The Voice of the Loy Norrix Community

Knight Life

The Voice of the Loy Norrix Community

Knight Life

The Voice of the Loy Norrix Community

Knight Life

Subscribe to the Newsletter
Ace Hardware
(Photo Illustration) A student drives her car while talking to someone on the phone. This violates Kelsey’s Law which prohibits drivers from using their cell phone while driving.
Scholarship rewards $5,000 to high school students for bringing awareness to distracted teen driving
Sophia Wrzesinski and Flora HarperMarch 21, 2024

The Kelsey’s Law scholarship is open for submissions until Mar. 31. Hosted by the Michigan Auto Law, the scholarship awards a total of $5,000...

What are Your Spring Break Plans?
What are Your Spring Break Plans?
Isaac Atkinson and Stan ThomasMarch 21, 2024

Red Cross Supervisor Cindy Vandermeer prepares Teya Dawson for her blood donation. Dawson was a first-time donor.
NHS hosts a successful blood drive, saving lives in and out of the community
Isabella Figueroa, Chief Copy Editor • March 21, 2024

“My dad and my mom both needed blood products when they were still living, so it's just really important to me so that the blood stays local,”...

TnT A Touch of Soul: Family Owned and Phenomenal

“I have to embrace every last crumb, that’s how good it is,” said Loy Norrix senior TJ Powell about TnT, A Touch of Soul, a local barbecue place in Kalamazoo located at 112 East Cork Street.

PeoplePicture.jpg
Pictures of owners Katisha and Terrance Burton located in TnT, A Touch of Soul. These two still are working side-by-side to make the delicious barbecue at their restaurant. Photo Credit / Alex Vonhof

TnT was started by Katisha and Terrance Burton, who met at a cooking class at the Van Buren Technology Center in Lawrence, Michigan. During the school year of 1993-94 they started dating. Terrance was a senior and Katisha was a junior in high school.
For her 31st birthday, Terrance threw Katisha, otherwise known as Ms. Tish, a party at her sister’s apartment complex. Having moved from Covert, Michigan, to Kalamazoo in 2006, they didn’t really know too many people at the time, so Terrance invited the entire apartment complex to the party.
They cooked a variety of different kinds of barbecue, which turned out to be a big hit. The residents of the apartment complex started coming up to them and telling them that they were crazy to not sell their barbecue hits. This idea took root, and eventually they opened the restaurant in October of 2006.
Even when the restaurant opened, Ms. Tish faced challenges getting it going.
“Five years ago I was homeless selling the barbecue out of my car,” said Ms. Tish, “and people in the Hilltop apartments started telling the owner [of the apartment complex], who sold barbecue but it wasn’t good, that we should get together and unite like a transformer.”
After those 3 united, they were truly unstoppable and have made excellent barbecue.
ladytalking.jpg
Ms. Tish talks to a customer in Tnt, A Touch of Soul. The customer decided to not provide his name for the article. Photo Credit /Alex Vonhof

Ms. Tish and Terrance have made barbecue since the restaurant started, and it’s always been a family business.
“My sister, daughter, husband and niece work here,” said Ms. Tish. “I’m a mother, wife and business owner with no experience. We’re just living and loving each other. One family.”
Ms. Tish’s family is from Brownsville, Tennessee, so the food is a Memphis style barbecue. Memphis style barbecue means that the meat is slow roasted, and can be described as either “dry” or “wet,” describing whether there is a rub, for dry, or a sauce, for wet, on it.
Food.jpg
The meat and sides in a food warmer inside the store. On the top are the sides and on the bottom is the smoked meat. Photo Credit / Alex Vonhof

“It taste so good, make you want to smack your mama,” said TJ Powell.
The menu includes pulled pork sandwiches, racks of ribs, fried chicken and nacho fries, along with many other barbecue combinations.
Ms. Tish said that there was a really important lesson that she took away from her journey starting the restaurant: “It’s important to never give up, no matter the obstacles in your life.”
Ms. Tish and Terrance are currently getting ready to open a new sit-down restaurant. Her plan is to open it on December 1, 2017, on Riverview Drive, although she doesn’t know the exact address. The theme of the restaurant is still barbecue, but Ms. Tish wants to do a lot with potatoes and putting things such as crab legs or shrimp on top of the potatoes.

View Comments (1)
More to Discover

Comments (1)

All Knight Life Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Activate Search
The Voice of the Loy Norrix Community
TnT A Touch of Soul: Family Owned and Phenomenal