25 Historic Restaurants Honored in $1 Million Grant Program. These Are Their Stories

Natalie Miller’s restaurant serves traditional Southern dishes that were served when the house was a Green Book site. The food is indicative of that time period, so as to play an important role in recreating African American culture during Jim Crow.

A Greensboro native, Miller is a cultural catalyst who has carried her skills and talent from the corporate world to nonprofit management, with a goal to reunite history and community through saving places — and their traditions.

Open since 1955, it was for many years the only restaurant that allowed the Black community in the downtown area. To this day, the restaurant has been family-owned and remains the oldest — and the only — Black-owned restaurant in downtown Dublin.

Ardessa Miller opened Miller’s Soul Food with the desire to own her own business like her father. In 1983, her daughter, Nadine, bought it from her mom and she remains the owner today.

The oldest restaurant in New Orleans, Antoine’s has been instrumental in the preservation of the city’s Creole cuisine, with the sixth generation now in the works to take it over. Additionally, many employees have decades-long tenures.

Born in Vietnam, Tammy Wong grew up in the Chinese quarter of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). Her family arrived in the United States as refugees in 1979 and moved to Minneapolis in 1983. Wong and her family opened the restaurant in 1987, and she has lived and worked in her neighborhood for 35 years.

A minority, immigrant, women-owned and women-operated restaurant for decades, China King has become a community staple.  Housed in a historic building dating back to 1778 and a Chinese restaurant for decades. The Whang family is the third and longest standing owners.

B&H Dairy is one of the oldest kosher “dairy” lunch counters remaining in New York City. It was opened in 1938 by Abie Bergson and Jack Heller. Today, it is owned by Aleksandra Abdelwahed, a Polish Catholic, and husband Fawzy Abdelwahed, an Egyptian Muslim. Both are immigrants, now United States citizens. Here you’ll find Eastern European comfort food, but more importantly, the New York City melting pot in full swirl.

Stamps Super Burgers has served as a healing force for the neighborhood of Washington Addition after police shootings devastated the community. In May 1970, two Black students were killed by police. One student attended Jim Hill High School, and one was enrolled at Jackson State University. Both institutions neighbored the building that would soon become Stamps Super Burgers.

At that time, the facility was Canterbury Grocery, a white-owned establishment. After the shooting, Black citizens responded by boycotting white-owned businesses. Algernon Stamps Sr. saw a community divided and shattered by devastation, and he knew a Black entrepreneur would positively impact and uplift the neighborhood. He purchased Canterbury Grocery.

For nearly four decades, the Dickerson family has served the Five Points and the Black community. Flynn and Mona Dickerson moved from the Virgin Islands to Colorado, and today, Welton Street Café prides itself on providing a safe space for the Black community. You’ll find all local Black news publications, and it’s an integral part of Denver’s Black history.

The Black Forest Inn opened in 1965 when Erich Christ purchased the restaurant as a recent immigrant from Germany. As the immigrant population in Whittier grew in late 70s and 80s, more restaurants and grocery stores appeared in the nearby blocks. In 1994, Joanne Christ took a leadership role at the restaurant, partnered with neighbors to create “Eat Street” – a 14 block stretch of diverse restaurants and grocery stores on Nicollet Avenue.

The story of Teshima begins in 1927, when Shizuko “Mary” Hanato married Fumio Teshima. Mary took cooking classes at a Buddhist temple and learned how to make ice cream. She became known as Grandma Teshima over the years, and her legacy is still guiding the restaurant through her children, grandchildren and great-grandchild.

Today, Khalil’s is run by the daughters of the original founders, Mikhail and Agnes Khalil. Leila and Dalel seek to transport everyone to their ancestral land of Syria, educating customers about their culture and how it is woven into Pittsburgh and America as a whole.

Born and raised in Baltimore, Ron Furman opened Max’s Taphouse in 1986 when he was 23 years old. He spent years crafting every inch of the bar, which he named after his grandfather, Max. Together with his wife, Gail, and two daughters, the bar remains a family-run business today.

