African American Restaurant

This paper looks to define and explore three books which are a crux to various food histories which in the last decade has become a scholarly journey as food history is becoming increasingly studied as a scholarly endeavor by historians where previously it was not seen in such a scholarly light. The three texts which are going to be examined are: Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food by Jeffery M. Pilcher, The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture by Rebecca L. Spang, and lastly To Live and Dine in Dixie: The Evolution of Urban Food Culture in the Jim Crow South by Angela Jill Cooley. Each of these books seek to redefine how people see their perspective topics whether it be Mexican identity rooted in cuisine, the evolution of southern food in a racially divided south, or even the concept of the restaurant emerging from a revolutionary culture. These texts bring awareness to various topics which have both social, cultural, and economic stigmas associated with them.

In this paper I discuss the African-American culture in regards to values, norms and beliefs.

In relation to Baraka’s essay, he states how “restaurants in Harlem whose staple is fried chicken, or chicken

There were even some small grocery stores and restaurants would give food and meals based on a families word of mouth, because they understood the struggle and knew what it meant to give back and take care of each other as a community. These all exemplify character and spirit that the segregated Mexican neighborhood refused to let go of;

Africans have, since the early settlement of America, has had a great influence in the nation’s growth. These contributions to the United States from enslaved Africans have been greatly portrayed in American culture. Varying from cuisine, to song and dance are not only portrayed today but it has a deep-rooted impact throughout the United States. During the middle passage, enslaved Africans were forced to abandon their everyday lives, their families and their homes and forced to adapt to a new lifestyle they knew nothing of. However, upon arrival into the New World, due to their prior knowledge and wisdom from back home, they were able to quickly adapt and custom themselves to this new lifestyle in order to survive with the hope of potentially one day returning back to Africa. Unfortunately, African contributions to the culture of the United States has received little to no recognition and it has been taken credit for by Europeans and Whites since the early establishment of the United States.

For this paper I choose a well know fast food restaurant, which is “Chick-fil-A”. Chick-fil-A is a restaurant that they focus on all ages, and any kind of people. On March 25, I personally went to the “Chick- Fil- A” that located beside the Pasadena City College and observe. Chick- Fil- A is a company that tries to focus on every age as possible as they can, even though the price that they had marked is high than the McDonald, Jack in the box, etc... but they are giving costumer the better quality of foods. However when I site down and observe I found out there are few families with kids, old people, students, and businessman, etc…. Moreover, Chick- Fil- A had chosen a great location to locate their restaurant, beside the restaurant, which

The journal article begins by introducing an African American couple who resided in Russellville, Kentucky. James Wright held an occupation as a corn cutter while his wife Gladys worked as a cook in a white home. The time span of their journey occurred at the beginning of the great depression all the way through World War II. Seeking better employment opportunities, James traveled to Louisville. Although, his first couple trips were in vain. His resilience and determination eventually lead to a job working for International Harvester. During an era of many trials and tribulations, James found a way to support himself and his family by migrating from a rural to an urban area. By sharing this anecdote the author establishes a mood of hardship

Perhaps no other city has felt this injustice as strongly as New Orleans; still a bustling hub of authentic Creole and Cajun cuisine with influences from places such as France and West Africa. In fact, Louisiana as a whole has deep roots in vibrant home-cookery, most often passed down generationally, in the kitchen and with dirty hands. But sadly, the number of young African Americans taking to the kitchen is rapidly dwindling. How is it possible, then, that a culture steeped in tradition is quickly abandoning its origins? Simply put: access and availability; it’s illogical to think any home cooked meal could be

By the 1920’s the amount of African Americans in New York City had more than doubled. Meanwhile the roadways and subway system had just begun to reach Harlem, where some of the most influential Blacks had situated themselves. Soon after, Harlem became known as “The Black Mecca” and also as “The Capital of Black America”.

There were also cultural specificities that African-American entrepreneurs engaged in the funeral process had to respect. As a result, African-Americans became over represented in the field of undertaking (Table 1.1) in the years following the Great Migration. Again, it is important to recognize that most opportunities for African-American entrepreneurs were similar to this one in that they were market specific service economy oriented. “In short, changes in the ethnic compositions of (N)orthern cities in the early twentieth century made it difficult for African Americans to establish an economic interface in entrepreneurial occupations during the crucial period of their initial migration to these cities. The lack of such an interface may have set African Americans on a course of economic disadvantage for the rest of the twentieth century.”4 An important piece in shaping this model of economic disadvantage is the pervasiveness of white supremacist theory in the dominant society of the time.5 The common belief of the inherent inferiority of blacks limited their entrance into the entrepreneurial economy, even in the North. One economist when speaking of the disadvantage of trying to create an African-American owned business in a white supremacist environment goes further to say that, “This disadvantage, moreover, continues to inhibit the entry of African Americans into entrepreneurial occupations.”6

On New Year’s Eve 1991 a group of African American teenagers entered a San Jose California Denny’s restaurant in hopes of ordering some food before ending their evening. The African-American teenagers

“She forbade boys like Grace and Bien from speaking to each other in Swahili and required them instead to speak english--the team’s lingua franca” (76). By speaking different languages, the boys were separating themselves into their individual ethnicities, not working as a team. However, by forcing everybody to speak english, a foreign language to many players, it took them away from their original cultures and allowed them to be a part of a new culture, the Fugees, which helped them to work together as equals. In order to keep his traditional “American” grocery store, Thriftown, in business, Bill Mehlinger was forced to accept the changing demands of the people and start selling traditional African foods. “‘If it wasn’t for the refugees knowing us and knowing we go out of our way for them, we’d be gone,’ Mehlinger said. ‘I’d be working at Publix’” (175). Mehlinger was forced to embrace the new diversity of Clarkston by changing what foods his store carried. Although he may not have wanted to change at first, he now realizes that this change not only benefitted his business, but also the African people of Clarkston by providing them with cheap African

When Tony left the table I again began to scan the restaurant. I noted that there were couples and groups of people in the restaurant. Many were Caucasian , African American and a few of Latin American descent . There were business men women in suits and ties. There were also several elderly couples sipping wine with their meals. The age range of all the patrons were from toddlers to elderly approximately 70 years of age.

When entering a grocery store, most people don’t take the time to stop and observe their surroundings, for their soul purpose at that instant is to purchase what very food they may need for that day or maybe even for that week. However, through all the haste of wanting to go in and out of grocery stores as fast as one can, most are unaware of the very culture that they too are now apart of, the interactions, both verbal and through people’s body language that they are experiencing, how people look and dress, even what is considered appropriate behavior although not specifically written down. Culture is all around us, and we all contribute to it, whether it is through our norms, values, symbols, or mental maps of reality (Guest 2014, 38-43). That is why through this assignment, I took the time to observe the culture experienced in the American grocery store Stater Brothers, the ethnical Filipino grocery store Seafood City, while also taking the time to reflect on my own personal views of what I thought was “normal” through my experience working in Northgate Gonzalez Market, a Mexican grocery store for three years.

Angela and Zooey desire to make a profitable French restaurant. “The Possibility” has endless of possibilities to prosper if it can resolve the problems which the decision makers are facing. Their first challenge was not knowing how the customer would take to French cuisine. This caused problems such as what to put on the menu since excessive waste was not an option. This problem had a quick alternative for the time being as to only offering a fish or beef dinner. Though they have narrowed down their menu to a fish dinner and a beef dinner it is necessary to factor in all the constraints on how many of each type of dinner to sell to reach a maximum profit.