BLACK HISTORY TRIBUTE: Happy Birthday Sylvia Woods - Happy 60th Anniversary Year SYLVIA'S QUEEN OF SOUL FOOD RESTAURANT

By Gloria DULAN-Wilson

Hello All:

Happy Birthday SYLVIA WOODS founder of Sylvia's Queen of Soul Food - and 60th Anniversary Year to SYLVIA'S RESTAURANT in HARLEM USA!!

 

Sylvia Woods founder of SYLVIA'S QUEEN OF SOUL FOOD

 

Sylvia would have been 96 today!  She was a mainstay in Harlem.  Her restaurant provided the best in what I call Epicurean Soul Food.  Fried Chicken, Collard Greens, Candied Yams, Black Eyed Peas, Rice, and home made Corn Bread; or Short Ribs of Beef, greens, homemade biscuits; or Red Velvet Cake, Homemade Apple Pie, and so many other wonderful, delectable dishes that emanated from that tiny kitchen.

I was a Sylvia's Regular from the time I graduated from Lincoln University, and my best brother/friend SAM ANDERSON took me there to eat because he didn't want me to be homesick for Oklahoma food.  At that time, in 1967, it was just a small place with one counter, a few tables, and Sylvia doing most of the cooking.  The setting was very intimate then, with people sitting and eating elbow to elbow. 

Years later, through the ingenuity of her eldest son, Van, it expanded to encompass the entire corner of 126th Street and Malcolm X Blvd. (Lenox Ave to the outsiders).  And, through a small article by food critic Gael Greene, became a beacon for tourists from all over the world - Japan, France, Great Britain, Germany - and a local favorite for Black people in Harlem.

I've seen people visiting from the South, having heard of Sylvia's Restaurant, come in with a look of awe at how beautiful and well attended it was.  There were tour buses lined up outside the restaurant with people patiently waiting to get in and sample the cuisine. 

Today, February 2, 2022 is Sylvia's Birthday -   She was born in 1926.  I had flashbacks to when we used to get up and go to the restaurant to have a birthday breakfast celebration with Sylvia and Herbert Woods (the love of her life an husband of more than 50 years), Van, Bedelia, Kenneth and Crizette - their children, a host of grandchildren and great grandchildren.  Talk about a family affair.  Sylvia's was all about family.  She was very proud of her children - and made sure they were involved in and knew how to run the business of providing fine food and customer service to the patrons - a business they were to inherit when she passed.  A legacy!!

I was blessed to have been part of the family - so to speak - and spent many waking hours there - taking hundreds of photos of the family in action. I was editor of their newsletter, "Sylvia: Nothing But the Good News; and did research for her cookbook.   In fact, I had the privilege and pleasure of riding down with the family in their Rolls Royce Corniche to Hemingway, SC, which is where Sylvia and Herbert originally came from, to do an article on the origins of her culinary skills.  For the first time I had venison cooked with major soul; feasted on hand caught and fresh fried fish called "spots," and visited the home where Sylvia was born and raised.

 

Sylvia and Herbert Woods and the Rolls Royce

 

Her mother was one of the few Black people to own their own home - something unheard of in the Jim Crow South.  Her father, who served in WWI, was hung when Sylvia was still a baby - so she grew up in a single parent household with an adopted sister.  She and her husband Herbert met when they were children - aged 9 and 10 years old, and she decided from the first day she saw him, that he was going to be her husband.  They grew up together, married, moved to New York, and eventually acquired the restaurant in Harlem where she had originally served as a waitress.  The owner sold it to her when he and his wife decided to move to upstate New York.  That was in 1962, and the rest - as they say - is history.

