Four fraternity brothers of UL-Lafayette are now opening up a new restaurant in Lafayette. This comes after the high demand for their  Kitchen on Klinton food truck. 

It all began in 2016 inside a little home on Clinton Street. 

Tre’Jan Vinson, Jared Johnson, Avery Bell and Corey McCoy are all fraternity brothers of Kappa Alpha Psi and recent graduates of UL-Lafayette. 

Avery Bell enjoyed cooking chicken for his brothers from time to time. The four began trying different recipes and sauces but little did they know- they’d soon be feeding an entire community. 

“At one point, we were going to every supermarket in town, cleaning them out of all of their chicken. Then, we couldn’t store all the chicken we had to serve on the food truck,” said McCoy. “We knew eventually we would outgrow it and it was a little faster than we were comfortable with, but it’s a blessing,” he added. 

Clinton Street became filled with friends, family, neighbors and community members stopping by to purchase their food. 

The high-demand encouraged them to get a food truck in 2017. The Kitchen on Klinton, or KOK, food truck was a huge success at events, festivals and just normal days parked in a businesses’ lot. 

It was almost ‘too’ successful. Lines of people grew more and more each time the guys set up the truck, causing them to find new locations to work at. 

They found a location on 405 East University to park the truck. That’s when an opportunity came knocking at their door. 

When discussing with the building owner about using that area for the truck, they were offered to purchase the entire building. 

“Throughout your life, these opportunities will come up.. but, it’s about the consistency daily you put out. If you’re not ready for the opportunity that comes, it’ll pass you by,” said Vinson. “So, if we wouldn’t have done anything that we’ve done up to this point, we wouldn’t have been ready for this opportunity,” he added. 

Nine months after operating out of the truck, the men took the offer and are now opening their restaurant. 

A ribbon cutting is taking place Friday, August 31 at 6:30 p.m. on 405 East University.