This food's got soul.

Byline: Joe Mosley The Register-Guard

Here's the no-duh question of the day: How does a popular chef and restaurateur come to be nicknamed "Papa?"

And the equally obvious answer: "I was named after my Dad," says Ted "Papa" Lee.

He has taken the same straightforward approach to the restaurant business, gaining a reputation around Eugene as purveyor of up-front, down-home Southern cooking - first from a barbecue cart and most recently from a cubbyhole of a storefront on West 11th Avenue.

Papa's no rolling stone, but he's about to move again - this time to a Whiteaker neighborhood spot with elbow room that he's calling Papa's Soul Food Kitchen and Blues Joint. His West 11th location will close today, and he and his wife, Deborah, will focus their efforts on the new restaurant.

"You spread yourself too thin, you kind of lose your product," Lee says.

The new building - best known as the former Hilda's Latin American Restaurant - is across Blair Boulevard from Sam Bond's Garage and across Fourth Avenue from the Tiny Tavern. It's been vacant since Tarasco's Mexican Restaurant was foreclosed upon by its lender and went out of business in September 2004.

The Lees have leased the building from Doug Ebbitt, who purchased it last summer, and are just completing a thorough but no-frills update. They've exposed and refinished the wood floors (Lee says: "You can't have a barbecue place with carpet on the floors."), repainted all the walls and replaced the light fixtures.

The most eye-catching addition is a bar made from distressed corrugated roofing material that Lee found at BRING Recycling.

"It's an old building," he says. "We wanted to keep it old (looking) like that."

But the focus of the new restaurant will be its food - largely the same menu that he says has drawn consistently large and appreciative crowds at the West 11th restaurant.

"You'd be amazed how many people I feed at my little spot," Lee says when asked if he'll be able to fill the new restaurant. "Every day, I'm amazed."

While the old restaurant was limited to four tables - all outside, along the busy thoroughfare - the new one will have 50, divided between two dining rooms and a tree-shaded back deck.

Staples on the menu include barbecue ribs, barbecue pulled pork, fried catfish, black-eyed peas, collard greens, and macaroni and cheese. Lee also makes his own New Orleans-style gumbo, and says the new restaurant will offer some additional stews along with Southern fried chicken, soft-shelled crab and some vegetarian selections.

The new restaurant will feature beer and wine and, Lee says, "This could be the only place on the West Coast with Kool-Aid on tap."

Prices will remain the same as those at the old location: for the most part, $5 sandwiches, $6 gumbo and $9 full-meal plates.

"I don't feel right gouging people," Lee says when asked if his prices will rise. "This is my hobby; it's my thing. My payback is watching people walk out of here happy."

Papa Lee was born and raised in Long Beach, Calif., to "Southern emigrant" parents. His mother ran a Long Beach soul food restaurant called the Colonial, and he says his ambition since he was a child has been to own and operate a similar place.

He originally came to Oregon with college in mind, but eventually dropped out and moved to New Orleans and other points south to find his culinary roots.

He returned to Oregon in the early 1990s and says he has cooked in "just about every restaurant in town."

But he says there's a difference between cooking Middle Eastern food or even high-end cuts of steak, and preparing the dishes that he feels in his soul.

So he gave up cooking for other restaurants in favor of a red barbecue cart he operated at Seventh Avenue and Polk Street. He left that to be the featured chef for a year at Joe's Bar and Grill, at 21 W. Sixth Ave., then started Papa's Soul Food Kitchen in June in the 600-square-foot space on West 11th.

The new, 1,400-square-foot restaurant will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Tuesdays through Thursdays, and will remain open later for regular live blues performances Friday and Saturday nights.

Papa's own group - the Podunk Blues Band - will be the featured performers in what he hopes will be a relaxed, listen-while-you-eat atmosphere.

"I wanted this kind of place, because I have kids and I wanted kids to be able to come in and eat, and enjoy good music," he says.

Retail Notebook runs on Fridays. Joe Mosley can be reached at 338-2384 or [e-mail].