After almost five years of on-and-off construction, permitting delays and all-around radio silence about its progress, the Fillmore’s bygone soul food spot Gussie’s Chicken and Waffles is closer than ever to opening a new restaurant in Uptown Oakland.

Owner Michele Wilson told Inside Scoop via email that construction on her new restaurant Gussie's Southern Table and Bar (2021 Broadway next to Paramount Theater), should be completed by May. After four years of “working through various challenges,” the doors could be open as early as June.

When it does, Gussie’s will be less than 400 feet from Tanya Holland’s new Brown Sugar Kitchen, which is also set to open in the coming months. Wilson made her name in the restaurant world long ago when she helped bring the Los Angeles soul food chain Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles to Northern California. She ran Roscoe’s with her ex-husband for a little less than decade before opening Gussie’s in 2009.

Gussie’s will also be one of several notable soul food businesses that have re-invented themselves over the last half-decade.

Since 2014, the Fillmore lost both 1300 on Fillmore and Black Bark, popular black-owned ventures from David Lawrence and co-owner (and wife) Monetta White. The restaurant has since opened a location at the San Francisco International Airport.

A similar tale is evident in Farmerbrown, which closed in 2018 after 13 years in the Tenderloin. It also lives on as restaurant at SFO. Its sibling project, Isla Vida, opened last year in the former Black Bark space.

In Oakland, Pican, a upscale Southern restaurant on Broadway, also bid farewell. An offshoot of the restaurant called PLāYT is open in downtown Hayward.

Part of the reason Gussie’s has taken so long to come online is that its Broadway address once belonged to Ragsmatazz, an Oakland clothing store. Changing it over to a restaurant meant conducting a full build-out and the process had its fair share of stops and starts.

Gussie’s is expected to have a spacious dining room and a downstairs lounge area capable of hosting live music. And that idea of merging a dining experience with late-night entertainment is similar to the approach at the new Brown Sugar Kitchen. Holland’s new spot has a lounge aesthetic, with sleek, black surfaces, light wood finishes and leather seating. Both will have full bars.

Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com