LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - If people truly eat with their eyes, they might miss out on gems like Big Momma’s Soul Food Kitchen. The west Louisville restaurant’s black gated door against a worn white exterior are enough to make some diners turn away before they give the lovingly prepared food a shot.
But if those diners were to enter, they’d be treated to a hand-crafted meal that could stand up to any dish coming out of a trendier restaurant in one of the city’s other neighborhoods.
This is the dilemma that many of Louisville’s black-owned restaurants face.
As the city continues to embrace its “foodie” status, more modern restaurants have become the talk of the town - while restaurants rooted in Louisville’s cultural history have all but fallen out of the conversation. What makes one get recognition over the other?
It’s all about money and perception, say some black chefs, who say they are often unable to secure loans or financial support when attempting to open a business. Their concerns are supported by multiple national studies.
“We got a lot of stereotypes,” said Jessie Green, the owner of Big Momma’s Soul Food Kitchen, 4532 W. Broadway. “They see the building and a lot of people don’t come in. That bothers me a little bit. … But once you start eating, you can tell the difference.”
Green has spent 15 years serving her mother’s crispy, juicy fried chicken out of her small restaurant near Shawnee Park - about as far west as Louisville gets.
She serves as much as 20 pounds of macaroni and cheese to customers that form a line out the door every Sunday, and she cooks free meals for more than 1,000 neighbors each Christmas Day.
Green has seen a handful of black-owned restaurants come and go in her time and says she’s not sure why they don’t seem able to stick around.
Over in Portland, Mamas Kitchen owner Linda Herald has a guess. Herald and her husband opened a carry out restaurant in February after two successful years of running a food truck.
“Black people don’t get as much funding as the other races do,” Herald said. “Everybody knows that; there’s no secret. … Their restaurants are going to be smaller, they’re not going to be as eye-catching. A lot of black businesses, a lot of them just don’t make it.”
A 2016 report from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research backs up Herald’s statement.
According to the report, black entrepreneurs nationwide are more likely to rely on personal equity and family support to open a business rather than using traditional capital like business loans or credit cards - for which they are more likely to be denied.
The financial discrepancies force black entrepreneurs to invest substantially less startup capital into their businesses than white entrepreneurs. At the time the research was conducted, the average level of startup capital among black entrepreneurs was $35,205, while the average startup capital for white entrepreneurs was $106,720.
Those figures, of course, account for all businesses. But their effects are visible in many of the black-owned restaurants that dot Louisville, from Shirley Mae’s Cafe in Smoketown to Barry’s Cheesesteaks & More on Preston Highway.
According to U.S. Census data, just 8% of Louisville’s accommodation and food service businesses were black-owned in 2012, the latest year for which numbers were available.
“Black folks can’t get brick-and-mortar restaurants in prime real estate to show off their talent,” culinary historian Michael Twitty told the Washingtonian magazine in 2017. “We’re still on the side of the road making barbecue or still in the hood with a soul-food shack, and no one knows we’re there.
“It’s the way society tends to put weight and cultural capital behind certain people because they’re more comfortable, they’re more familiar.”
If location is key to getting recognition, then Louisville does have some success stories.
Since 2016, Darnell Ferguson and Rodney White have operated the popular SuperChefs on Bardstown Road. And last month, Cyndi Joyner opened Boujie Biscuit on Frankfort Avenue, where she’s neighbors with The Silver Dollar, Ostra and Hilltop Tavern.
“Being new to the city, I wasn’t biased to any area,” said Joyner, who moved between New York, Ohio and Indiana before settling in Louisville less than year ago. “I knew there were a bunch of great neighborhoods, and I had to figure out where the concept would be the most welcomed and appreciated.”
Joyner has traveled across the globe and said her experiences with a wide range of cultures have influenced her recipes and her outlook on race.
At Boujie Biscuit, 1813 Frankfort Ave., she serves sweet and savory dishes that use biscuits as a vehicle for introducing different cuisines, such as African, European and Korean.
“Eventually I notice if I’m the only ‘chocolate spot’ on the block as far as a business owner,” Joyner said. “But I just want my business to do well. I want many people to come in and say ‘That kind of reminds me of my childhood.’”
