FROM LEFT: REKA’S DAUGHTER JAZLYNN MITCHELL, ARTHUR WHITE AND REKA WHITE
At The Kitchen, Reka White’s role is… everything. At Reka’s family restaurant she does it all–accounts payable, waitress, chef, bus girl. “I’m a jack of all trades,” she says. She’s also next in line. Her 69-year-old father, Arthur White, opened The Kitchen 23 years ago but his story in food started long before.
At nine-years-old Arthur worked in his uncle’s meat market on Shattuck Street. It was an early baptism into the industry before he went to work at Market Basket, eventually stepping away to build something of his own.
These days on most mornings you can find him in the kitchen right alongside his daughter. He arrives by 6 am and gets to work.
“I learned how to cook from my dad,” Reka says. “And how to cook big portions.”
Food trends come and go, but the folks at The Kitchen have managed to stay rooted in something simpler—consistency.
“My dad is big on everything tasting the same every single time,” Reka says. “If I try to switch something up, he’ll say something.”
That dedication shows up in the food and people they serve—plate lunches where regulars usually don’t even have to order.
“They just sit down,” she says. “I know their name, what they’re eating, what they’re drinking.”
The menu rotates daily throughout the week. One day customers have meatball stew or pork roast to look forward to, while the next is a seafood plate or slow-cooked oxtails. The oxtails are a favorite—fried down first, then simmered in a rich, homemade gravy until they’re fall-off-the-bone delicious.
“You can eat them with a spoon,” Reka says. Everything on the menu is made the right way.
“People don’t believe we have a real smokehouse,” she says. “They think we bake our barbecue. But no—we barbecue everything.” The restaurant has smokehouse in the back which churns out legitimate barbecue weekly. After our interview Reka suggested I take home some barbecue ribs. They were tender and flavorful. Turns out you can eat the ribs with a spoon, too.
On Fridays, the fried fish and shrimp plates take over. Catfish is coated in seasoned cornmeal and flour, fried until golden and crispy, while jumbo shrimp are butterflied, battered, and cooked crunch perfection. Each plate comes piled high with classic sides like fries or potato salad. And homemade dessert and cornbread are always included.
Then there’s the meatball stew—a newer addition that quickly became a staple. The meatballs are made from scratch, rolled by hand, fried, and then slow-cooked in gravy with potatoes. “It’s just good, home-cooked food,” she says. It is, indeed.
The restaurant isn’t just a business—it’s a family operation through and through. Reka’s cousin handles daily deliveries to Westlake Chemical, where they send out 30 to 40 plates each weekday. Another relative helps in the kitchen. Even Reka’s kids pitch in during school breaks—working the register, serving customers, and learning the ropes from the ground up.
“I make them start in the back,” she says. “Washing dishes, cutting potatoes—you’ve got to learn everything.”
At home, Rekia has already stepped into another role once held by her father. “I’m the one doing the holiday cooking now,” she says. “I took the torch.”
For Rekia, stepping into the family business wasn’t just about legacy—it was about balance.
After years working in a plant, she found herself missing important family moments. “I couldn’t get my kids to practices or games,” she says. “Now, I can do all of that and still be here.”
Every morning she’s able to drop her kids off at school before meeting her dad at the restaurant around 7:30. She bakes the cakes and cornbread from scratch daily, helps her dad tie up any loose ends and then the pair open the doors at 10:30. After the lunch rush she’s able to clean up, close up and pick up her kids from school. It’s a work life balance she says was only a dream in her previous work.
“The balance is perfect,” she says.
When asked what she hopes people take away after visiting The Kitchen, her answer is simple: “Everything is made with love, home cooked.”
It’s a philosophy that’s been passed down from her father—and one she’s clearly carrying forward. Reka hasn’t quite taken over at the restaurant; her father’s not ready to hang up his knives just yet. But when the time comes? The Kitchen is in really good hands.
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