Mr. Henry’s is an institution on Capitol Hill, and an avid supporter of jazz, the place where Roberta Flack was discovered once upon a time. Henry Yaffe founded Mr. Henry’s in 1966, but Larry Quillian won the restaurant from Henry in a poker game on 1971. Quillian’s son took over ownership and operations in 2014.

The only vegan restaurant for miles, the Golden Burro Cafe and Lounge dates back to 1938. In 2021, Daniel and Marcee Lundeen bought the closed restaurant to preserve it for future generations.

Although Penn did not open until 1989, its historic facility dates to the 1800s. It is a majority woman-owned business: the current owners are Sandy Cindrich, Linda Nyman, and Corey Little, three Pittsburgh locals who assumed ownership in 2009.

El Adobe is one of the oldest restaurants in southeastern Oklahoma, originally created in 1974 by Cody and Noweta Miller.

The Millers, a Choctaw tribal family, have continuously owned and operated El Adobe for three — and soon to be four — generations. The El Adobe restaurant building was once part of St. Patrick Parish, the oldest Catholic Parish in Indian territory. The current owner-operators, Philip and Marcia (Powell) Miller, are carrying on the traditions of the family, serving Mexican and American fare to new generations.

The oldest Mexican restaurant in Silver City, which rests on Apache land, has an incredible history: The predecessor of Nancy’s was Sam’s, in the same location starting in 1955. Nazaria, aka “Nancy” Ruiz, worked for the owners, Carmen and Lorenzo Borrego, as a dishwasher. When they put it up for sale in 1969, Nancy purchased it. Her daughter, Dora Wooten, has preserved the food quality, the atmosphere, and the fan base.

La Segunda provides nearly 80% of the city’s Cuban bread, which is used to make the official sandwich of Tampa — the Cuban sandwich. Copeland More is the fourth- generation owner of the bakery, which has been in his family since 1915.

Today, La Segunda bakes 18,000 loaves per day for its community, the same way More’s grandfather did over 100 years ago, right down to the palmetto leaf placed down the middle to score the bread.

Set right on Route 66 since 1963, this Indigenous-owned restaurant specializes in comfort food served all day. In February 2021, it started a “Giving Wall” — a program where people can donate prepaid meals for customers that cannot afford one.

Schwabl’s has been part of Buffalo for 185 years.  As promised to Ray Schwabl, the owners — Cheryl and Gene Staychock, lifelong West Seneca residents, have kept the tradition and lengthy history alive, right down to the uniforms, when they took over in 1901.

The first Irish pub in Louisville, the Irish Rover began as a saloon and grocery, much like the old-time Irish pubs. For the last three decades, owner Siobhan Reidy has been part of the community. The building is a historic landmark in an historic district, but the Rover itself has also become a landmark.

The Harmony Inn is an Italianate Victorian brick home constructed in 1856 by Austin Pierce for his family. The Harmony Inn, year after year, has served as a destination location for travelers and the local community members. In 2013, Bob and Jodi McCafferty purchased the Harmony Inn to continue its legacy.

At 184 years, “The Mill” stands as the oldest building in Glen Rock, having operated as a wool mill, flour mill, grist mill, and feed mill that operated continuously in the community since 1837. Today, it is one of the few operating customer-facing businesses remaining in its community.

Brothers Joe and Abe Malooley founded the restaurant in the building constructed in 1874 that formerly housed The National State Bank; their parents were Syrian immigrants who helped many others settle in Terre Haute. Today, the restaurant is owned by Cathy Malooley Azar (Abe’s daughter) and her daughter Alexis Azar Green.

The original Seaside Club opened in 1915, where Seiichi Nakagawa, worked as a cook. He took it over in 1926 and opened it to the public. It was destroyed in the 1946 Hilo tsunami, but Seiichi and his wife, Matsuno, were able to rebuild across the street next to a 30-acre fishpond. Today, the restaurant — and the fishpond that supplies it — is owned by Seiichi’s grandson, Colin Nakagawa.