DINING FEATURE
BY GRANT CRAWFORD
COMFORTABLE CREATIONS
Whip My Soul’s menu features a variety of wa e plates, 12-piece buckets of chicken or sh, dinner plates and sides.
Tanika Echols prepares greens in the kitchen of Whip My Soul.
• 3 wings, 3 sh or 3 tenders and wa e, $14.50 • 6 wings, 6 sh or 6 tenders and wa e, $21.75 • 7 shrimp & wa e, $17.99 Wa e plates • 3 wings, 3 sh or 3 tenders, $14.75 • 6 wings, 6 sh or 6 tenders, $21.75 • 7 fried shrimp, $19.50 • 1 lb. oxtails, $29.50 • Pork chop, $14.75 • Baked chicken, $17.50 Dinner plates (with 2 sides)
Tanika and Antonio Echols opened Whip My Soul in February 2022. (Photos by Grant Crawford/Community Impact)
Whip My Soul’s menu includes wings and wa es.
Customers at Whip My Soul will nd collard green egg rolls.
Whip My Soul Northwest Austin restaurant serves up homemade food W hen Antonio and Tanika
• Fried okra • Onion rings • Cheezy mac • Sweet glazed yams • Red beans and rice • Cornbread Sides ($1.25-$8)
• Sweet
buttery dinner rolls • Wa e fries • Hush puppies • Mean greens • Cheese grits
no stranger to preparing “big meals for big people and big families.” “I’m the go-to house for meals, for barbecues, for Christmas, for Thanksgiving and for all the holidays,” she said. “So it wasn’t hard to get in here and come up with something.” The family has owned restau- rants and bakeries in the past. In their new venture at Whip My Soul, they have relied mainly on word-of-mouth advertising. Now, patrons will nd a packed house during the weekends, Antonio said, adding that customers appreciate the extra care each meal receives. “There’s a huge di erence between a fast-food restaurant and a soul food restaurant,” he said. “The main di erence is each dish is made individually. Your food is going to be hot and fresh.”
met in 2000. So when it came time to construct a menu for their new restaurant, it was obvious to the Echolses that they would be serving soul food and that Tanika would be running the kitchen. The restaurant hangs its apron on a menu of classic, Southern-style cuisine, such as chicken and wa es, pork chops, oxtails, fried okra, shrimp and grits, and sweet glazed yams. For a soulful take on egg rolls, the chef has replaced the dish’s traditional llings with collard greens, or mac and cheese with shrimp. Deemed the Soul Egg Rolls, they have become so popular that Antonio said he cannot keep enough of them in stock. “This is [my wife’s] art,” he said. “We just bought a restaurant to display her art.” Tanika has been cooking since she was 16 years old. Tanika said she is
Echols moved from Chicago to Austin a year ago, they had no plans to open a restaurant. Then, opportunity came knock- ing. The Echolses jumped at the chance to purchase a location within The Shops at Volente, and by February of this year, the couple was serving up comfort food out of Whip My Soul. A longtime heating and air conditioning technician, Antonio said it beats working “on your roof in 120-degree heat, trying to x your AC.” “Sometimes things come knocking at your door, and it was a business opportunity that made sense,” Antonio said. “We didn’t pick this place; it picked us.” Antonio said he has been enjoying Tanika’s cooking since the pair rst
Soul Egg Rolls • Collard green egg roll (2), $8 • Cheezy mac and shrimp (2), $9.50
Whip My Soul 11416 N. RM 620, Stes. F and G, Austin 512-514-0103 www.facebook.com/whipmysoul Hours: Tue.-Sun. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., closed Mon.
620
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NORTHWEST AUSTIN EDITION • JANUARY 2023
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