Allie B’s Cozy Kitchen
Feeding People, Making a Difference
When Kizzy Williams-Francisco goes to bed at night, she prays that people will come to her restaurant the next day. She continues that prayer the next morning as she’s in the kitchen peeling potatoes, chopping collard greens and preparing chicken for frying. “My wife, Holly, thinks I’m crazy, but even after eight years, I still have this deep-seated fear that no one will show up. I never take anything for granted.”
Holly is right—people do show up, every day, and hungry. Allie B’s Cozy Kitchen specializes in soul food, the very food Kizzy learned to cook from her mother, Allie B, back in Harlem. Soul food is comfort and love, and that’s what Kizzy Williams dishes out to her neighborhood and throughout the Capital District.
Allie B’s makes everything fresh daily. “It’s just Holly and me, but we can cook enough food to feed 1,000 people!” House specialties include award-winning mac and cheese (“If I run out, I might as well close down my shop. People get angry!”), candied yams, slow-cooked collard greens, barbecue ribs, baked turkey wings, cornmeal-encrusted catfish and fried chicken. “I cook this food the way folks cooked it 200 years ago. Soul food is Black food, but it’s also American food. The food I cook represents everyone.”
Food can make change, and this humble restaurant that seats 16 has steadily evolved into a catalyst for the West Hill community of Clinton Avenue in downtown Albany. “When I opened Allie B’s in 2014, this was a dangerous neighborhood,” Kizzy says. “Then I got on Grub Hub and my food started to move around the Capital District. Once people tasted my food or heard me on WAMC’s Food Friday with Ray Graf, they started to come here to Clinton Avenue. And do you know what? The neighborhood noticed and began to change. For the better. Out of respect for this business and for themselves. I’ve always taken care of my community, and they take care of me.
Kizzy moved from Harlem to Albany in 2006, with her two sons, 7 and 1. “One of the reasons I moved here was so my two boys could play on grass and pick apples from a tree. It sounds so simple but it’s important.” So important that Kizzy and Holly recently planted an orchard of apple and pear trees on a small lot a couple of blocks away. Kids will now have that opportunity in this little orchard in the center of Albany.
“My mother, the original Allie B, was a community person back in Harlem. She fried chicken and cooked food for everyone. She taught me how to cook and to work hard and also how to take care of people and build community. Everything I learned came from my mom.”
“When you move somewhere, you become that place. I brought Harlem to Albany, and Albany has made me the United Nations because I represent and support people from all over, no matter where they’re from or who they are.”
In August 2020, Holly and Kizzy opened the Culture Center, a nonprofit that operates out of an Amish-built shed on a corner lot at Quail and First Street a half mile from the restaurant. This pocket oasis has become a nexus. “We are a resource center that feeds people, helps them find jobs, builds consistency and works to decrease violence. Charles Touhey, a local philanthropist, heard what we were doing and funded swimming lessons for 100 kids this past summer. To celebrate Juneteenth this year, we gave out 3,200 pounds of organic produce to anyone who came by. Each person got 15 or 20 pounds of fresh vegetables and fruit. This little shed is making a difference.”
Kizzy was born in the Harlem projects, grew up on food stamps and lived off public assistance. She worked hourly wage jobs all her life but always knew she wanted a restaurant. “From the moment I opened Allie B’s in 2014, the universe sent signs that this was the right decision. Allie B’s has allowed us to gain financial stability, be a family and serve the community.”
Kizzy closed the restaurant for the first three months of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. “I was scared to death, but then I realized I needed to feed my people.” She and Holly started preparing meals on Tuesdays exclusively for senior citizens that were picked up or delivered. The rest of the week, the women offered takeout or delivery for the general public. Kizzy also began teaching cooking classes via Zoom to elementary and high school students, thanks to a grant from the Albany Board of Education. “We prepare and deliver boxes of ingredients to the students in the class. I show them how to cook a healthy meal they can share with their families, and because we’re on Zoom, I can check to make sure everyone is doing okay. Of course, I slip in lessons about culture and life skills, you know, real talk.”
In January 2021, the Food Network reached out to Kizzy and invited her to participate in the debut season of Chef Boot Camp. “I spent two weeks in New York City filming the show. It was exhausting and scary, but I did it. I’d dreamed of being on Food Network for 20 years, and the experience was everything I’d hoped for.” Allie B’s episode, titled “I’ll Be Great…Tomorrow,” aired in late April.
Allie B’s and Kizzy Williams (often considered one and the same) are conduits. Blessings come through the restaurant, and Kizzy redirects those gifts where they will do the most good. “Angel philanthropists have found us, people like Charles Touhey, Mona Golub and Ed and Lisa Mitzen of Business for Good. Ed Mitzen is magical, a man of his word. He reached out last winter and gave me the extra hand I needed, and it boosted my life. Thanks to his generosity, we renovated the interior of the restaurant for our grand re-opening in early May.”
The long, narrow restaurant has a kitchen to the left behind a black-and-white checkered curtain, a butcher-block top service counter and a steam table that holds the day’s hot dishes. Small tables and chairs flank the right-hand side. The walls have a fresh coat of white paint with glossy black trim; the bathroom has been stylishly renovated; and the well-worn floor will be refreshed soon. Simple, fresh and clean. All thanks to the unexpected munificence of Ed and Lisa Mitzen.
“When people see you invest in your neighborhood, some will step up to help you. I come to work, make my money, pay my bills and give what’s left back to the community. I’m a Black-owned business that’s making a difference. I want other folks to see that their dreams can become reality, if they work hard and are consistent.”
Kizzy has always been a dreamer. But she does more than just dream—she does. “Everything I dreamed of has happened in the last two years,” she says, slowly shaking her head in amazement.
Keep dreaming and doing, Kizzy! The Capital District needs and loves you!
