Some of the most popular and unique flavors in downtown Little Rock all come from the minds (and kitchens) of Helen Grace, Leila and Kamiya King. The sister trio is behind restaurants At the Corner and Flora Jean’s — both known almost as much for their atmosphere as their menu — and they’re now owners of the yogi-loved Sixth House Wellness Studio.
For the latest installment of our Small Business Talk series highlighting and demystifying the world of women in small business, the three talk the inevitability of storms, the moving target of perfection and the power in taking a new path.
Elevator pitch time. Tell us about At the Corner, Flora Jean’s and Sixth House.
We are The King Girls, co-owners and creators of At the Corner Diner, Flora Jean’s and Sixth House Wellness Studio. Each concept brings something beautiful and unique to our community. We hope you will come, enjoy and ultimately have fun making memories with the ones you love, for the ones you love and for you.
At the Corner is a modern diner that connects farms to families. Flora Jean’s is a nutrient-dense dining experience that focuses on the power of plants. Sixth House is a wellness studio that connects education to movement and mindfulness to heal our bodies, mind and spirit. And together they are places to dine, to connect, to have fun, to create memories, to heal and to grow.
Did you have a lightbulb moment when you knew this was what you were supposed to do?
Ten years ago, our mom bought a restaurant. Us girls were all on our own separate paths, but there was something about this new family venture that felt right. We knew we had the opportunity to do something special for our community so we changed courses and connected our paths to create a modern diner that connects farms to families. We wanted it to be like the diners we had grown up loving, but more modern and more focused on being seasonally driven and farm-to-fork.
After five years of lines wrapped about the building and thousands of seasonally driven menus, we began creating our second restaurant concept. The day we nailed the sign of the new restaurant to the wall is the day the pandemic hit in 2020. This not only shook our diner, but it put us on a new path where we reconnected to nature and sought food as medicine. We began healing our own bodies, minds and spirits with the power of plants. It was beyond a light bulb moment, but more of a calling. We felt called to continue down this new path, to take our years of restaurant experience and create a new and extremely unique concept that focused on nutrient density and the power of plants, and so bloomed Flora Jean’s.
Flora Jean’s is everything we could have dreamt about in this new chapter of our lives. She’s wellness-centered and plant-focused and allows us opportunities to not only share the healing power of plants with our community, but we have created a place where we are constantly reconnecting to nature and learning about food as medicine. Within just a couple of months of opening, we had the opportunity to continue to create spaces of education and healing when we purchased a wellness studio, Sixth House. To us, Sixth House is a place for movement, mindfulness, food and education for a whole body wellness experience.
View this post on Instagram
Running three businesses must be dizzying at times. What has been the most useful lesson you’ve learned in juggling all three?
To redefine perfection. Being women, we hold each other and ourselves to a higher standard. We put pressure on ourselves to be perfect. As creators of life, this perfection stems from our core, and it can be a beautiful but daunting thing. What we’ve learned after opening a second restaurant and acquiring a wellness studio is that the equation to perfection might be the same, but our input is different. We’ve redefined what the moving parts are and how we look at the results.
What is perfection now? Once defined in the small, intricate details of every single moving piece — the hows, the whys, the how nots, the why nots — we now look at the overall picture. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
What is something you wish you’d done differently when you launched your first business?
To step away from day-to-day operations sooner. It took us eight years to not be there every day. And it was a beautiful eight years of growing a business, of growing ourselves and watching families grow as well. When restaurant owners work at their business every day they then have to work on their business after hours. The back end, the books, the accounting, the menu creations, farmer partnerships, marketing, emails, catering, events, etc. — it’s all not part of the eight-hour shift.
Stepping away was hard because we knew it would change a piece of the diner, but we wanted to ensure that it wouldn’t change the soul of the diner. Our customers had been accustomed to seeing us every day and knowing that they would work directly with the owners every step of their experience. We had to create systems and a culture that inspired our team to continue the “heartbeat” of the diner even when we were away. And we ultimately had to be ok with not being there every day. It was almost like dropping your child off at daycare for the first time over and over again.
View this post on Instagram
Since then, what was a moment that felt huge to you, but might not look that way to others?
Walking into your restaurant and having nothing to do. It’s a rare moment, but when it happens it’s beautiful, it’s fun, it’s re-centering.
How have your goals evolved since you first started?
Our goals have evolved as we have evolved, but we would say the core is about the same. We were all in our mid-20s when we created At the Corner. We were so young and determined to make our way into this male-dominated industry as “little girls.” Our goal at the beginning was simple: Make every single moment matter for our customers. And now, as women in our mid-30s, our goal is the same: Make every single moment matter, but we are finally part of its equation. Our health, our bodies, our minds. As a business owner, especially a restauranteur, you are always giving and going so much and making certain every experience for your diner is perfect that oftentimes you forget you are part of the equation. You are part of its goal, too.
What are the best and hardest parts about working for yourselves?
The best: having a moment where you are able to fully enjoy your creation coming to life to be lived and loved and enjoyed. The hardest: Those moments are often fleeting.
Does being women affect how you do business or the way people do business with you? If so, how?
Absolutely. As women, we invest in our businesses like they are our own flesh and blood. We caretake. We nurture. We raise. We build. And we think the business responds back accordingly. They have their infant phases, their terrible 2 attitudes and for sure their teenage years.
It’s so hard to gain respect sometimes or to be taken seriously. We’ve been in this industry for over 10 years, and we still have male chefs laugh at us.
What do you wish people knew about small business owners?
That’s a tough one. Honestly, we wish they knew that we don’t always handle constructive criticism well. To us, we often take criticism personally, and we may react personally, because to us, as small business owners, it is personal. What you created becomes a part of you. It’s your heart and soul, so when someone is disappointed in what you created or they begin to nitpick your baby, it hurts. We try to tell ourselves that “it’s business and not personal” and they solely want our business to thrive. Most often this is the case, and sometimes it’s not, but at the end of the day, a small business owner is doing their best, and trust us when we say we see the imperfections as well, and know that although there are so many moving parts to that one moment you notice, we are doing our best to make it as perfect as possible.
What advice would you give to someone starting their own business?
Ready the ship. Starting and operating a business is about the storms. To be a successful business owner, you must be ready to weather any and every storm that will come your way. Some sailors have it easy and the luck of the sea gods, which enables an easy day but not so strong of a sailor. Some sailors just ride in someone else’s boat. Some sailors never leave inland. While others, like ourselves, have been sent the harshest of storms so that we may become the toughest of sailors. Tough sailors are ready for any and everything that may come aboard the life of owning your own business. And storms will come over and over again. Ready the ship.
Learn more about each business on the websites for At the Corner, Flora Jean’s and Sixth House.