At the corner of 13th Avenue and Broadway, the smell of a home-cooked meal wafts to the sidewalk as the doors to Sistas with Soul open. Inside, Pamela Junior stands behind the counter, greeting regulars, welcoming newcomers, and serving food. Her sister, Alici’a Junior, slips between the kitchen and dining room, frying fish in the back and carrying each plate out herself, hot and ready for the customer.
They don’t want to forget a face, and they don’t want to serve anything less than fresh, so they stay on the move.
“For me and my sister, it’s more than just a business for us,” Alici’a said. On the cusp of their one-year anniversary, the two sisters are serving dishes that are staples in the Black community as one of its newest restaurants.
As Gary looks to rebuild its local business scene — with new developments like the planned Lake County Convention Center and new storefronts opening citywide — small businesses like Sistas with Soul are helping shape what that growth looks like, one plate at a time.
For Pamela, owning a restaurant was always somewhere in her future. Born and raised in Chicago, she and Alici’a grew up watching their mother pull long shifts while they figured out dinner in the family kitchen. That kitchen became their classroom and the place where Pamela first fell in love with cooking.
“Food is a way that I express myself, especially with family and friends,” Pamela said.
For over a decade, Pamela worked for a construction company while building a catering side hustle on the weekends. Alici’a delivered mail for the U.S. Postal Service. After hours, Pamela’s boss, who enjoyed her cooking, let her use the company’s kitchen to keep up with orders. But when that boss fell ill, and Alici’a started facing health issues of her own, the sisters knew they needed something new.
At that point, Pamela asked herself what was something that she was passionate about, never got tired of doing, and would work best for her sister’s health.
And the only answer that made sense to both of them was cooking full time.
While she loves being in the kitchen, Alici’a hated cooking as a child but learned how during those late nights. When their mother died in 2014, the holiday cooking baton fell to the sisters. That’s when they discovered recipes and dishes they enjoyed making together and sharing with others.
Her family moved to Gary more than seven years ago from Chicago, hoping for a fresh start away from the increasing violence in parts of the city. As a mother of three boys, Alici’a didn’t want her children caught up in it. But after nearly a decade in Gary, she realized the city lacked the kind of restaurants she grew up with.
“Every time I didn’t feel like cooking, I found myself having to drive way back to the city to get that home-cooked meal that I was used to having,” Alici’a said. It was around this time that her sister suggested starting their own food business.
The duo got their start at a bar in Chicago, where they were hired to cater meals for patrons two days a week. The arrangement was a success. Two years ago, they decided to branch out on their own, buying a food trailer that, after some care and repairs, became their mobile kitchen. For a while, they catered events and served customers through the spring and summer, but eventually, they decided they didn’t want their business to depend on warm weather alone.
So they started looking for a permanent place to put down roots.
“There was no better place than Gary,” Alici’a said.
And in August 2024, at 1291 Broadway, they opened their doors to the Gary community.
“We want to be a part of this and be able to build our legacy and our future out here,” Pamela said, referring to the revitalization that Gary is undergoing. “[To] just be a part of the change in helping Gary grow, and also just to be a part of the community.”
That mission now extends beyond the kitchen as the sisters look for ways to support the community outside the walls of their restaurant.
“Our mission is not about just making some money and getting this food out there,” Alici’a stated. “We want to make a change in the community.”
Despite the challenges, they still plan to host events for children, people experiencing homelessness, and others in need, either on their own or by partnering with other businesses to help revitalize the city.
“It takes a village,” Pamela said. “We’re only one restaurant, so we don’t have the manpower or finances to finance something on that level by ourselves, so it has to be part of the collective.”