LEESBURG — Athia Linzy, a single mom of three, opened her downtown Leesburg soul food restaurant Cotton’s Kitchen four years ago this fall in 2021. She said she got the keys in October and celebrated the grand opening on Nov. 12.
The modest Pine Street restaurant has 4.8 stars on Google and 4.7 stars on Yelp.
Linzy’s kids now are 23, 18 and 11, and her restaurant is going strong with lovers of southern cuisine comfort across Lake and Sumter counties.
On Daily Commercial’s recent visit to Cotton’s, a rainy early October 2025 midday lunch, Linzy seemed upbeat despite the foul weather. Speakers piped in 1980s and ’90s R&B and new jack swing. Linzy smiled and welcomed each customer who entered.
She told the Daily Commercial that business has been good lately. “It’s picking up,” she said. “I can see the difference.”
Linzy was comparing her current situation to before the Pine Street revitalization project was completed on Juneteenth 2024. During the time that Pine Street’s new road and amenities were under construction, Cotton’s Kitchen almost went under because of the obstacle-ridden path to parking near the restaurant. Customers even gathered for a fundraiser to help Cotton’s stay in operation.
James Floyd of WQBQ spoke about Pine Street to the Daily Commercial a year and a half ago, lamenting the lack of a pedestrian walkway and parking lot at the end of the road. It was a “mess,” he said.
Linzy said, looking back, “I lost a lot of customers, but I gained a lot of new customers during the construction.”
The menu at Cotton’s Kitchen has remained largely unchanged, but Linzy does add a new daily special with absolutely no regularity.
“I just add stuff,” she said with a laugh. “If I feel like whatever I feel like cooking, I’ll cook it, even if it’s not on the menu.”
On our visit, the special board had neck bones with potatoes or stewed chicken, both for just $9.50.
Other days, it might be pig’s feet or liver and onions.
In fact, a “Meals under $10” sign lets passersby know they can get homestyle cooking for what most shell out for fast food nowadays.
Though Linzy says she hopes to keep the prices down, she can’t make any promises. “A lot of stuff is going on,” she said with a note of concern. “I’m trying not to go too far up with our prices, but, eventually, I know I might have to raise them.”
Born in Stuckey, a community in Groveland, Linzy grew up cooking with her mom and aunt and helped out at her aunt’s eatery in Webster. She started a roadside stand in 2013 called Cotton’s Kitchen. The name came to her as a joke, from a come-on line the guys would say to her: “Your skin is so soft, like black cotton.”
Not everything was lighthearted. When Linzy moved to Leesburg in 2020, she was legally blind and lived in “a hood apartment.”
“It was a stepping stone for me,” she said of her move. “I’m like, okay, I’m gonna move into these HUD apartments for a couple of years, and I’m gonna leave. So, I was here for only a year, and I moved into this spot in October 2020. … Yes, it happened that fast.”
Cotton’s regular menu offers other southern comfort foods like smothered pork chop, meatloaf, smothered turkey wings, baked barbecue chicken, fried pork chop, oxtails, chitterlings, hog maws and fried chicken.
Keeping things simple and low-key, opening for four days a week, makes it possible for Linzy to serve quality, affordable food and keep the mood pleasant and friendly.
On our visit, she greeted two retired ladies having lunch after a swim exercise class at the pool across the street. Rain be darned. They said they were wet anyway. One of the pair, a Cotton’s regular, ordered the neck bones and highly recommended them.
We ordered the fried chicken, which was as close to perfect as you can get, with crispy, flavorful breading and just the right amount of cornmeal crunch. You can add some Crystal Hot Sauce, but you don’t have to. Even a breast, which too often tastes dry and drab, was served juicy and tender.
Sides like collard greens, candied yams and cornbread don’t disappoint at Cotton’s, either.
Other side dishes include yellow or white rice, yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, mac and cheese, green beans, cabbage, black-eye peas, great northern beans, potato salad, cornbread and fried okra.
Cotton’s Kitchen is located at 305 Pine St. in Leesburg. Hours are from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursdays through Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. For more information, visit facebook.com/blackcotton81 or call 352-460-0674.
This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Cotton’s Kitchen restaurant celebrates four years of sumptuous soul food in Leesburg
Reporting by Julie Garisto, Leesburg Daily Commercial / Daily Commercial
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
