seat celebration of Southern cooking in Providence during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.
Broome grew up on Providence’s south side, in a blended family where both her parents loved cooking.
“I was an only child on my mom’s side,” she said. “I was spoiled.”
Her grandfather was also a cook, on a U.S. Navy ship, then later as a chef at the University of Rhode Island’s Alton Jones campus in West Greenwich.
“Cooking brought our family together,” she said.
Along with a love of food, being an entrepreneur was part of Broome’s DNA.
“I was selling lemonade and popcorn when I was a kid,” she said. “When my cousin was at college, I sold cookies to him and his football team. I told him to cough up some money.”
After graduating from Classical High School, she headed to Boston University for a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration with a marketing concentration.
“I wanted to have a fun college experience and get away from my family, but not too far. BU is a big campus and I got a great financial package,” Broome said.
She also made it onto the track and field team doing shot put, which she’d loved at Classical. At BU, however, she started focusing on a professional degree. During her four years in college, she held down a marketing internship and a part-time job at a bookstore under Kenmore Square’s famous Citgo sign, while handling work-study and a full class load.
“I threw myself into work and haven’t stopped,” she said.
After graduation in 2009, Broome worked in marketing and event planning in Boston. Her favorite job was at the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, where she promoted the city as a destination to meeting and convention planners. She liked telling out-of-towners the great things they could do.
“I met so many entrepreneurs who were passionate about everything they did,” she said. “It was inspiring to be around that energy.”
Later, as a manager, Broome launched the banquet sales department at the Plainridge Park Casino, in Plainville, Mass., when it opened in 2015. She booked corporate and social events, promoted the casino at wedding and food shows, and hired and trained banquet and restaurant staff.
“I was involved on a grand scale,” she said. “It gave me the confidence to go from zero dollars revenue to half a million dollars two years later. I thought if I can do it with someone else’s money, I could do it on my own.”
From there, she moved to account manager at Global Experience Specialists, a company that plans and organizes clients’ trade shows and other large events. Three years later, when COVID-19 temporarily ended large conventions, Broome lost her job.
“From the time I was little, I’ve known I wanted to have a restaurant,” she said. “I thought of it as a retirement project. When the shutdown happened, I realized we couldn’t have conferences for a while, but I knew I’d keep eating. I decided to make an ideal restaurant as a project. I was home alone and brainstormed the idea of Kin. It helped me not get depressed when I was missing everyone.”
Broome bought erase boards and Post-its then devised a spreadsheet and sketched out a menu of Southern favorites such as blackened salmon, shrimp po boys and banana pudding. She dubbed her project Kin, with its suggestion of family. She pinned her ideas around her living room, creating a vibe that promises an intimate dinner with friends and close relatives, then took her business plan to the Rhode Island Small Business Development Center. The center fine-tuned it and declared it great, she says.
“Thinking about it now gets me teary-eyed,” she said.
Coming up with the Southern food theme was instinctive.
“I get that from my mom,” Broome said. “She fries chicken more often than anyone should. These are dishes I grew up with. As a young woman of color, I’d find collard greens, candied sweet potatoes and cornbread at a Southern backyard barbecue. They’re main staples. Everyone brings their best dish.”
They’re now on the menu at the restaurant, which Broome manages six days a week. She’s also back at her remote job at Global Experience Specialists, designing exhibit booths and finding venues for clients.
