An Army of Normal Folks - John Currence: Saving Willie Mae's

Episode Date: October 17, 2023

After Hurricane Katrina struck his hometown, Chef John Currence knew he had to do something and he quickly found it in saving the restaurant/home of an 89 year-old News Orleans woman named Willie Mae. He thought renovating Willie Mae’s Scotch House, whose fried chicken has been called the best in the world, would only take a few weeks. But John and an army of volunteers ended up rebuilding it for 16 months. And John, heroically went back and forth almost every single week, between his adopted home of Oxford, MS and his native New Orleans, which was 5 hours away. Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I mean, I had two calls from the White House where they wanted to come take pictures there over the course of the project and take credit for it. And I may or may not have ended up on a watch list because of some language I used. Welcome to an Army of Normal Folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband. I'm a father. I'm an entrepreneur. And I've been a football coach in Intercity Memphis in the last part. Unintentionally led to an Oscar for the film about our team. It's called undefeated. I believe our country's problems will never be solved by a bunch of fancy people and nice suits

talking big words that nobody understands or ever uses on CNN and Fox, but rather an army of normal folks us just you and me deciding, hey, I can help. That's what John Currents, the voice we just heard is done. The project that John mentioned was saving a restaurant and the home of an 89-year-old New Orleans woman named Willie May after Hurricane Katrina. Willie May's Scotch House makes what's been called the best fried chicken in the world. And it wouldn't be here today if not for John and an army of normal folks who spent 16 months volunteering to rebuild her restaurant. And John was going back

and forth almost every week between his adopted home of Oxford Mississippi and his native New Orleans that was five hours away. And he had three of his own restaurants to run an Oxford. John's love for Willie May and New Orleans is extraordinary and will continue with the story right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. What is this place? Wait, why my handcuffed? What am I doing here? 13 days of Halloween, Penance. Season 4 of the award-winning horror fiction podcast presented in immersive 3D audio. Where am I?

Why, this is the Pendleton. All residents, please return to your habitation. Like stuff! On your feet! You're new here, so I'll say it once. No talking. Starring Natalie Morales of Parks and Recreation and Dead to Me. Am I under arrest?

We don't like to use that word. Can I leave of my own free will? Not at this time. So this is a prison name? No. It's a rehabilitation center. Premiering October 19th, ending Halloween. I'm gonna get out. And how may I ask, or are you going to do that? Escape. Listen to 13 days of Halloween on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

or wherever you get your podcasts. Danielle Moody here from Wokey F Daily. As we head into 2024, let me be your go-to guide from packing the election chaos. Finch this season of Wokey F Daily to hear me and my gallery of guests examine America's decline into dysfunction. 150 episodes are waiting for you right now to dive into conversations with dozens of expert guests that are sure to keep you woke.

Whether it's labor strikes, climate change, public health, gun violence, book bans, attacks on America's marginalized populations, or the literal trials and tribulations of Donald Trump, WokeF Daily is your place to catch up on this year's biggest stories. Wokey F. Daley is your destination to hear my unfiltered thoughts about everything going on in America with a mustard seed of hope for a better tomorrow. All 150 episodes are available for you to dive into right now. Listen to all of Wokey F. Daley onHeartRadio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. You know, we spent things into existence here on the old calm down podcast, isn't that right,

Aaron? Taylor, I don't know what you are doing in your life right now besides rocking the United States, but I will say this. Please try our friend Travis. He is fantastic. We started with the Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift thing. What is next, gal? You're gonna have to stay tuned to find out

as we talk about the real stuff people wanna know about. Like, why do I keep picking my face when I know I shouldn't and an antibiotic prescription later? I'm still doing it. Meanwhile, will I ever figure out how to get TSA precheck? I swear to God, I can't.

Just send me through security. I waste so much time with this. Somebody help me. I need a lawyer. Stop breaking the law and they will approve you. We owe it was one time. One time too many. We also talk about the struggles of being women

in a male dominated industry and all the people we love in it. If anyone needs to calm down, it's us, but knowing us, we probably won't. So make sure you listen to the Calm Down podcast every week. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. You're 26 when you show up in Oxford having no business opening a restaurant, but do anyway and start down your road to restaurant tour success.

What year was that? 92. 92. Yep. And home is still New Orleans. I mean, it's where you came from. You're making home here, but. The current leadership is making it very easy

for me to divorce myself from the romance of the city. I mean, it's a, you know, it's a, it's a mess. Like so many other cities in the South right now. I get it, but you still have a heart for your home. I'm going to present it. Right. And this little storm comes through called Katrina. What year was that?

