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Gee Smalls has built a career around creating spaces rooted in love and celebration. A native of Charleston, South Carolina, and an Atlanta resident for more than 30 years, Smalls is a seasoned chef, restaurateur and entrepreneur.
He opened Virgil’s Gullah Kitchen and Bar to address what he saw as a gap in Atlanta’s food scene: a restaurant that pays homage to Gullah Geechee culture and is built on a mission of inclusion and community through food.
Creating Inclusive Spaces for Fellowship
“We would hang out a lot in the community, and we never had a place to go to that was a Black LGBT-owned spot,” Small shares of his experiences dining in Atlanta. “And so we never really [had] a home we could feel loved, accepted, and seen. Sometimes [we were] tolerated, but not always accepted.”
In 2019, Smalls’ first restaurant, Virgil’s Gullah Kitchen and Bar (named in honor of his father) opened its doors, offering him and his partner of 17 years, Juan, a chance to expand into new territory.
It marked a major shift for Smalls, who had previously worked in IT for over 20 years and had pursued various entrepreneurial ventures. Now, he was stepping into the complex role of chef and restaurant owner, a journey that proved to have its own set of challenges and opportunities for significant growth.
Among his initial challenges was a commitment to bring to life a menu inspired by the dishes of his upbringing. Recipes that he knew from memory that would require extra attention to detail including listing ingredients, writing down cooking instructions, and planning out inventory and food storage.
Bringing a Gullah Geechee Restaurant to Atlanta’s Food Scene
Smalls grew up as part of the Gullah Geechee community in Charleston. The oldest continuous Black community in the United States is known for preserving its deep cultural traditions. Rooted in West African heritage, Gullah Geechee recipes and culinary practices feature flavors and techniques that set it apart from other areas of the United States.
“I was completely unaware of my culture growing up in Charleston, South Carolina, as many of us are. We know we were Geechee, we know we were Gullah, and that’s what they called us, but never having a full idea of what that meant to be Gullah Geechee.”
Opening the restaurant gave Smalls a chance to fully immerse himself in his Gullah Geechee heritage. Part of that exploration involved distinguishing Gullah Geechee cuisine from broader Southern and soul food traditions and infusing that identity into every dish at Virgil’s.
“We have different nods to Gullah Geechee culture throughout the restaurant,” Smalls says. “From palmetto roses to the meanings of words on the walls to our dishes bearing the authentic names of traditional Gullah recipes.”
Among his most popular items is the shrimp and grits, made with shrimp and seafood stock and a brown gravy, the way it was originally made in South Carolina. The menu also pays homage to other Gullah Geechee favorites, like okra gumbo made with oysters, shrimp, crab, and Roger Wood sausage, and fried green matis, cornmeal-dusted green tomatoes topped with a corn salsa and finished with his staple hot to trot sauce.
For Smalls, these dishes don’t only represent his personal history and culture, it is also a way he shows affection and appreciation for his patrons, noting that his love language is cooking for the people he loves, including the patrons of his restaurants.
“We like to make people feel like they’re coming into our home. And when most people who come into our home, they tell us that they feel loved, affirmed, and free.” These customers who Smalls sees as community and family have continued to show up over the years, even through tough times.
Scaling and Growing Through the Pandemic
When the global pandemic hit in March 2020, less than a year after opening his first location, Smalls reminisces on being both panicked and relieved. This time created space for him to take stock of the restaurant’s strengths and areas of improvement. Smalls shares, “We were only doing dine-in [and] we hadn’t mastered to-go yet….and to-go is a completely different beast. This helped sustain us during that time.”
He also credits his customers for helping keep their doors open. “Many of the organizers and people out there would get us for catering. They would buy meals and give them out to people just to help keep us in business. And so, I [attribute] a lot of our success to our own Black LGBT community and the press.”
That period proved very successful for Smalls. Since then, his brand has received national notoriety and acclaim, getting featured on national programs like “Good Morning America“ and “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” as well as the Atlanta-based talk show “Portia.”
Smalls and his husband have also expanded, opening two more locations of Virgil’s Gullah Kitchen and Bar (one in Conyers and the other in College Park) as well as The Breakfast Boys, a boozy all-day breakfast and brunch diner opened in partnership with restaurateur and friend Lorenzo Wyche.
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Expanding His Impact Beyond the Plate
While the demands of restaurant life keep him busy, Smalls remains committed to creative projects that fuel his passion, as well as mentoring his 24-year-old son, Lil Gee, who serves as an event manager for the restaurants and has his own entrepreneurial ventures.
Among Smalls’s other work is his memoir, “Black Enough, Man Enough: Embracing My Mixed Race and Sexual Fluidity,” originally released in 2020. The book traces his journey as a biracial, sexually fluid man growing up in South Carolina and has since expanded into multiple formats, including a teen edition and an audiobook.
This summer, he and Juan are also preparing to launch a seven-part podcast that chronicles their love story as well as making plans to revive The Gentlemen’s Ball, an annual fundraising gala he co-founded in 2011 to honor Black LGBTQ+ men making a difference in Atlanta.
With many projects still simmering, Smalls shows no signs of slowing down. Reflecting on the path that brought him here, he says, “What I’ve enjoyed most about my journey is my freedom. The level of freedom I have with my time, with the things I want to do and partake, and my energy.”
To learn more about Gee Smalls and to purchase a copy of his book, visit his website. For updates on his restaurants, follow Virgil’s Gullah Kitchen and The Breakfast Boys on Instagram.
