SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – Evette Reed was born and raised in Syracuse. She has been cooking since she was 12 years old. Unlike a lot of other chefs, she was never formally trained.
She learned to cook from her mother and grandmother, who ran successful catering businesses and were also taught to cook by their mothers.
“For holidays and stuff it was always me and grandma in the kitchen,” Reed said. “She’s teaching us what to do whether it was homemade dressing whether it was whatever, just home cooking… I would say, ‘ooh grandma that steak is so good how’d you do that?’ and she tell me what she do. And I was always was one of them who wanted to learn.”
Growing up, Reed’s food was common at family gatherings, birthday parties and game nights. She was always asked to cook by family members who agreed her food was a big success. The entire family is still close and gets together frequently to eat her food and spend time with one another.
Reed took this passion and started her own catering business. She catered local events, weddings and had a contract with the Ramada Inn in Syracuse. Her catering business was the first step towards her dream of owning a restaurant.
Her catering business had to slow down when the pandemic hit. Her friends began encouraging her to try and find her own restaurant space with the money that she had saved up.
Reed and her youngest daughter, Shante Lewis, began looking for buildings with “for rent” signs in the windows. Lewis was on her lunch break one day when she saw a sign on Marshall Street. She told her mom the number to call and Reed had an appointment to see the space two days later.
Reed got the call in July that she beat 50 other applicants for the restaurant space.
“I just screamed and started crying and I tell you I was jumping,” she said. “I was outside mind you and I was on the phone and I’m like, tears is rolling down my face, and I’m like, ‘I’m on Marshall Street…Marshall!'”
Reed made history by opening Winnie’s Soul Delicious in November. The restaurant is the first black owned business on Marshall Street.
For now, the mother and daughter pair co-own Winnie’s. Lewis took time away from being a surgical nurse to help her mom with this dream.
“This is something I never saw myself doing,” she said. “But, I’ve always been supportive of my mom and this has always been her dream, so anything to see and make her happy I’m all for.”
Lewis plans on going back to her nursing job full-time when the restaurant has all of its plans more solidified. The restaurant is a family affair. Most of the employees are family members, including a very special 8 year old girl who has given herself a special title at her grandmother’s restaurant.
“If she was here right now she’d tell you ‘I’m the manager,’ Reed said. “Her name is Dey’Joir, she’s the manager and she even, believe it or not, she works the POS system, she rings people out.”
Reed has other grandchildren who help her, but none of them are as passionate as Dey’Joir.
“I see her here,” Lewis said. “She’s always at home wanting to cook something, experiment.”
The duo defied all odds making this restaurant work. According to CNBC research, Black owned businesses declined 41% when the pandemic started, compared to a 17% decline in white owned businesses.
“We knew we were going to go through obstacles,” Lewis said. “Nothing is just handed to you, you got to work hard for it.”
Reed wants to use her experience to help other people of color find their dreams. She trains people who want to learn the ingredients needed to be a chef and run a business. She helped one man who showed up on her doorstep asking to learn more about becoming a chef.
“When people want to know something, I try to explain it,” Reed said. “If I can’t explain, I’ll show them.”
Her new dream is to open and “upscale” restaurant and move away from the fast food style she has now. She hopes her recipes will be carried on in the restaurant for generations.
While she only gives her recipes to family, Evette Reed saved one for you.
“The recipe for success is never to give up,” she said.
