New restaurant bringing taste of Southern comfort food to Apex

APEX, N.C. (WTVD) -- A brand-new black-owned business opens in Apex on Friday. The restaurant named Monifa's Southern Food will be opening and serving up Southern-style fare.

" Fried chicken, fried fish, fried pork chop, baked chicken; we have chopped BBQ collard greens," said owner Zane Marks.

The restaurant is a soul-food lover's dream coming to southern Wake County.

"We decided that we were kind of looking for somewhere there wasn't that much Southern food and when we did our research, they started telling us there was nothing around here, and it's just us in Apex," said co-owner Akilah Marks.

Zane fixes up the homestyle food straight from his heart.

"For me, it's like a comfort food. Anytime I eat or am around it, it makes me think of home," said Zane.

Opening a new business has not been easy for the two owners.

"We are just waiting for everything to come in. We were supposed to be done last week, and we are still waiting for stuff. Some stuff is not even going to be here when we open our doors," said Akilah.

But the support, Akilah said, is empowering, and the reason why is what pushes them toward being a better community

"It's not just the people in Apex, everyone is supporting us because they're saying there's been nothing like this. So, everyone is just coming in and reaching out and it's really amazing," Akilah said.

Zane added: "We want to bring everybody together we want anybody to try it, we want everybody to try it and for us, that's where we have most of our fun at."

Despite all of their challenges, they will be opening right at 11 a.m. for the grand opening Friday. The restaurant is at 841 Perry Road in Apex.