BATON ROUGE — Two Baton Rouge healthcare providers and longtime best friends started a restaurant together, serving soul food along Florida Boulevard.

Southern Chicks Cafe and Daiquiris, owned and operated by Dr. Jeremy Scott and Dr. Brandon Bakare, serves fried chicken, catfish, rice dressing, red beans and a variety of desserts.

"Southern food to me is seasoned food, but it's food cooked with love. It's not nessecarily something cute on the plate all the time. But something that you're going to eat and be happy that you ate. You'll leave full. You'll leave happy," Bakare said.

The two men have been friends for nearly 20 years. Bakare is a Baton Rouge native who graduated from Baton Rouge High, while Scott is from Vidalia. They both met at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

"Me and Brandon have been friends since we were 18; we actually met freshman year in college. We ended up being roommates, and then throughout the years we sprouted a friendship,” Scott said.

Some might say the friendship was meant to be, eventually pledging the same fraternity at ULM.

"Omega Psi Phi, the Mu Lambda chapter, the animal chapter,” Bakare noted.

After graduation, they both went into healthcare, with Bakare becoming a pharmacist and Scott a physical therapist.

They also share a love for cooking that convinced them to go into business together.

“Somebody who is reliable, who's disciplined, who can work together, we can bounce ideas off each other. We can disagree and still push forward, so it was an easy decision,” Bakare said.

Balancing both jobs is challenging, but it’s all worth it when they get to meet the customers.

"It gives me big unk feels, so I don't know about you, but I grew up with an uncle that loves to cook. I used to always wonder why he would stare at us cooking, but I love to watch people eat our food and enjoy it. So I guess I feel like my big uncle to an extent now," Scott said. "I just love to watch people eat our food."