SuperChefs’ White, who began his career as a prep cook at 15, said he thinks some black chefs can get pigeonholed by doing “stereotypical” soul food, like fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, and fried okra. To receive recognition, he said, they have to try putting their own spin on their dishes.
“One example on our menu is we do Southern eggrolls with shredded chicken, mac n’ cheese and greens,” White said. “Part of being a chef is creativity. You take what you’re comfortable with doing and put a twist on it.”
Lucretia Thompson, owner of Lucretia’s Kitchen in Russell, said she’s always willing to try something new - but she wouldn’t dare change her staple recipes.
Those were passed down by her grandfather, who opened Mr. Thompson’s Barbecue at 15th and Broadway sometime in the ’60s.
“What I’m doing is new for some, but it’s a legacy I’m carrying on,” Thompson said. ”… My grandfather, before he passed away, I took care of him. I was like a little bird and he was feeding me these recipes, the secrets, the vision.”
The vision is this: Thompson wants three full-service restaurants across Louisville so that everyone from the east, west, north and south can try her food.
For the past two years, she’s worked out of Chef Space, a west Louisville nonprofit that rents space to startup food entrepreneurs. But the incubator can’t contain her much longer.
“I feel like our food is important to this market,” Thompson said.
“The misconception at black businesses is it’s greasy, it’s fatty, it’s whatever. But I’ll tell you what, it’s some of the best fat and it’s not greasy. … We get our greens from our garden or a local garden. We cook them and we use smoked turkey that we smoke ourselves. That’s healthy. My thing is changing the perception for people.
Seviche owner Anthony Lamas said he struggled with similar perceptions when he opened his restaurant on Bardstown Road in 2005.
At the time, Latino food wasn’t widely accepted, and he fought to prove that the cheaper cuts of meats often found in traditional Latin dishes could be as delicious as the most expensive steak.
“Non-pretentious food is some of the best food for me right now,” Lamas said. “Everyone’s going back to the classic recipes, vintage cookbooks. … Those family recipes and secrets are what makes this amazing melting pot of food in America.”
So how can Louisville make sure all cultures’ recipes - including those of black chefs - are equally represented?
In February, the city launched a free 10-week program for food entrepreneurs, specifically focusing on those who lived in or wanted to open a business in west Louisville.
The Entreé-preneurship Series, formed by the city’s small business development team, taught an initial class of nine entrepreneurs everything from how to develop a menu to how to handle customer service.
Earlier this month, the series launched its second class with 23 entrepreneurs - including aspiring caterers, restaurant owners and food truck operators, said Scott Love, a member of the small business development team.
Love said his team developed the program after noticing that several black-owned restaurants had closed in west Louisville - and that, while the area has a number of counter service restaurants, it has only one full-service option: The Table, 1800 Portland Ave.
“Residents of west Louisville deserve to have dining right there in their neighborhoods,” Love said. “A large share of leakage, funds that leave the community to go elsewhere, is for restaurants. … The city is working to provide neighborhood amenities that you’d find in any other part of Louisville.”
Once entrepreneurs complete the workshops, Love said members of the small business development team work with them to identify funding sources and locations for their companies.
One potential source of capital is the city’s Business Accelerator Loan program, which provides loans of up to $30,000 for new businesses that have opened in west Louisville’s nine neighborhoods.
“It’s a deliberate attempt by the city to make sure we’re offering funding to businesses in need,” Love said. “One of the hurdles that minority businesses have is around collateral. They haven’t been property owners. They don’t have the same collateral that the rest of the city has had the opportunity to develop.”
Of course, money only goes so far.
“Our city, in general, we can always improve how we view our community,” Love said. ”… Breaking down perceptions and perceived barriers will go a long way in assisting west Louisville.”
SuperChefs’ White echoed that sentiment, saying the restaurant industry as a whole needs to do a better job of embracing all cultures.
“I think the bigger thing is chefs just being willing to help each other despite their race, despite their background,” White said. “We need to decide to build more of a community with each other.”
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