‘Euphoria’ star Nika King helps her mom, Chef Sharon Allen, serve up tasty soul food at Blue Tree Café

On “Euphoria,” Zendaya counts on her TV mom, Nika King, to help her do the right thing. At her new restaurant, Nika counts on her mom to whip up soul food that’s delicious and tasty. Let’s just say both mothers are coming through, big time.

Nika King (as Leslie Bennett): “If you wanna fry every last brain cell in your head go ahead.”

Zendaya (as Rue Bennett): “What? What?”

Nika King (as Leslie Bennett): “That’s exciting to you, huh? Bein’ a crackhead?”

Zendaya (as Rue Bennett): “I just feel like there’s a catch here.”

When Nika King isn’t busy taking care of Zendaya on the HBO series “Euphoria,” she’s helping out her own mom at Fort Lauderdale’s Blue Tree Café.

Nika King: “Blue Tree Café is this woman’s genius idea. It’s a plant-based, plant forward kitchen, and also an incubator program.”

We’ll get to that incubator stuff in a minute. You know you want to hear more about the food.

Nika King: “We have soul food, healthy soul food. We don’t use white sugar, we don’t use white bread, so we’re really conscious about the ingredients we use, because we want the food to not only taste good, but we want it to be good for your soul.”

You can get your protein here, but it’s not the star of the show.

Chef Sharon Allen: “We do have meat, but it’s a limited meat. We only do poultry or fish, but it’s a side, which means it’s not the entree. The entree is the vegetables.”

The mix of plants and proteins is like a little food version of Nika and Chef Sharon.

Chef Sharon Allen:: “She is a strict vegan. I am a flexitarian. That means I’m flexible.”

There are totally vegan bowls — that’s vegan mac ‘n’ cheese, by the way. The Blue Soul Bowls can be topped with either shredded chicken or grilled mahi-mahi.

FYI, it’s delivery or pick-up here only.

Darius Daughtry: “The fact that we can have a place that has real food, like plant-based, healthy, nutritious food for our community, it’s something that we’ve need for a long time.”

Along with the United Way, the ladies are also using this café to pay it forward to restaurants that were hit hard during COVID. They’re throwing a lifeline to chefs who are trying very hard to restart their businesses.

Chef Wilfred Ostanne: “I thought it was a dream that I was having, but when she actually brought me into the kitchen to see what’s going on here, I think this is the place for most chefs to get their head start, to get a great start again, and do what they love to do.”

Nika plans to bring her “Euphoria” co-star down to Blue Tree Café ASAP.

Nika King: “Zendaya’s actually vegetarian, so she would definitely enjoy some of the food that we have, and the idea is, yes, to get her down here.”

Nika King (as Leslie Bennett): “I’m taking you off my plate.”

Zendaya (as Rue Bennett): “OK.”

FOR MORE INFO:
Blue Tree Café
612 NW 9th Ave. A
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311
786-239-9131
bluetreecafe.com

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