While Riverhead mourns the loss of Spicy’s Barbecue, Tiny’s Famous Eats, a new soul food hot spot just a few blocks away, is coming in to save the savory flavor scene.
On Jan. 3 the business opened their doors, inspired by owner Marcus Edward’s mother, Tania Edwards.
The 10-seat, takeout-forward restaurant, described by Marcus as “the Chipotle of soul food,” has a carefully curated menu, including fried chicken wings, barbecued chicken wings, chicken tenders, deep fried fish bits, jumbo shrimp and a stacked list of sides like collard greens, mac and cheese, candied yams, macaroni salad, potato salad, mashed potatoes and corn bread.
The selection, Marcus says, is “simple as possible and things that are really good.”
In 2020, Tania started the original Tiny’s out of her Mastic home, cooking affordable soul food for her community. Marcus, a Babson College business school alum, was working long days in Los Angeles as a personal trainer but moved home to help his mother close the business, as she was experiencing knee issues and was struggling to stand.
While personal training, he considered going into the food service industry, taking YouTube restaurant training courses during his off time.
“I had a hard time marketing myself with the personal training stuff,” says Marcus. “But this, I felt like if the food is good, by word of mouth it will spread just by how good it is. It is its own marketing.”
As his interest peaked, Marcus visited his uncle in North Carolina, who owns multiple restaurants with a similar model to what Marcus was looking to create.
When a friend who worked in real estate let him know of the available space in Riverhead, Marcus jumped on the opportunity, working with his uncle to optimize layout, his mother to prepare the menu and deciding to carry on the name Tiny’s, originating from his mother’s nickname.
“When my mom was doing it in 2020, I knew it would be successful because she’s hard working and the food is really good,” says Marcus. “She was motivated to start doing it because my grandmother, who has since passed, always believed [in her] and said that my mom’s name would be in lights.”
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