Melba’s, the Harlem soul food institution, is headed for television: Apple TV+ is developingAmerican Comfort, a comedy series inspired by the life of restaurateur Melba Wilson, with Kenya Barris — creator of Black-ish — writing and executive producing. Danielle Brooks, who earned an Oscar nomination for the Color Purple, is set to star as Melba. Oprah Winfrey and her production company Harpo Entertainment are also executive producing.
The idea came to Wilson during COVID. “There’s a story here,” she says, “a story about people who come together through food. Food is a common denominator — it doesn’t care how you look, who you love, how many degrees you have or you don’t have. The only thing it cares about is that you sit down and enjoy.” She
told a friend, director Neema Barnette, who told producer Aaron Kaplan, who told Oprah. “And the rest,” Wilson says, “is herstory.”
Wilson also serves as an executive producer on the series and is involved in the storylines. “It’s not just about me, it’s about we,” she says. “Harlem is a character.” The series, she says, is “a love letter to Harlem” — about economic empowerment, community investment, and small businesses.
No premiere date or episode count has been announced. “That information,” Wilson says, “is still in formation.”
Wilson opened Melba’s nearly 20 years ago, drawing on what she’d learned working at her aunt Sylvia Woods’s legendarySylvia’s, also in Harlem, as well as at Rosa Mexicano and Windows on the World. She brought along Southern dishes from her grandmother — fried catfish, fried shrimp, rice and peas, Lowcountry collards — but it was her chicken and waffles that made her famous. Made year-round with eggnog and served with strawberry butter and maple syrup, they earned national attention when Bobby Flay challenged her to a Throwdown on Food Network. She won.
Melba’s has expanded to locations at Grand Central Terminal, and Newark’s Prudential Center, though the Harlem original remains the flagship.The restaurant has since earned James Beard Award semifinalist nominations for Outstanding Hospitality in 2024 and 2025.
Wilson sits on the board of God’s Love We Deliver and Harlem Village Academy, where she recently taught four- and five-year-olds to make cornbread — having them measure, mix, and bake it themselves. “It’s important to lead by example,” she says. “That’s how we change generations to come.”
