On a rainy Sunday morning in Durham, the smell of fried chicken and red velvet waffles fills the air at Lula & Sadie’s. Customers talk over coffee while a standup bass and saxophone hum in the corner. The restaurant feels like a gathering space that’s warm, comfortable and familiar – just the way owner Harry S. Monds, known by friends and colleagues as “H2” for being the second Harry in his family, wants it.

 

“I want you to have a warm feeling of being somewhere that is very welcoming,” H2 said. “I didn’t want it to be sterile. I wanted it to be very inviting … like you’re at home.”

 

Lula & Sadie’s is named for H2’s grandmothers, whose kitchens inspired his earliest memories of cooking. Both of his parents worked full-time with long hours when he was a child, and family dinners often came late in the evening. 

 

“My brother and I got tired of that,” he said “So we started making meals for the family based on what we were learning from my parents, my grandparents. So that’s how I got started.”

 

Though H2’s cooking now leans toward Southern fare, it wasn’t always his main focus. 

 

“My number one would be like Country Italian or Southwestern,” he said. “And then I’d dabble a little bit with the Louisiana Creole cooking.” 

 

When the developers behind the Durham Food Hall approached him about opening a concept in 2020, H2 decided on a Southern restaurant with heart and family history, naming it after his grandmothers made sense.

 

The business started in the Durham Food Hall downtown before moving to its current location, a historic building in the Lakewood neighborhood. H2 has deep roots in Durham’s food scene, dating back to his first restaurant, The Time Table, which he opened in 1997, long before downtown Durham’s restaurant boom. 

 

“I’m a Durhamite through and through,” he said. “I love Durham, and I think that we’ve always had a sneaky good food scene, and it’s just got better and better over the years. I’m glad and proud to be a part of that.”

 

For general manager Khiarah Williams, the restaurant’s community focus and atmosphere are what make it special. Williams started at Lula & Sadie’s as a server nearly three years ago and worked her way up to general manager. 

 

“It’s family oriented here,” she said. “We don’t really have to worry about that stigma of being uptight all the time.”

 

Williams said that the team behind Lula & Sadie’s is intentionally diverse, and that openness extends to the guests who walk through the door.  

 

That inclusivity comes through on Sundays, when the restaurant fills with music. Every Sunday, Lula & Sadie’s holds a jazz brunch from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. This week, Aiden Niamh performed on the saxophone and David Wintermute performed with the stand-up bass.

 

Niamh has been a regular at Lula & Sadie’s jazz brunch, performing every other Sunday for close to two years. She often brings other local musicians to join her. 

 

“I think my favorite part is just how the community gathers here,” Niamh said. “I’ve met so many interesting people through coming here and I think it’s wonderful to be able to play in such an open and accepting environment.”

 

Wintermute agreed, saying he loves the spontaneity of the performances. 

 

“My favorite part is when I get to play whatever I want and see what Aiden does with it,” Wintermute said. “Aiden has incredible intuition, so those moments are worth more than anything else.”

 

While food and music bring people in, community service runs deep behind the scenes. H2 said giving back is one of the restaurant’s core commitments. 

 

“We have on staff all walks of life,” H2 said. “And that not only is that what’s on staff, but it’s also who comes through our doors. We pride ourselves in making sure that any and everybody feels welcome and comfortable in this space.”

 

He added that Lula & Sadie’s regularly works with local organizations, including shelters and the Ronald McDonald House in Durham. Each holiday season, Lula & Sadie’s prepares and serves meals for families at the Ronald McDonald House on Thanksgiving and Christmas, continuing a tradition that has become central to the restaurant’s community work.

 

For H2, those acts of service are an extension of what Lula and Sadie taught him – that food is about care and connection as much as flavor. 

 

“It’s sitting down with a bunch of different friends at a long table, eating and just chopping it up together,” he said. “I wanted to be a part of providing that for Durham.”