2005. 2005. And I'm sure all of us watched that whole scene in horror. I'll never forget the pictures of all the people on the there's an overpass right near the super dome that's elevated that people kind of had to get to. I'm in the I'm in the heart of the lumber business. I sold a customer in New Orleans at the time, it was called Hogan Hardwoods. And there was actually a picture on the news. They delivered all their lumber.

They made, you know, 10, 15 stops a day. And they would deliver on 18 wheelers that had curtain sides. And I will never forget watching one of those 18 wheelers going down a road on the news and it was a hogan hardwood skirt inside truck and there must have been 30 people sitting on the bed of the truck and it was you know going through three feet deep water to get them out and another couple of guys and a John boat paddling out and they were paddling with six inch wide pieces of red oak that they'd taken from the lumber company just to get out the death

the people and the in the dome It was tragic for anybody to watch it was it was significant I mean anybody alive at the time it, but for somebody from there whose friends were from there, who grew up there, it had to have an even more poignant significance to you as you watched. Yeah, I mean, there's, I still, you know, almost 20 years later, find it difficult trying to explain it to people. You know, to sit there and watch in real time as the place that you know and love more dearly than anywhere else in the entire world, get swallowed up and, you know, to not have any idea, whether it's going to continue to exist.

And we're talking one of the world-class cities in the world, one of the most amazing places with its culture and its architecture and its food and the trolle and all of what New Orleans is, is Suck and the people are Suck. And people are going to Memphis, people are going to Houston, people are fleeing to Shreveport, people are fleeing to cities, I mean literally all over the Southeast. Yeah, we were packed here. I mean, there was, there were several, yeah, several gyms were used as overflow for the hotels.

My whole family was, was, was here. And so it was a, I really, I remember cooking on that, that Monday night after, you know, we had been watching this, this all day long and all of us huge number of family friends and acquaintances were in town and just sort of how quiet the dining room was at the grocery. It was like a wake almost that folks were drinking hard, but it was very quiet, almost like a church service. And so there was something akin to a family member being lost or potentially lost or in

the ICU that was just really challenging to explain the breadth of emotion. And in that afternoon, before that service, I called my whole management team together and I told them, I said, I don't know where I'm going, because I mean, God bless them in the in the early part of the coverage of the storm. The the Gulf Coast that the Mississippi Gulf Coast, which was largely forgotten because the pictures of New Orleans, you know, underwater was much sexier than just the Gulf Coast. It had been wiped out and all of the detritus being sucked out to the golf. And so I sat down with all these guys and I said, look, I don't know where I'm gonna go or how long

I'm gonna be gone, but I've gotta go do something. I mean, this is my home, there's gotta be something that we can do. And so my dad and I loaded up and we rode down to New Orleans on about day four. And this is before the National Guard had moved in, local parish deputies. Which meant it was not largely safe either. Well, we just didn't know, right? That's nobody knew anything about that.

The concern was that with all these folks that were moving about the city, we didn't know what was underwater, what wasn't underwater, you know, that if folks were going to loot that the entire area that had the most affluent homes in the city, you know, was wide open to, to, to bar glory. But I think in retrospect that, you know, even folks in the city had no idea, you know, what was underwater and what was it? And because there's no electricity anywhere, right?

No. I mean, the whole city was just like out. The craziest thing that I experienced through it all was our first morning in the city as the sun came up. And I walked out into the middle of the street. It was so dark, you could not see your hand in front of your face. No light. There was no light, but walking out into the street as sun was beginning to break.

And there was no noise. It was so quiet, it was definitely loudly loud. I mean, there was no bugs, there was so quiet, it was definitely loud. I mean, there was no bugs, there was no cars, there were no air conditioner compressors running, there was no street cars. All of the bugs and birds had been blown out or had flown out in front of the storm. And so there wasn't a single sound.

And so to stand there, several days after the storm, there was more organic matter on the ground than I had ever seen anywhere. And it was just beginning to decompose. And so there was this smell of sort of organic decay. And then this deafening silence. And that was it. I mean, and just so to and for a notoriously noisy place. There's always well, and it was yeah, and it was the the moment where I realized, you know, it

didn't smell like I was accustomed to it smelling. I couldn't describe what New Orleans smelled like before. I mean, I could certainly describe it with bourbon streets, you know, but what my home smells like, something that you become that, it just becomes that much of your being. There's no way to describe how in an instant, when that changes, how profoundly moving it is, it's very surreal. And so, you know, that was really what was the most sort of recognizable experience. Being there on day one, it was crazy.