I have so many fond memories of Sylvia's in Harlem, and the legion of celebrities who came there to enjoy the food in a down home atmosphere.  Sylvia's was literally considered the town hall of Harlem, where political aspirants came to make speeches, hold receptions, and solicit funds for their campaigns.  Congressman Charles Rangel, Percy Sutton, and former Governor David Patterson, as well as a host of artists and entertainers made their way from the Apollo Theatre to Sylvia's to soak up Harlem's upscale atmosphere. Joseph Kennedy Jr., presidential candidate Bill Clinton, and others.   Even Mariah Carey had former husband, Tommy Mattola, roll up in their limousine, pick up some collard greens for her, while she never got out of the car.   Birthday breakfasts with the late Johnny Cochrane (Oct 2); meeting Dr. Phil who came to see if Sylvia's was really for real and ended up enjoying himself so much he stayed until they closed; it was a favorite haunt of Dexter King, youngest son of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; President Barack Obama, Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Diana Ross, James Brown, and so many more!  Sylvia used to have a wall of photos of celebrities who had eaten at the restaurant.  It was always a pleasure to see who frequented the place over the years.

 

President Barack Obama and Rev. Al Sharpton Chowing Down at Sylvias Black in the Day

 

Sylvia has been on the corner of 126th Street and Malcolm X Blvd. now for 60 years - and has taken it from slum to upscale.  During the economic downturn of the 70s, when thousands of Harlemites were fleeing New York to go back down South, Sylvia would lend them money, or purchase their homes so they could make a brand new start.  Many of them, once they established themselves in their new homes, would come back to Harlem to thank her for her support, bringing their families with them to enjoy the food and the atmosphere.

Other restaurants and tourist attractions have since opened up around her humble establishment - Red Rooster being one of the most prominent - but Sylvia's is still my home base - my choice for down home atmosphere and camaraderie.  Where I can kick back, get the news of the day, watch romantic couples interact; and watch the pleasure on the faces of tourists who are experiencing soul food for the first time.

There are still some detractors who assumed that Sylvia used canned products - and I want to tell you that is far from true.  Having been there on several occasions at 5:00AM when the food is delivered to the restaurant, and watching the chef (who was from Africa) clean and prepare the greens, sweet potatoes and other food for cooking - labor intensive, but worth it.  For the detractors who claimed Sylvia's was owned by Japanese - not so- the restaurant is completely and totally owned by the Woods Family  - in perpetuity!  This negativity stems  from the fact that on a subconscious level, Black people - even in New York City - still don't believe that we can succeed at anything of our own accord.  And the fact that a diminutive little 5'2" Black woman from the South was able to do it, and become a multimillionaire, boggles their minds.  But she did it without compromising her values or her family.  NOW THAT IS WHAT I CALL BLACK HISTORY!

So Happy Birthday Sylvia!!  Though you left us 10 years ago in 2012 - you made history in your own humble, yet elegant way!  You paved the way for others to establish wonderful Black owned restaurants in Harlem, and inspired others in other Urban Cities to do the same.  My Uncle, Adolf Dulan, was inspired by you, and opened Aunt Kizzy's Back Porch in Marina Del Rey, CA - using soul food as his cuisine.  You were always his first destination when he came to New York to visit me.  I remember how he and you would sit for hours and compare notes on food, preparations, hosting - talking shop and sharing ideas.  East Coast met West Coast - Soul Food to Soul Food!!

You continue to be an inspiration, and I will never forget you.

This is dedicated to Van, Bedelia, Kenny & Crizette and the entire Woods Dynasty -

Stay Blessed &

ECLECTICALLY BLACK

Gloria DULAN-Wilson

For those of you who have never visited Sylvia's Queen of Soulfood Restaurant - it's located in the heart of Harlem - reachable via the Number 2 or 3 Subway train, or by most buses across 125th Street & Malcolm X Blvd. Walk 1 block north on Malcolm X to Sylvia's.  They continued to serve and provide food to the community during the Pandemic, primarily take outs and delivery. 

Click on the link below for a video interview conducted by the late Dr. Roscoe C. Brown with Sylvia and Herbert Woods. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKj5mJ_lpu8

NOW THAT YOU KNOW

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

Stay Blessed &

ECLECTICALLY BLACK 

Gloria DULAN-Wilson