Corinne's Place | |
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Restaurant information | |
Established | 1989 |
Street address | 1254 Haddon Avenue |
City | Camden |
State | New Jersey |
Postal/ZIP Code | 08103 |
Country | United States |
Coordinates | 39°55′53″N75°06′06″W / 39.9315°N 75.1016°W |
Website | corinnesplace |
Corinne's Place is a restaurant in Camden, New Jersey. In 2022 the restaurant was selected as an America's Classic by the James Beard Foundation.
Corinne Bradley-Powers, a Camden native and lifelong resident and at the time a single mother, founded the restaurant on Haddon Avenue in Camden in 1989. [1] [2] [3] [4] Before starting the business, she was a social worker. [5] She bought the property in 1985, but struggled to get a loan, and took on a catering job to fund the business. [6] At first, the restaurant was open only on weekends. [6] By 1995, it was open Wednesday through Saturday, with an all-day buffet on Sundays. [6] Bradley-Powers was often joined in the kitchen by her mother, Fannie Anderson, who had taught her how to cook, while her own daughter worked as a waitress. [6] At the time, she advertised the restaurant as "soul food with a touch of class". [6]
In 2008, Corinne's Place was featured in a Gannett New Jersey article, which called it "a treasured part of Camden's community", noting that regulars often called on Bradley-Powers for catering weddings and other events. [7]
When the James Beard foundation announced the 2022 America's Classics list, friends texted Bradley-Powers to congratulate her; she had never heard of the foundation or its namesake. [8] [9]
The restaurant focuses on southern specialties such as fried chicken, pigs feet, smothered pork chops, turkey wings, fried catfish, black-eyed peas, greens, cornbread, and sweet potatoes. [1] [2] [3] [5] Philadelphia Inquirer dining editor Craig LaBan called Bradley-Powers “the queen of soul food” the restaurant's fried chicken “unforgettable.” [8]
In 2022 the restaurant was selected as an America's Classic by the James Beard Foundation; [10] the foundation in their announcement called the restaurant "a pillar of community at the heart of one of America’s lowest-income cities". [1] NBC News in 2020 called the restaurant "acclaimed". [11] Local and regional media have called the restaurant "iconic" [3] and Bradley-Powers a pillar of her community. [12]
Bradley-Powers sold the restaurant to Trevor Vaughan in 2019 and maintains a consulting role. [3]