So I starting as a freshman would gather up money and run down to New Orleans two or three times a year. Like I said, it's one of Lisa and my favorite cities, but it's long been one of my favorite places, you know, as a college kid and a young adult. And, you know, I found places to eat that I thought were cool. And one was mothers.

I love the roast beef with all that gravy over the bread. I mean, what's that? the debris. What's that? The debris. Yeah, that's it. And I love mothers. Another place I like to go like night, if I was hungry and had had too much with portacol. They used to have a big fat filet.

I bet they still do. But I know what portacol is. Well, no, I just for the sake of experimented, I've had a monsoon or two in there. At 4 in the morning. But that burger was what it was all about. They're still around, aren't they? Oh, yeah.

OK. Well, and believe it or not, fried chicken, at a place that you are all too familiar with now. And um, there's a place that I'm gonna let them tell you about, widely known for her fried chicken. And um, I've had it before. I haven't had it since it's, uh, since it's reopened, but I've had it before and Why don't you tell us about Willie May Scotch House?

Well, I think it has to start a block away a ducky chase and what ducky chase. I don't even know what that is So ducky chase is One of the most historic restaurants in the city. Really? The only way that I can can really couch it effectively is that it is the black part of the populations commander's palace. Okay, I'm going. Wow, I bet it's amazing. Well, it is. And Leah Chase, who was the grand dom of the restaurant for years, it was originally her husband's family's restaurant.

Her husband was the heir apparent to the restaurant, was more interested in being a musician than he was being a restaurant tour. And Leah took up the mantle of running the restaurant and gave it that's new life in the 40s and 50s. And that restaurant entertained from the 40s until Barack Obama was president. You name any black celebrity in movie sports, television, politics, if they came in New Orleans, they came and they ate it to get chased. And they sat on Bended Knee next to Leah,

just because she was a woman to be reckoned with and respected. Wow. And that's a block away. It's a block away. And so Leah became like a third grandmother to me. And we had a magnificent relationship. And it's one of the things that I treasure more dearly than about anything in my life when it comes to curation of folks. And Leah, her lunch menu was largely a sort of a New Orleans version of a meat and three. You know, she would do, you know, trout maniere and fry chicken and smothered chicken and pork chops

and then had a selection of yams, green beans, spoon bread. But inside of the restaurant, I mean it was tricked out to the nines and then has one of these most spectacular collections of African American art that exists in the city of New Orleans. She was a prolific collector. So the restaurant was absolutely beautiful. So I would regularly when I was in New Orleans make a lunch stop with Leah to visit with her, and eat fried chicken, then get on the road to drive home to Oxford, you know, late afternoon. And a friend of mine from childhood who wrote for the paper one day, we were leaving together and then there had been a famed trip, a bunch of traveling food riders that were in town doing a piece on New Orleans and it all been brought to lias. And he said, you know, I sat here and listened to you and I've done this for years and talked

about how great lias fried chicken is and blah, blah, blah, blah. And this is my friend's name, Lois Eli. And Lois grew up in Uptown. Both his parents were academics and Lois was black. And he said, let me tell you something, white boy. The best chicken. You don't know where the best chicken is. It's right around the corner.

And you need to go try Willie May sometime and see what it's like. And so I don't remember if it was on that trip that is one around. I thought I'll grab a sack on my way out the door or if it was the next time, but I went around the corner and I felt like I was cheating on my girlfriend. Buying fried chicken. Buying fried chicken from Willie Mays. And if I tell you that I mean Willie Mays is a hole in the wall. The dining room had about five tables and 15 or 16 chairs.

It was just covered in grease. And then, variable you go in there, and there would be a pair of police officers sitting at one table, couple guys at May or may not have been crack dealers at another. And it was, but it was really like the, it was the safehouse for everybody. And she had chicken and some other pork chops. And then on Friday, she would fry the shoot fry some fish but you got any of those things with either White beans or red beans and rice and then two pieces of white bread cut in half and just dropped on your plate and that was it and so just dropped on your plate and that was it. And so anyway, I grabbed some fried chicken

and took it out the door and got in the car with it. And I was full as hell when I got on the road, but I remember sitting there and I hadn't even made it out to the airport before I was like, I can't stand the smell the same more. This is too much. And I remember biting into that chicken while I was driving down the interstate and the skin was so crisp it almost shattered

in my mouth. I mean it was spectacular and I thought I was like damn lowless, 100% right. This is the best freaking fried chicken I've ever eaten in my entire life. And so that became that became my regular practice of sneaking around on my girlfriend regular practice of sneaking around from a girlfriend and eating fried chicken and sort of winking at everybody and telling, man, this really makes this pretty serious chicken. And now a few messages from our generous sponsors, but first I hope you'll consider following an army of normal folks on all of our social media channels for more powerful content, which is also great for sharing to help grow the army.

