On Pershing Road in Bronzeville, a few blocks from the streets where she grew up, Chloe Gould smothers fried chicken in green curry gravy and rolls her grandmother’s collard greens into crisp egg rolls. DixiePura Kitchen Chicago, her American Southern and Southeast Asian restaurant at 325 E. Pershing Rd., opened on October 18, 2025. Today it turns one.
A year in, the menu reads like a map of her life: South Side Sunday dinners and Mississippi family roots, run through the hawker stalls of Singapore, where she spent years teaching. Small plates cost $13 to $23, large plates $31 to $46, and reservations are on Resy.
Why DixiePura Kitchen Chicago belongs on your fall dinner list
Because every plate here comes from one chef’s story. Gould calls herself a food translator. Collard greens get her Southern curry blend of more than 20 spices, smoked baby back ribs go into a Singapore-style bak kut teh, and a Cajun seafood gumbo becomes a laksa. The flavors come on big: smoke, chile, garlic, ginger, lemongrass and bright pickles.
The first anniversary weekend opened on Friday and Saturday with a champagne toast for every table and a special of Haitian spaghetti and fried catfish. It closes on Sunday, October 18, 2026, with a first anniversary dinner from 5 to 7 p.m., where Gould and Florida chef Makenric Vil cook the foods of Haiti and the Bahamas, $85 with a champagne toast. The two chefs met through the Charleston Wine + Food festival, where Gould cooked in 2026.
Ernie’s Fingers, burnt ends and the small plates to share first
Start with Ernie’s Fingers ($13), the dish that tells Gould’s story in one bite. Her grandmother, Ernestine Gould, cooked Sunday dinner for nearly 40 relatives in a small Bronzeville house and put an eight-year-old Chloe to work chopping peppers and onions. Gould braises collard greens the way her grandmother did, adds her curry spices, wraps them with sweet buttermilk cornbread in an egg roll wrapper, fries them crisp and serves them with an Asian remoulade. A painting of Ernestine hangs in the dining room.
Black-eyed pea hummus ($16) comes with cornbread crostini, pickled roots and house-made naan. Southern five-spice pork belly burnt ends ($18) sit on a rice crisp with Asian chili apple pepper jam and a Carolina mustard slaw, and fresh salmon croquettes ($23) arrive on arugula with more of that remoulade.
Green curry smothered chicken, gumbo laksa and the big plates
If you order one large plate, make it the green curry smothered fried chicken ($34). Smothered chicken is a South Side Sunday classic, and Gould folds coconut milk and curry spices into the gravy, then serves it with steamed rice, bamboo shoots and eggplant yard chips. It tastes familiar for the first bite and new by the third.
The Cajun seafood gumbo laksa ($46) is the showpiece: prawns, crawfish and a Parker House chicken hot link in coconut chili cream over riced grits, a bowl that sits halfway between New Orleans and Singapore. Southern smoked bak kut teh ($36) trades the simmered pork rib of the Singapore original for smoked baby back ribs with rice noodles and charred scallion. Dijon miso catfish ($41) comes with Southern curry potlikker, Creole do chua and chili chimichurri, half a smoked berbere chicken ($38) is halal, and garlic mushroom fried rice ($31) with jackfruit and fried oyster mushrooms keeps a vegan guest happy.
Order trimmings for the table: pimento mac and cheese ($14) in a four-cheese Mornay laced with Uncle Nearest rye, Southern curry potlikker ($12) with braised greens and buttermilk cornbread and candied yam buttermilk biscuits ($12) with cinnamon brown sugar honey butter. Dessert goes by Sugah here: toasted butter pound cake ($14) with warm spiced frozen creme, or the LGOU butta cake ($16) with vanilla bean frozen creme, Madeira caramel and praline.
Uncle Nearest cocktails and a happy hour worth leaving work early for
The bar pours Uncle Nearest, the Black- and woman-owned Tennessee whiskey, through much of the list. The Southern Bourbon Punch ($20) mixes Uncle Nearest 1884 with sweet vermouth, orange liqueur and Cherry Heering, and The Stone ($19) shakes Uncle Nearest 1856 with house hibiscus sugar, lemon and orgeat. The Black Beauty ($20), Hennessy VS with Cointreau and fresh lemon, is named for Gould’s sister,. Wines include Black Girl Magic Riesling and McBride Sisters bottles, and Nemonade ($5), butterfly pea flower tea with fresh lemon, is the zero-proof pour.
Happy hour runs 4 to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, with Korean fried chicken in soy ginger garlic ($16), kaya toast on a croissant with a soft egg and chili oil ($10), South Side pork on milk bread ($11), a Dixie Mule made with Uncle Nearest Green ($13) and $12 margaritas.
Saturday brunch: Korean fried chicken, hoecakes and chili shrimp with grits
Saturday brunch, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., is where the Southern breakfast table meets Singapore. Korean fried chicken arrives with hoecakes and a garlic ginger soy glaze ($27), chili shrimp and creamy grits get pork bacon, sun-dried tomato butter and a Thai aromatic chili cream ($27), and a Southern cumin pepper lamb biscuit sits on fried rice with pepperpot chimichurri ($29). A house-baked Sugah croissant ($7) with Coca’s chai ($6) makes a sweet start.
