When Locol in Watts came on the scene in 2016, the buzz swept across the Southland and beyond. A groundswell of interest surrounded the restaurant, which offered a healthy, sustainable fast-food option in a neighborhood without many sit-down spots. The restaurant officially reopened on August 8, a full-circle moment for its operators, who had closed the doors to the original Los Angeles location in August 2018 (its East Bay locations shuttered in 2017 and 2018). This time, chefs Keith Corbin and Daniel Patterson have made changes: Locol will operate as a nonprofit incubator, where young workers, many of whom live in the local community, prepare dishes from a new menu centered around soul food.

When it opened eight years ago, Locol was the brainchild of chefs Patterson and Roy Choi. Corbin first started working at Locol when he was two years out of an 11-year prison sentence. Locol was one of the few businesses that accepted his job application and provided training before the restaurant closed in 2018. When Corbin and Patterson partnered to open the modern soul food restaurant Alta Adams in 2018, both wanted to provide similar employment opportunities to underserved communities. They’ll continue this effort at Locol as a program under the Alta Community nonprofit.

In the past few years, Watts and the surrounding areas have lost several soul food options, including Bertha’s Soul Food in Gramercy Park, Florence’s Carolyn’s Kitchen, and Watts’ own Jordan’s Cafe. The closures left a gaping hole in the neighborhood, a fact not lost on Corbin. He began to check in with Watts locals for suggestions on what to serve at a Locol revival. “We asked everyone in the neighborhood what they wanted and they said soul food,” says Corbin. “Before, people came once or a couple of times, but they said it didn’t really feel like their space.”

The $8 burgers remain on the menu, along with Locol’s signature foldies, a smaller, crispier quesadilla, that still costs only $3. In addition, they’re offering a barbecue brisket, tofu, or fried chicken sandwich for $10 each, and a simple green salad option for $8 dressed with honey berbere or ranch dressing. Plates, served with barbecue ribs, brisket, beef sausage, fried chicken, and barbecue tofu, come with cornbread and a choice of two sides like red beans and rice, collard greens, yams, or mac and cheese. A la carte fried chicken comes in three, six, or nine pieces. For dessert, there’s a springy 7-Up cake.

Corbin and Patterson aren’t as interested in whether outsiders will make the trek to the new Locol — they simply want to serve the communities in Watts and greater South Los Angeles. Corbin says that he hopes diners speak up if they aren’t enjoying the food. “I make food with the intent for you to enjoy and love [it],” says Corbin. “If something is not hitting, you pull me to the side just like when I was growing up in the projects. We handle it in the community.”

The team’s staff members will mostly be comprised of a rotating group of young workers sourced through the Los Angeles County Workforce Development Board. The current program compensates workers between the ages of 14 to 24 for training and on-the-job experience at Local. Patterson says the current operation involves a constant flow of hiring and training every two to three weeks. The program will give Corbin, Patterson, and the team the ability to reach more young members of Los Angeles’s workforce.

The year 2024 could be Los Angeles’s year of restaurant comebacks. It started with bakery chain Sweet Lady Jane, then Silver Lake’s Cuban bakery Cafe Tropical, and a Souplantation dupe (meanwhile, modern Korean restaurant Baroo revived in 2023). But Corbin says Locol’s reopening was part of a long-term plan with one thing in mind: helping residents in Los Angeles have access to better food and work opportunities.

“I’ll never give up on my community. You gotta understand, people have made sacrifices for me to get to where I’m at,” he says. “Daniel gave me an opportunity. There are people in the grave because when the gunshots were fired, they got the bullet, and I’m still here. There are people I shared a 50-cent bag of chips and soda with to get through the day. I’m going to always find a way to drop the rope and help others climb up.”

Locol is open from Wednesday through Sunday from 12 p.m. until 7 p.m. at 1950 East 103rd Street, Watts, CA, 90002.