With the November launch of Daran's Southern Soul Food and West Indian Cuisine, 31-year-old Darrell Randle and Celena, his 29-year-old wife, are bringing Soul food to North Dakota. With southern roots and restaurant working experience, neither is a stranger to throwing down in the kitchen. With a Guyanese mother and a dad from North Carolina, Celena grew up on West Indian flavored, Southern Cuisine. Raised in Florida, Darrell was exposed to a multicultural community and all kinds of cuisine. When the couple moved to Fargo in late 2011, they were shocked by the limited dining options available to them. Darrell knew he had to do something when a former co-worker had never heard of grits. "I had to show him pictures of it," he told InForum. 

On any given day you can find the Randle's preparing made to order meals for hand delivery or pick up at a commercial kitchen. With homemade staples like collard greens, cornbread, macaroni and cheese, and fried chicken, their thriving startup is the talk of the town.

                            

With five children, ranging in age from 10 months to 12 years old, the Randle's are building a legacy. They got the restaurant name, "Daran's" from the first initials of each of their kids. "It's going to be theirs, so we decided to name it after them," Celena said. Darrell said that while neither he or his wife finished college, they see the restaurant as a way to do something they care about while creating their own economic opportunity.

Their skills have already garnered a celebrity fan base. When a throwback hip-hop tour brought the likes of Vanilla Ice and Tone Loc to their city, Darrell used Twitter to invite the artists to try his food. When he and Celena made a meal for hip-hop trio Salt-N-Pepa, they were stopped by Coolio in the hotel lobby and ended up making him breakfast the next day. The couple is hard at work looking for space to expand their operation to a full restaurant. "I don't sleep," Darrell said. "I stay up till like 3:30 in the morning trying to always think of ways of how we can expand."

Good luck to this enterprising couple. We're sure there are great things to come!