Photo by Susannah Moore for Alexandria Living Magazine
Mac & cheese, fried chicken, collard greens, mashed potatoes – there is something about comfort foods like these that keep us coming back for more. Springfield restaurant Della J’s has been serving up home-cooked dishes out of a space at 6558 Backlick Rd. since 2017. The restaurant will welcome guests to a new location on Richmond Highway in Mount Vernon Plaza soon.
Lydia and Jerry Young opened Della J’s only five years ago, but the inspiration for the restaurant goes back much further. Jerry’s mother Della (the restaurant’s name is a combination of her name and J for Jerry) and his father Lee, nurtured his love for cooking from an early age.
“I grew up wanting to cook, learning how to cook. When I was 14 years old I started barbecuing and over the years I just kept tinkering with things and I found cooking to be interesting and recipes easy for me to interpret and take on,” explained Jerry. “[Jerry’s] mom was instrumental in teaching him the basics [of cooking]. A lot of the recipes [served at Della J’s] are from her, which he has tweaked over the years. It was fitting the restaurant be named for her,” Lydia added.
Jerry’s interest continued to expand and he learned how to make pastries, and experimented with French and Italian cuisine.
When he met Lydia, this love for cooking and entertaining continued. One year, a friend asked them to cater her law firm’s holiday party which inspired them to start a catering business that they called A Special Touch. Around 1992, they along with some partners, opened a brick and mortar store in Woodbridge which exclusively sold soul food.
A couple years later, Jerry’s mother was diagnosed with cancer. That, combined with the birth of their second child and full-time careers, caused the Young’s to step back from the business, but the passion for food remained.
After Jerry retired, the Young’s decided to start selling some of their culinary creations at the Springfield farmer’s market. When customers kept asking them where their restaurant was, Jerry decided to open Della J’s.
The restaurant serves all the classic southern foods like fried chicken, okra, grits, collard greens, mac & cheese and barbecue. Some of the most popular dishes are the catfish, jumbo fried chicken wings and shrimp and grits which is served on the weekends. Jerry’s personal favorite is the salmon stuffed with jumbo lump crab meat. All the seafood comes in fresh which Jerry says is key.
Dishes like chicken taquitos and Moroccan stew add an international flair. For dessert, guests can enjoy sweet potato pie, banana pudding and peach cobbler made from scratch. Della J’s also has a full bar and a long list of specialty cocktails.
Now, the Young’s have decided close the Springfield location and move to 7692 Richmond Hwy. in Mount Vernon Plaza. The new location will give them a larger space, more updated facilities and greater visibility. They frequently got requests to rent the restaurant for large groups which they had to turn away if they were more than 75 people but the new restaurant will accommodate up to 187 guests.
The Youngs are excited about the new location. “We plan to bring some entertainment to the new space like a little jazz trio possibly on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights,” said Jerry. “We are creating a great atmosphere.”
“The thing that people like about us right now, they like that nice warm homey feeling. They feel comfortable, they like the jazz music we play all the time. They like the comfort of having the southern comfort food and the family atmosphere. We want to make sure we maintain that same concept as we move over to the new place,” said Lydia.
Della J’s is currently hiring for their new location with plans to open later this month.
