Luda may have been pretty quiet on the music scene the past few years, but that's not because he hasn't busy. Not only has he established himself as a legitimate actor, but he's built several business ventures, including liquor brand Conjure, Soul by Ludacris headphones and a new educational website for kids. But perhaps most impressive is his Singaporean restaurant Atlanta Straits, which has been a smashing success ever since 2007. Luda recently connected with BlackEnterprise.com to talk about the establishment and how he's managed to make it such a hit.
Luda surprised everyone when he announced that the restaurant would specialize in the cuisine of Singapore. "Man, it’s some of my favorite food and I never want to be typical," he explained of the decision. "People think if I open a restaurant that it’s automatically going to be soul food. I love to throw curve balls to people all the time; I love to be different, I strive for excellence. Atlanta is just one of these places where it’s a melting pot when it comes to so many different cultures and styles, and I just wanted to play towards that because people appreciate good food and with a little bit of an ethnic twist to it."
Luda also talked about how he discovered the exotic cuisine, and how that eventually led to the creation of Straits. "Just traveling all over the world and...taking some of my personal experiences and things that I love and bringing them to the city that I love," he said. "I partnered with someone who has a love and interest for. My business partner [Chef Yeo] and I met at a foundation event so we both had that in common and got to talking and one thing led to another, and we decided to go ahead and do this restaurant here in Atlanta."
Luda spoke about the restaurant's surprise success as well. "It’s coming to the point where it’s a staple in Atlanta and I’m just very proud of that," he said. "We have different nights where we have a live band and we have a Tuesday night [event] we’ve had going on for three years now which is basically an industry elite kind of trendsetter’s night. I’m just very happy. We have repeat customers and we have people who just love the food and they love the atmosphere and they love the ambiance."
To check out the full interview, click here.
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