The name Dulan first rose to popularity in the Los Angeles food scene 50 years ago, and came from humble beginnings. Adolf Dulan, later known as the ‘King of Soul Food,’ started his culinary journey soaking up generations of traditional southern cooking from his mother in their small log cabin home in Luther, Oklahoma.
Greg Dulan, is one of Adolf Dulan’s sons and owner of Dulan’s On Crenshaw, Crenshaw’s favorite soul food restaurant. After attending Howard University, Greg decided to fall in his father’s culinary footsteps.
“My father first developed a deep appreciation for the art of cooking from watching his mother, my grandma, prepare family dinners,” Dulan said.
After moving to Los Angeles with his wife, Adolf secured a job with the County of Los Angeles. That was until 1975, when he purchased an Orange Julius franchise.Adolf’s dip into the hospitality industry reignited his love for food. Soon after Adolf would open a hamburger stand with his wife, called Hamburger City and by 1982, they opened their fifth Hamburger City in the seaside community of Marina Del Rey.
Yet, despite the rising success of his American food classic restaurant, Adolf Dulan noticed a lack of the Oklahoman soul food he grew up on. In 1984, he turned the American classic Hamburger City restaurant in the Marina del Rey location into Aunt Kizzy’s Back Porch, a restaurant with some of the most tantalizing soul food. The highly regarded soul food restaurant operated for 35 years, serving locals and celebrity clientele alike and cultivating an atmosphere reminiscent of an Oklahoma family gathering.
Working tables, behind registers, and with customers, a young Greg Dulan and Terry Dulan, two of Adolf Dulan’s sons, watched diligently as the business quickly expanded. With a mentor like Adolf Dulan, Greg Dulan came to love the culinary world and admire his father’s business prowess.
Growing up in the inner neighborhoods of Leimert Park and Baldwin Hills, Greg Dulan noticed a lack of eateries in his community. He said he wanted to “keep the heritage of Southern home cooking and soul food alive in the city of Los Angeles.”
Greg Dulan continued the Dulan family’s restaurant legacy by opening his own restaurant, Dulan’s On Crenshaw, in 1992. Dulan’s On Crenshaw is located in the heart of two conjoining Black neighborhoods in South La, Leimert Park and Baldwin Hills.
Rod Edwards, an executive of the Kindness, Joy, Love, and Happiness station, Stevie Wonder’s LA radio station, is a longtime customer of Dulan’s. Edwards continues to promote the restaurant on air, noting the quality of food and the restaurant’s acts of community service.
“It serves as a staple in the city.” Edwards comments.
Their menu consists of traditional Southern home cooking, staple dishes such as chicken, baked, fried, or smothered, fried fish, meatloaf, smothered pork chops, short ribs of beef, oxtails, and more. All paired with the traditional side dishes: collard greens, candied yams, mac and cheese, black eyed peas, you know, corn and okra, dressing, and cornbread. Finally, in the classic soul food tradition, to end the meal before ‘the itis’ sends you into a deep food coma, peach cobbler and sweet potato pie, sweet tea, and homemade lemonade.
In 2001, after a reinventive trip to New York, a 61-year olf Adolf Dulan, took on his most adventurous culinary turn yet, opening yet another restaurant, Dulan’s Soul Food Kitchen, in Inglewood. While Aunt Kizzy’s Back Porch and Dulan’s On Crenshaw take on the traditional, sit-down restaurant style, Dulan’s Soul Food Kitchen is cafeteria-style, yet sticks to its roots of southern cooking. What started as a new idea blossomed into a thriving establishment with another location opening in Los Angeles, a few years later. 13 years later in 2014, Adolf passed down the reins of these two eateries to Terry Dulan.
In 2017, Adolf Dulan unfortunately passed away, but left his remarkable culinary legacy and name in the hands of his five children. “Now the legacy is the name. And it resonates bigger than Los Angeles,” Edwards said.
Greg Dulan continues to run Dulan’s on Crenshaw and Terry continues to manage the two locations of Dulan’s Soul Food Kitchen in Los Angeles and Inglewood. Both restaurants are testaments to Adolf Dulan’s entrepreneurial spirit, becoming famous for their generous portions, down-home service, and for Southern Soul Food typically only served by Black grandmothers during Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
In addition to priding itself on having the best Soul Food, the restaurants prides themselves on giving back to the community. Dulan’s on Crenshaw has always done what it could to give back to its community. Most recently, despite the financial hardship the business has faced, at the 2025 Taste of Soul, Dulan’s on Crenshaw gave away 800 free meals.
“My business grows and thrives, and because of that, I get to give back to the community and I try to support whenever and wherever I can,” Greg Dulan said.
Dulan’s on Crenshaw also served 30,000 meals in Altadena after the fires to support the Concern Foundation’s cancer fundraising efforts, and has ran an annual Boy Scout Pancake Breakfast for 20 straight years. Dulan’s on Crenshaw even partners with other neighboring businesses, the KGLH community block party, and local D9 chapters.
The impact of all three Dulan’s restaurants is only rivaled by the quality of their food. For over 50 years, the Dulan name has traveled all throughout Los Angeles County. It evolves with the times, white staying true to its roots. It is a perfect example of bridging ethnic and cultural divides through food.