A Bronzeville dining room that feels like her home
Gould designed the room to feel like family. Sage green walls, a tufted banquette, candles and plants frame family photographs, books from her own shelves and artwork by Chicago artist Tyler Clark, who works synthetic hair, fabric and jewelry into pieces that celebrate Black beauty. Gould often comes out of the kitchen to sit with guests and hear how dinner went.
The restaurant is a short walk from the Indiana stop on the Green Line, which makes it an easy ride from the Loop.
The chef behind DixiePura Kitchen
Gould grew up near 35th Street and King Drive and graduated from Dunbar Vocational Career Academy in 2003. She earned culinary arts and food service management degrees at Johnson & Wales University, where she was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, then came home to teach culinary arts at Dunbar. In 2014 she moved to Singapore to teach Western cuisine and spent her off-hours at the hawker stalls, where pepper steak and Hainanese chicken rice tasted like home.
She received a kidney transplant in 2017 and rebuilt the way she seasons, layering spice blends and aromatics so flavor never leans on salt alone. She won an episode of Food Network’s Supermarket Stakeout in 2022 (Season 4, Episode 10), cooked at the Masters Tournament from 2022 through 2025 and was resident chef at Theaster Gates’ Retreat at Currency Exchange Café before opening DixiePura, where she hired some of her former students for the opening team.
Sunday dinners, high tea and a table for the neighborhood
Sundays are saved for special events. Gould’s ticketed Sunday community dinners have been $59 a person, with family-style plates such as double crispy fried chicken with chili crisp honey butter, smoked shrimp scallion noodles and Southern curry kale greens. The restaurant also hosts high teas and children’s cooking classes.
Make a night of it on the South Side
The South Side has had a strong year for chef-owned food. In Hyde Park, Courtney Neil’s Bahamian truck Bahama Shack serves conch fritters and peas and rice, Dominique Leach brought Little Betty Smokehouse to the University of Chicago campus in September, and Sanders BBQ Prime is building a sit-down barbecue room under the old Promontory for the end of 2026.
Plan your night at DixiePura Kitchen Chicago
- Address: 325 E. Pershing Rd., Chicago, IL 60653 (Bronzeville)
- Opened: October 18, 2025
- Hours: Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m.; dinner Friday and Saturday; brunch Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Sundays for special events
- Happy hour: Wednesday through Friday, 4 to 5 p.m.
- Prices: small plates $13 to $23; large plates $31 to $46; cocktails $16 to $20
- Reservations: Resy, with 90-minute seatings
- Good to know: cashless; up to two credit cards per table; a 20% service fee on every check; no online ordering or delivery
DixiePura Kitchen Chicago FAQ
When did DixiePura Kitchen open in Chicago?
DixiePura Kitchen opened on October 18, 2025, at 325 E. Pershing Rd. in Bronzeville. It marks its first anniversary on Sunday, October 18, 2026, with a 5 to 7 p.m. dinner where chef Chloe Gould and Florida chef Makenric Vil cook the foods of Haiti and the Bahamas, $85 with a champagne toast.
What kind of food does DixiePura Kitchen Chicago serve?
DixiePura Kitchen Chicago serves American Southern and Southeast Asian cooking from chef and owner Chloe Gould: Ernie’s Fingers (curry collard greens and cornbread egg rolls), green curry smothered fried chicken, smoked bak kut teh, Cajun seafood gumbo laksa and Dijon miso catfish, plus Saturday brunch and Uncle Nearest cocktails.
How much does dinner cost at DixiePura Kitchen Chicago?
On DixiePura Kitchen’s fall 2026 dinner menu, small plates cost $13 to $23, large plates $31 to $46, sides $9 to $14 and desserts $14 to $16. Craft cocktails run $16 to $20. The Bronzeville restaurant is cashless and adds a 20% service fee to every check.
How do I get a reservation at DixiePura Kitchen in Bronzeville?
Book DixiePura Kitchen on Resy, where tables are held for 90-minute seatings. Dinner runs Friday and Saturday, brunch is Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and happy hour is Wednesday through Friday from 4 to 5 p.m. Sundays at the Bronzeville restaurant are kept for ticketed dinners and high teas.
Who is the chef at DixiePura Kitchen Chicago?
Chloe Gould is the chef and owner of DixiePura Kitchen. She grew up in Bronzeville, studied at Johnson & Wales University, taught culinary arts at Dunbar Vocational Career Academy and in Singapore, received a kidney transplant in 2017 and won Food Network’s Supermarket Stakeout in 2022.
Further reading
- DixiePura Kitchen: official site
- DixiePura Kitchen: menu
- DixiePura Kitchen on Resy
- DixiePura Kitchen on Instagram (@dixiepurakitchen)
- Chef Chloe Gould on Instagram (@dixiepura)
- Resy: DixiePura Brings Southern Comfort and Southeast Asian Flavor Home to Bronzeville
- WTTW: Chloe Gould Overcame Kidney Disease to Open a Unique Restaurant in Her Native Bronzeville
- Chicago Reader: Step into Chloe Gould’s Bronzeville home at DixiePura Kitchen
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