ROCKINGHAM — For Ashleigh Morman, cooking was a way to deal with the grief of losing family members.
Now, she’s using it to earn a living and pay tribute to those she lost.
Morman held a grand opening on Saturday, March 1 for her new venture, Legacy Restaurant, on Airport Road, southeast of Rockingham.
Born and raised in Richmond County, Morman grew up cooking with her parents, Garcia and Debbie Tillman-Johnson.
Her first job in the business was at Charlie’s Corner in Roberdel.
When her aunt passed away in 2010, Morman said she “wanted to do something in her memory, but I never acted on anything.”
Morman said her father was diagnosed with cancer in 2015 and they were discussing various business ventures and tossed around the idea of a restaurant.
Two years later, her father, his sister and one of Morman’s friends passed away.
“So from that point, I was like, ‘I’ve got to find something to deal with grief’ — so I started cooking,” she said from one of the white linen-draped tables at the back of the restaurant.
Morman said her cousin has an organization that feeds bereaving families.
“When they fed our family, we had a Thanksgiving feast,” Morman said. “I’ve never seen nothing like it before.”
After that experience, Morman started doing the same, providing different foods than what would come from a fast food chain restaurant.
Fast forward to 2020 when Morman bought a food truck.
“We did a couple of events, went to the racetrack, different things,” she said. “But still … I never just went whole-heartedly with that either, so I started catering.”
When her mother passed away last August, Morman decided to channel her grief into a restaurant.
Through a friend, she was able to secure her location — which is known for serving as the site for Mama’s Kitchen and more recently Kountry Kitchen.
The name of her three businesses — Legacy — is to honor her parents, her grandmother Vivian Morman and two aunts, Diane Tillman-Johnson and Lorie Morman. Her parents and aunts are featured in graphics to promote the businesses, including on T-shirts worn by the staff.
While the everyday menu includes standard fare like hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken wings, the items for the grand opening were more upscale: lamb chops, stuffed flounder, salmon and ribeye steak. Jumbo shrimp and lobster tail were also available as add-ons.
Morman said some of those items may appear on the menu as Saturday specials in the future. She is also running specials for Seafood Friday and Soul Food Sunday, the latter which will change every week.
In addition to the food, there was also musical entertainment provided outside by Stephon and Chyna Goodwin.
Morman said her vision is to build a chain and “Take Legacy everywhere.”
“I just want people to know that no matter what you go through — hurt, pain, depression, whatever — you can still fulfill any dreams,” Morman said. “Take your pain to fuel your fire.”
