6:30AM
The grits go on.
The water sat overnight with salt and butter. Now the grits cook slow — thirty to forty-five minutes — until they’re fluffy enough to make you forget your manners.
Forty yearsof honestgoodness.
“My father put on the side of that truck, J and J Morrell. Seeing that gave me so much pride — and it’s still with me today.”
1984
A counter in a butcher shop
Eddie and Cynthia Earley open a little kitchen in the corner of Henry’s Meats on the south side of Tallahassee. Folks come for the meat and stay for the grits.
2008
The Morrells take the ladle
Jay Morrell — FAMU alum and the university’s executive chef for eight years — and his wife Anita buy Earley’s and promise to keep it honest.
2020
A seat at the Capitol
Jay wins the five-year contract to run food service at the Florida Capitol. Earley’s at the Capitol opens on the lower level and the 10th floor, right in time for Session.
Today
A new home on South Monroe
Remodeled, still unassuming from the street, with Saturday and Sunday brunch, catering and the same fried chicken people have argued about for forty years.