28 Days of Soul Food: Day 24
These 6 restaurants across the country pay homage to Black legends with signature cocktails, historic design elements and more.
I wouldn’t consider the following Black-owned establishments themed restaurants, yet each serves a heaping side of Black history with every meal. They range from a Chicago coffee shop honoring First Lady Michelle Obama and other local prominent folks with vibrant wall art to an Atlanta bar paying homage to African-American contributions to the cocktail industry.
For owners, these tributes go beyond aesthetics. They respectfully weave in the legacies of Black pioneers to remind all about their sacrifices and achievements. Not all is pretty and glamorous, but it is American history.
Says chef Erick Williams about his design approach to Chicago’s Virtue Restaurant & Bar: “We have seen food culture advance across the spectrum, and African-American food has been slow to progress. We simply wanted a space that showed natural progression in both the design and fare.”
Here, you’ll find several prominent eateries across the country that have caught my eye.
Beans & Cornbread (Detroit)
For the past three years during Black History Month, Beans & Cornbread owner Patrick Coleman has featured the “shoebox lunch” to give diners an idea of what it was like for Black people to dine out during the Jim Crow era. They weren’t allowed to eat in white establishments and were forced to take their food “to go” in shoeboxes. Beans & Cornbread re-creates the experience with actual historic photos and facts printed on each shoebox. Your meal, which consists of fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, and collard greens, is in the commemorative box.
Booker’s Restaurant & Bar (Philadelphia)
Booker Wright is not a name familiar to most people. He worked as a waiter in an all-white restaurant in Mississippi during the 1960s. Simultaneously, he ran a successful catering business where all his clients were Black. During that time, he was interviewed by a producer on his thoughts on racism for the documentary, “Mississippi: A Self Portrait.” When the documentary was released in 1965, he was beaten by police, shunned by customers at the restaurant, forcing him to quit, and his catering business was firebombed. He was eventually murdered, and a second documentary was released in 2012, entitled “Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story.” Owner Saba Tedla was inspired by his story and opened Booker’s Restaurant & Bar in 2017 to honor his legacy with modern Southern fare in a sleek setting. Menu highlights range from fried okra in siracha honey aioli to spicy mango salmon served with garlic butter mashed potatoes.
The Grey (Savannah, Georgia)
Mashama Bailey and Johno Morisano’s award-winning The Grey Restaurant is situated in a former Greyhound bus terminal — located on what’s now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard — that was segregated up until the Civil Rights Movement. They’ve written about their unlikely partnership in their new culinary memoir, Black, White, and The Grey, which also details the rich history of the venue. The restaurant’s concept is modern Southern with fresh, seasonal ingredients.
Parlor Cocktail Den (Atlanta)
So many Black folks have made significant contributions to classic and modern cocktail culture. It’s nice to see them finally getting their due. At vibrantly decorated Parlor Cocktail Den, in Atlanta, owner Alphonzo Cross gives props by creating drinks in their honor. Of note is the Mr. Jones cocktail (a riff on the Old Fashioned and features the Black-owned Uncle Nearest whiskey, which honors Nathan “Nearest” Green, an ex-slave who taught Jack Daniels the distilling trade) as well as a spirit-free sipper made with Black-owned, Atlanta-based Beauty Water. All the cocktails are bottled for to-go consumption. Cross is looking to move Parlor to a larger space, so that he may offer more unique programming and jobs for those who live in the community. Here is his campaign.
South Shore Brew (Chicago)
The community-focused coffeeshop celebrated its second anniversary in January. South Shore Brew is in the same neighborhood where Michelle Obama grew up and where Jesse Jackson Sr. raised his family. You’ll find oversized portraits of them on the walls as well as famed late poet laureate Gwendolyn Brooks — who I had the honor of interviewing for the cover story of Columbia College’s glossy magazine — and Mayor Harold Washington. Owned by Jennifer and Cory Barnes, the restaurant features light bites such as panini, pastries and salads.
Virtue Restaurant & Bar (Chicago)
Works by local artists Dawoud Bey and Theaster Gates are on grand display at chef Erick Williams’ highly regarded Virtue Restaurant & Bar in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. Williams says artwork through the space starts with the early 1990s and goes back to the Jim Crow era. For the latter, Bey has created a piece that has Langston Hughes on full display in a gathering with friends in a time when it was not so comfortable for Black people in America, says Williams. Gates’ contribution is subtle, yet provocative once you learn its origins: The hanging exhibition consists of reclaimed fire hoses dating back to the race riots when firemen and police officers used them to break up protests. There’s more. The curtains in the windows have patterns mimicking tribal African patterns, and that same pattern is reinforced through lace in the windows. Gold accents in the signage and foyer represent the mining that takes place in South Africa. Six light fixtures in the dining room are in the shape of jugs of the ones African women carried on their heads. And adjacent to the jugs are hanging tobacco baskets. Their significance, says Williams, is to remind him of the labor his ancestors endured to allow him to do the work he does today.