Southern Star Soleil Opens an Outpost at the Boston Public Market

Chef Cheryl Straughter — the mastermind behind Soleil, the Southern-rooted Roxbury restaurant known for its breakfast and lunch hits including fried shrimp and catfish po’boys and salmon cakes served with a creamy remoulade — has opened up a new outpost of the restaurant at the downtown food hall and marketplace Boston Public Market.

The market outpost reimagines some of the top-selling dishes from the restaurant as fast-casual, customizable bowls, as well as sandwiches. There are protein and side options for bowls such as barbecued chicken, beef brisket, mac and cheese, and collard greens, while the sandwiches include Nashville-style hot chicken layered with coleslaw and pickles on a red velvet roll. Fried chicken and turkey wings are also available, and, on the sweet side, red velvet cookies and banana pudding round out the menu.

Straughter sees the market expansion as “an opportunity to showcase our cuisine to a new population,” the chef said in a statement on the news.

Straughter is a well-known Boston chef who has worked for decades in the industry, including founding Keith’s Place, a soul food spot in Dorchester’s Grove Hall neighborhood that ran from 1996 to 2006. The chef launched Nubian Square restaurant and catering company Soleil, named after her granddaughter, in 2018.

Soleil stands alongside nearly 30 other local vendors at the Boston Public Market, including coffee shop George Howell and local doughnut favorite Union Square. The nearly decade-old market launched in 2015 with a mission to highlight New England purveyors and recently upleveled with a bar serving local beers, wine, and cocktails last year.

Soleil is located inside the Boston Public Market at 100 Hanover Street. The market is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. The indoor bar keeps later hours; check out the full schedule and list of vendors here.