CC's Kitchen; 'It's Soul Good'

With a passion for cooking, Charlene Carter, owner of CC’s Kitchen, has brought soul food to Winter Garden — one of the few spots in the area offering Southern-style comfort food. 

Carter has offered catering at corporate events, radio station events, weddings, family events and more for more than 20 years. 

Although she has no idea where her cooking ability came from, she thanks God for it and calls it a gift. 

Carter recalls cooking a meal for her then-boyfriend on Valentine’s Day more than 20 years ago and said it was excellent. 

From that point on, she started cooking often and eventually had kids. 

“I became a family of five once I got married, and I had no choice but to cook,” she said. 

She first opened a CC’s Kitchen after moving to Atlanta in 2008 with her children, but years later, things took a turn for the worse. 

Carter became homeless. 

With business expenses, she came to live paycheck to paycheck, and in 2013, she no longer had funds to have a home or keep her business open. 

She was homeless for two years. 

A homeless organization helped her get an apartment, where she then began catering again, and in 2015, she moved back to Winter Garden. 

Because of her experience with homelessness, she hopes to collaborate with nonprofit organizations and feed the homeless community nearby. 

“I’d like to help Matthew’s Hope, Hope Foundation, Hope Imaging,” she said. “It’s a passion of mine and became even stronger once I experienced it myself.” 

From 2015 to 2024, Carter was catering full time and did not open a brick-and-mortar CC’s Kitchen right away. 

“I didn’t want to open a restaurant again, but I felt like I had something to bring to the Winter Garden area,” Carter said. “I decided that if I was going to do it, it was going to be here. So I said, ‘If it’s meant to be God, open the door,’ and here we are.” 

In 2023, Carter said she prayed and had a conversation with God about CC’s. 

“The next day, I kept circling around in this parking lot (at Winter Garden Plaza) not knowing why,” she said. “And then suddenly I caught the (rent) sign, and I was like, ‘Wait a minute God, what are you doing?’” 

She called the number listed on the sign and after a few weeks, she heard she was approved for the property. 

Carter said work that was supposed to be completed in six months took triple the time. 

She hired workers to do some work for her, but unfortunately, they never returned after their first day, leaving incomplete work and a mess for Carter to figure out. 

After two years of issues to get the restaurant open, she finally did it. 

“I went through a lot, but I was so determined,” she said. “If this is it, then God will make a way … and He did. It’s really special to me to be home and to bring this to my community.” 

The restaurant offers a variety of soul foods, including collard greens, smothered pork chops, candied yams, fried catfish, smothered liver and more. 

She said all dishes she offers are delicious, but the smothered items are customer favorites.

Since opening Sept. 13, Carter said she already has regulars. 

“I’m very personal when I’m not stuck in the kitchen,” she said. “I like to come out and speak to the customers, and people now have become family. We call them by name when they come in.” 

As the only cook in the restaurant, she doesn’t have the ability to greet everyone but when she can, she surely does. 

“I’m the only child on my mom’s side, so I get really attached to my customers,” she said. “I go above and beyond.” 

Open Wednesdays through Sundays, CC’s Kitchen has become so popular it has been running out of items every day. 

“The first two weeks of opening, we were selling out every day,” she said. “I’m getting supplies every day, I’m getting deliveries every day, that’s just how much we’re going through.”  

Carter said the feedback has been great so far, with people thanking her for bringing this comfort to the Winter Garden area. 

Carter said she still is working out the kinks of the restaurant as it’s been a roller coaster, but it’s something she wouldn’t change. 

While in Atlanta, her father prayed she would come back to Winter Garden and open a restaurant in the area, so this location is special to her. 

“It just means a lot,” Carter said with tears in her eyes. “Not just that I opened it but that it’s successful.” 

She will continue fighting for her business every day and hopes it grows in multiple ways. 

“I plan on branching out in the future, building from the ground up, expanding, franchising, wherever God takes this,” she said. “I’m ready.”