Daddy Vic’s Soul Food opens at New Albany Elks Lodge

Oct. 14—NEW ALBANY — A Louisville restaurant has partnered with a local organization to add a second location in downtown New Albany.

Daddy Vic’s Soul Food is now offering meals in the New Albany Elks Lodge #270 at 426 Pearl St. The restaurant is offering lunch Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., as well as Friday dinners from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Earlier this year, the restaurant opened its first location at Cane Run Road in Louisville, and on Tuesday, Daddy Vic’s opened in New Albany.

Couple Monique and Clarence Jordan are the owners of the soul food restaurant, which offers food ranging from fried chicken to macaroni and cheese, as well as house-made lemonade and sweet tea.

“We serve anything from fried chicken to smothered pork chops to liver & onions, Salisbury steak, meatloaf,” Monique said. “You can get soup and sandwiches, fried catfish, tilapia. You name it, we have it.”

“You’ve got to try the peach cobbler, and the corn muffins are to die for,” she said.

The food is all “freshly-made and home-cooked,” Clarence said.

The Elks Lodge had a vacancy in its kitchen, and Elks member Matthew Lemme is a regular at Daddy Vic’s in Louisville. Several months ago, he inspired the Jordans to open a second location at the Elks Lodge.

Lemme said the mac and cheese is one of his favorites, saying he “would put it up against anybody’s grandmother’s.”

“A lot of it was selfish — I could have my favorite restaurant two blocks from my office instead of six and a half miles, so I mentioned it to them,” Lemme said. “It was a win-win. The Elks needed it, and I could tell with their business and way they were set up, they would be able to do it.”

They had been planning the business for several years, and Monique’s father, Victor, had been looking forward to the opening of the restaurant. However, her father died in 2017 before they opened the Louisville business.

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“He couldn’t cook worth a lick, but he loved to eat our food, so he was super excited, he knew it was coming, and he couldn’t wait to work there and help us out and all that,” Monique said. “When we found out that he had passed, I was grieving pretty bad.”

They decided to name the restaurant after her father as a tribute so he could be “there with us spiritually,” she said.

Monique and Clarence say they are excited to expand into Southern Indiana and reach new customers.

“It’s truly a blessing to be able to collaborate with another organization to just get our name out there further to another demographic. It’s really special,” Monique said. “That way, everybody can enjoy the food.”