The upstairs corner of Jet City Harley-Davidson bears little resemblance to Ms. Helen Coleman’s legendary restaurant at 23^rd and Union, where she fed her soul food to the likes of Richard Pryor, Ernestine Anderson, and Ken Griffey Jr. But the brisket Coleman’s daughter, JesDarnel Henton, now serves in this unlikely location hasn’t changed at all, the meltingly tender chunks served over a classic mac and cheese.

Ebony Magazine once called Coleman’s cooking “The principal Seattle motherlode of soul food.” Former mayor Norm Rice ate there, and last week current mayor Bruce Harrell checked in on Henton to see what she was up to. Muhammad Ali, B.B. King, and Gary Payton came through Helen’s Diner and the later iteration, Ms. Helen’s Soul Food.

Henton worked alongside her mother from 1971 until the Nisqually earthquake took out the restaurant in 2001. After that, the restaurant took over the kitchens of nightclubs for a few more years, but failed to find another permanent location. Henton always held onto the dream of reopening her mother’s restaurant, continuing to operate as a catering company and, more recently, doing pop-ups. Now, for the first time in a decade, Ms. Helen’s Soul Bistro has a dedicated location with regular weekly hours, and customers can come in for breakfasts of smothered potatoes or shrimp and grits for lunch.

To get to the restaurant, customers will need to go through the lobby of the Harley showroom and up the stairs in the back, to where Henton’s food sits in chafing dishes on the bar. It’s not the same as the Seattle location where her mother made her name, but it features the same food, the same warm hospitality, and continues the mother-daughter business into a third generation.

Henton had hoped to reopen in the Central District, but struggled to make a too-large space in Midtown Square work, especially once her mother retired. In the meantime, she ran the kitchen at the Central Area Youth Association and, when called on, made lunch for her own adult daughter.

Nicole Henton works on the internet sales team at Jet City Harley-Davidson, and when she started bringing in her mom’s food, coworkers took note. Soon, Henton was making lunch for the staff on a weekly basis, then catering the store’s monthly breakfast meetings and any events. When the store wanted to make itself more of a destination for current and potential customers, the opportunity for a symbiotic relationship with Henton made sense. “Now we're going to have people that are coming from across the state to buy motorcycles that get to have our food,” Nicole said. It's not a totally unique idea—in Tacoma, Destination Harley-Davidson hosts the cafe outlet of a soul food truck, Lizzie Lou’s Too.

Henton is still finalizing all the details around the new Ms. Helen’s, including the schedule—she plans to open for lunch Wednesdays and Thursdays, maybe stay open later on Fridays and Saturdays, and hasn’t figured out Sundays yet (look for updates on the restaurant’s Facebook page). What she does know, is that this is just another step in the continuing legacy of Ms. Helen’s. “I’m going to keep it expanding, expanding, expanding. I'm just starting off simple,” Henton says.

Last Wednesday, Henton opened Ms. Helen’s Soul Bistro in Jet City for the first time, but on Friday, she planned a menu of grilled catfish and green beans for a more exclusive audience: Ms. Helen herself, the grande dame of Seattle soul food, in celebration of her 89^th birthday.