BROTHERS TAP VALLEY'S SOUL; RESTAURANT SERVES UP CHILDHOOD MEMORIES AND HOME COOKING.

Byline: Sharline Chiang Daily News Staff Writer

Ron Moss still remembers what he did when big brother Jerome suggested opening a soul food restaurant in the San Fernando Valley.

He laughed.

``I thought, people are going to buy what we ate at home?'' Ron said, chuckling. ``I thought it was such a simple menu. It wasn't French cuisine.''

Even Jerome wasn't sure, until a trip to a crowded soul food joint named Aunt Kizzy's Back Porch in Marina del Rey changed his mind.

``When I first started I was very stereotypical and thought I had to go to South Central. I thought, we gotta go where the black folks are,'' Jerome said. ``Then I thought, this would work in the Valley.''

For the past 10 years, the Moss brothers from Chesapeake, Va. - Jerome, 42, Connell, 41, and Ron, 40 - have been making soul food work in the Valley.

With Angel Lena's Soul Food Kitchen in Sherman Oaks, named after their late grandmother Angelena Boone, the brothers have offered up childhood memories as rich as sweet potato pie, as bittersweet as collard greens.

As Los Angeles celebrates Black History Month this month, Angel Lena's and other soul food joints are enjoying even more business than usual.

Soul food has become a cuisine of choice, putting it right up there with Mexican, Italian and Chinese as one of the answers to, Where are we eating tonight? A gospel music and soul food Sunday brunch at the House of Blues has grown so popular that the West Hollywood nightclub now offers several seatings each week, for instance.

Many credit soul food's recent surge in popularity to last year's movie ``Soul Food,'' a story of three sisters who drifted apart and reunited through home cooking.

``A lot of people who wouldn't normally eat soul food, it got them thinking and got them to come in,'' said Steven Fontenette, manager of Mom's Barbecue House in Van Nuys.

Tight trio

The Moss brothers' story could warrant a screenplay.

The tightknit trio grew up in the early 1950s sharing one bedroom above their grandmother's country store. Before they turned 10, the boys moved in with Angelena, or ``Ma'' as they called her, after their parents divorced.

On Sundays after church, Angelena would stir up red sausage, casseroles and her famous pineapple rice pudding - Jerome has just about given up trying to replicate it - for a clan of cousins and aunts.

In the tiny, yellow kitchen smelling of fresh, baked bread, the slender woman with white hair and glasses would hum along to gospel tunes on the radio.

Angelena fed the neighbors, too.

``Everybody loved her. She would feed the community and give people credit even before people knew what credit was,'' Ron said.

Food to Hollywood

By the early 1980s, the brothers left their hometown to do what was considered unthinkable by most guys in Chesapeake: chase dreams of Hollywood.

After a brief try at college through an opera scholarship, Connell brought his velvety voice and his dream to be a music star.

Outgoing Ron wanted to act. And Jerome, then a McDonald's veteran of 15 years, yearned to be a business maven, like J.R. Ewing.

Ironically, the food of their youth - hearty dishes like fried catfish, smothered pork chops, black-eyed peas and sweet yams - have helped make some of those dreams come true.

Angel Lena's has drawn big-name celebrities, from the Jackson family in the early 1980s to Snoop Doggy Dogg today, providing a gateway to the entertainment world.

The list of regulars and customers reads like a Hollywood party A-list: Janet Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Whitney Houston, Cybil Shepard, Danny Glover, Mick Jagger, Gladys Knight and Natalie Cole.

Through industry contacts, Connell has sung in clubs while writing and selling R&B songs. Ron, an on-and-off actor and stuntman, worked as the double for Mr. T of ``The A-Team'' and just landed a small role in Eddie Murphy's upcoming movie.

Meanwhile, there's always business to keep them busy.

While Jerome runs the Sherman Oaks place, Connell and he co-own Angelena's Chicken & Fish in North Hollywood. Ron helps out with catering, which accounts for 30 percent of their sales.

Tumultuous times

But it wasn't that easy in the beginning. Their inexperience threatened to end their chances of starting a business - as well as their brotherhood.

Even after the Mosses maxed out $40,000 in credit cards and successfully opened the restaurant in 30 days they were still faced with who should be in charge. The power struggle between Jerome and Connell created silence between them for a year.

There were also forces beyond their control that threatened to shut them down.

The aftermath of the L.A. Riots in 1992 nearly put them out of business and forced them to shut down a newly opened location in Tarzana. It seemed even good food couldn't bring people together.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Here are a few events on tap this week:

Dialogue on race relations, Campus Center at Los Angeles Mission College, 13356 Eldridge Ave., Sylmar, 6 to 8 p.m.

Literature and short story readings, California State University, Northridge, Satellite Student Union Fernandeno room, 6 to 10 p.m.

``Save the Dream'' march and rally with Rainbow Coalition, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Brotherhood Crusade. March starts at the Los Angeles Coliseum to Figueroa Street to Ninth Street to Main and Third streets and ends at the Ronald Reagan State Building, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Tuesday

``Tribute to Black Women of the Past and Present,'' CSUN, Satellite Student Union Fernandeno room, 7 p.m.

Wednesday

``Our Young Black Men are Dying'' play, CSUN Performing Arts Center, 7 p.m.

Saturday

Black History Month Celebration activites for the family, Los Angeles Mission College, 13356 Eldridge Ave., Sylmar, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

CAPTION(S):

Photo, Box

Photo: Connell Moss, left, and his brother Jerome hold plates of soul food at Angel Lena's Soul Food Kitchen.

David Sprague/Daily News

Box: BLACK HISTORY MONTH (See Text)