This Southern Hidden Gem Has An Unexpectedly Deep Celebrity Connection

Nellie's Southern Kitchen is a beloved comfort food restaurant housed in a historic building in Belmont, North Carolina, a small city just west of Charlotte. You might not know it from the name, but this humble establishment is connected to some of the world's most famous musicians.

Denise Jonas and Kevin Jonas Sr. — parents of the globally famous Jonas Brothers, Kevin, Joe, and Nick — founded Nellie's in 2016. After managing their sons' music careers, the couple named the restaurant after Kevin Sr.'s grandmother, whose fried chicken and banana pudding are star items on the menu inspired by her cooking.

Although Nellie's doesn't go overboard with its celebrity connection, it does feature plenty of references. One Easter egg for longtime Jonas Brothers fans is the Love Bug Cheeseburger, named after one of the band's earliest hits. A more obvious hint appears in a hallway displaying the band's achievements, which might feel out of place if the restaurant weren't owned by the brothers' proud parents.

Nellie's Southern Kitchen may be a restaurant with an unexpected celebrity connection, but Jonas family history shows how the brothers' success is intertwined with food. In 2023, Kevin Jonas Sr. told Food & Wine about how his grandmother, Nellie Jonas, would cook for the whole family, singing and smiling, even after working a long shift at the cotton mill.

Denise Jonas, Kevin Sr.'s wife, brought that culinary focus to the family with her own passion for food and instituted a tradition in which the family ate breakfast and dinner together every day. These countless shared meals continued through the Jonas Brothers' early stardom and provided a space for the family to discuss and appreciate the band's success.

Food is woven into the family's past, present, and future successes. At some point in 2025, Nick Jonas will open a Miami restaurant called Villa One Tequila Gardens, named after his and John Varvatos' excellent Villa One tequila. Back in 2022, Nellie's opened a more extravagant location at the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas. Especially hungry guests might be disappointed that it doesn't have one of the city's famous buffets, but one of the best buffets in Las Vegas is right across the street at the Excalibur.