On a visit to Melba's Restaurant in Harlem, there's a good chance you will find owner Melba Wilson holding court with diners. Or she may be in the kitchen with her staff, making sure everything that comes out of there looks and tastes delicious.

Wilson, who was born, bred and buttered in Harlem, as she says, opened the restaurant at West 114th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in 2005, using money she had saved under her mattress.

She had worked at other restaurants previously, including a stint at Sylvia's, the famous Harlem spot for soul food owned by her late aunt Sylvia Woods.

"I said, 'Let me invest in a community that's invested so much in me, a community that's raised me,'" Wilson said.

At Melba's, they cook up soul food, comfort food like fried chicken and mac and cheese that Wilson says evokes wonderful, warm memories. She learned the recipes from her grandmother Mia, with whom she spent time during summers in Hemingway, South Carolina.

"Some of these recipes are recipes that were sight and seen, where I would watch my grandmother cook, and then write the recipes down, and others are recipes that I literally found on brown paper bags," Wilson said. Those recipes have attracted many new and repeat customers, and overthe years, Melba's has welcomed plenty of notables from the entertainment, sports and culinary world.

"We've had A$AP Ferg, A$AP Rocky, Katy Perry, Harry and Meghan, DJ Khaled, another one, Jerry Jones, Kendrick Lamar," said Wilson as she listed some of the famous folks who have dined at her establishment in recent years.

For the first time this year, folks at the U.S. Open will be getting a taste of Melba's on site. Featured items include a waffle cone with fried chicken bites inside, a tribute to Melba's famous chicken and waffles. There's also vegetable spring rolls, greens, and of course, the mac and cheese.

"You know I had to bring that mac and cheese. They would not let me in the U.S. Open without my mac and cheese. There would be no deuces and no love if I didn't bring the mac and cheese," Wilson said.

Wilson knows catering to such big numbers can be a challenge, but her team is ready to take it on.

"We've been catering for 18 years. We're up for this, we have an amazing team," Wilson said. "There's no way I could ever do this by myself, but we have a great team and we are really prepared, and we are ready to hit it out of the park."

If you ask Wilson, she is bringing a lot more than Melba's famous food to Flushing Meadows for tennis fans.

"I'm bringing a community. I'm bringing a community that is the second most visited space in New York City. Times Square is first, Harlem is the second. It's the mecca of Black culture," said Wilson, who is happy to bring culture and comfort to the U.S. Open.