Inside West Pensacola’s Falcon Food Mart convenience store at 1101 Gulf Beach Highway, you’ll find the unexpected delights of fall-apart brisket, freshly chopped peppers and onions topping the smothered chicken, and a dish closest to chef Christopher Moore’s heart: his grandmother’s juicy turnip greens.
Ma Madea’s Brisket and Lemonade, Moore’s small but mighty soul food stand open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, is named after his beloved grandmother, “Madea,” whose full name is Pauline Moore. Between her and his mother, Pamela Moore, he learned about morals, integrity and inherited their shared love of cooking.
When Pauline wasn’t preparing fresh pots of her from-scratch cooking for her 13 children, she was feeding the neighbors. She had a heart filled with generosity that never let a stranger go hungry. When her food would blow those who tried it away, Moore’s favorite part was seeing her smile as she served it. She always had him, the oldest of his siblings, right at her hip to help her.
“If you were hungry, you knew you could get a plate without questions,” Moore said. “She loved it, that’s what made her cooking so phenomenal.”
When Moore grew into adulthood and realized he wanted to open a restaurant based on her trademark of cooking with love, he knew the name of his restaurant had to be hers – at least the nickname everyone in his close-knit Tennessee community knew her by. Although Pauline passed away over 18 years ago, his mother is confident Madea would be proud of him wearing her name on his T-shirt and carrying on her legacy.
Since moving to Pensacola in 2023, the West Pensacola community has become his mission. Moore prides himself on providing them with a home-cooked meal at an affordable price. Much of the menu is $10 or less.
He soon saw the closeness of the community in his new home and began building connections. These are the people you encounter at the red lights and hope will pull over for you when you get a flat tire. For Moore, the way he connects is by feeding them.
“I’ve learned that this community, as a whole, is a family. They all grew up with each other, they all care for each other,” Moore said.
Return customer Ashley Johnson recalls coming in late at night to find some good food and waking up the next morning with the simple but well-seasoned burger on her mind.
“All I remember (thinking) is, ‘That burger is good as hell,’” Johnson said.
Johnson heard about Ma Madea’s the same way many of the regulars do − by word of mouth. Her cousin had sung the praises of Moore’s chicken wings, sending her to see for herself.
“The fastest way to spread news is by conversations with your neighbor,” Moore recalled his grandmother’s old saying.
Since Moore works in property management when he isn’t running the restaurant, his budget doesn’t allow for any fancy marketing. Instead, he relies on his customers to tell their friends. Since they opened in October, the word has spread significantly.
Russell Salam, who owns the Falcon Food Mart and three other locations in the area, said transforming the store’s empty kitchen space, which had previously housed a popular deli counter, was the right move.
“It (Ma Madea’s) has made a lot of difference in the store. People like him (Moore) and his personality, he’s always singing,” Salam said. “People are mad when he’s not here.”
“Thank you, Pensacola,” Moore said of the restaurant’s success so far. “They’re the ones I’m doing this for.”
Moore makes magic happen in his 12 x 14 kitchen, where he falls into the flow of a busy lunch rush, bouncing back and forth between frosting cake slices that overflow from their plastic containers and firing up the grill with chicken, brisket and burgers.
He tries to put a healthier spin on the food he remembers from his grandmother’s kitchen while retaining its taste and soul, substituting smoked turkey for pork and opting for spices to flavor his food over extra salt.
Moore’s smoked brisket, part of his business’s namesake, is a 10-hour affair before it is cooled and fired up on the grill upon a customer’s order. The brisket plates come with a choice of sides, including a cup of creamy sweet potatoes, pinto beans, fried okra, and many others. He won’t judge if you load up on the sides either, instead of ordering an entree, with one customer ordering seven servings of his flavorful turnip greens.
Since there is no seating within the store, Moore will securely load your plate into a to-go container before you leave.
While Moore is grateful for the opportunity to get his business off the ground, he dreams of one day opening a restaurant of his own where families can gather, and he can expand his menu to offer various flavors of his signature lemonade and more entrees, such as his grandmother’s famous oxtails.
For now, he still has plenty to offer on his menu, including a grilled, smothered chicken plate, Philly sandwiches (both chicken and brisket), burgers, wings and more.
Now, he hopes that when his customers visit, they step back in time to Madea’s kitchen, too.
“It’s about taste, it’s about love. It’s about family,” Moore said.
Orders can be placed on the spot at the counter, or customers can call ahead to 850-912-4199.
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