Constance Simms-Kincaid: Around 14 years ago, it was the start of the housing crash and people were losing their jobs left and right. I worked for a corporate restaurant in Chicago and I wound up losing my job as well. My mom was like, I sure hope you go and look for another job. But ever since I was a kid I was like, I got to own my own stuff. I'm not sewn up that way to be working for someone else, especially for someone else that did not look like me.
I had two girls. I wanted them to have a legacy and I was not going to get that legacy through working for someone else. I just knew that in my heart that I needed to do something different. I had all these restaurant ideas and all these different menus and I was like, you know what? Since I lost my job, I'm going to take my 401k money, which was not even a lot. It was not enough to open up a restaurant. It really was not my whole family. They was like, she done lost it.
So I found this quaint little place and I tell you the truth, it was a mess. Ooh, it was a mess. It was a whole little wall, but I was like, yes, this is my hole in the wall. This is what I'm going do right now. I was like, Lord, you're going to give me a name for this restaurant. I opened up the Bible and it was five loaves of two fish and I was like, that is the name.
With four pieces of corn bread. Yep, and lemme have a side of the garlic butter. Please. Lemme get that.
Now. We've been in business for almost 15, 16 years. I don't even know it's starting to pass by me, but I tell you, we have had a lot of challenges here. We done had, I think two fires, our copper wiring stolen three times, and our community is just there for us. I don't understand, whenever people say I try to support black businesses because you don't got to try. You just show up and you are supporting with George Floyd and the marching, something rejuvenated in so many of us because black and brown girls and boys, they're watching as a black business owner. They need to see people that look like themselves. If she can do it, I can do it.
I want to see them blossom. I want to see them owning their own to reinvest in our own neighborhoods. It winds up bringing about change because whenever people see change, change can happen.