Our handle is at Army of Normal Folks on all of them except Twitter, which I guess is X these days, which is interesting because everybody says X, formally called Twitter, so we might just just call it Twitter, whatever. At Army Normal folks, we'll be right back. What is this place? Wait, why my handcuffed? What am I doing here? 13 days of Halloween, Penance. Season 4 of the award-winning horror fiction podcast presented in immersive 3D audio.

Where am I? Why, this is the Pendleton. All residents, please return to your habitations. Light stuff on your feet! You're new here, so I'll say it once. No talking. Starring Natalie Morales of Parks and Recreation and Dead to me. Am I under arrest?

We know I can use that word. Can I leave of my own free will? Not at this time. So this is a prison then? No, it's a rehabilitation center. premiering October 19th, ending Halloween. I'm gonna get out. And how may I ask, or are you going to do that? Escape.

Listen to 13 days of Halloween on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Danielle Moody here from WokeF Daily. As we head into 2024, let me be your go-to guide for unpacking the election chaos. Bench this season of WokeF Daily to hear me and my gallery of guests examine America's decline into dysfunction. 150 episodes are waiting for you right now to dive into conversations with dozens of expert guests that are sure to keep you woke. Whether it's labor strikes, climate change, public health, gun violence, bookbans, attacks on America's marginalized populations, or the literal trials and

tribulations of Donald Trump, Woke If Daily is your place to catch up on this year's biggest stories. Woke If Daily is your place to catch up on this year's biggest stories. Woke If Daily is your destination to hear my unfiltered thoughts about everything going on in America, with a mustard seed of hope for better tomorrow. All 150 episodes are available for you to dive into right now. Listen to all of Woke If Daily on the I Heart Radio app

Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. You know, we speak things into existence here on the old calm down podcast. Isn't that right Aaron Taylor? I don't know what you are doing in your life right now besides rocking the United

States. But I will say this. Please try our friend Travis. He is fantastic. We started with the Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift thing. What is next gal? You're gonna have to stay tuned to find out as we talk about the real stuff people want to know about. Like, why do I keep picking my face when I know I shouldn't and an antibiotic prescription later? I'm still doing it. Meanwhile, will I ever figure out how to get TSA pre-check? I swear to God, I can't. Just send me through security. I waste so much time with this.

Somebody help me. I need a lawyer. Stop breaking the law and they will approve you. We owe it one time. One time too many. We also talk about the struggles of being women in a male-dominated industry and all the people we love in it. If anyone needs to calm down, it's us, but knowing us,

we probably won't. So make sure you listen to the Calm Down podcast every week. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Now, Willie Mays was only, so Duckey Chase is on Orleans Boulevard, which is a four-lane that runs through that neighborhood. And that neighborhood, that's sort of the Edgettramay in an or I think, it's where Tremay and the Seventh Ward butt up to each other. And so they argue about which one it actually is. Whatever it was before the storm, it was one of the worst neighborhoods in the city of New Orleans. I mean, it was awful. I mean, to the point where Willie Mae was not open at night.

She lived. It was a shotgun that the restaurant was in. And the restaurant was on one side, and her house, her living quarters were on the other side. But it was one of those places where everybody understood. The reason why everybody could go in there and eat was because it was 100% off limits for any BS. I mean, she worked only in cash. Everybody, you know, whoever went there knew that, you know, and she lived hand-in-mouth.

And she wasn't. So she had a coffee can full of watered up bills that she bought her groceries with, I mean, in the house. But, you know, you didn't rob Willie May. But you didn't, you did not venture off by one block from Orleans once the sun went down so Willie Mae is as I understand the story

grew up in Mississippi with two new Orleans and I think open this place and like the 40s or 50s Opened a bar and was selling Scotch but she was cooking for her family opened a bar and was selling scotch, but she was cooking for her family. People smelled the smell, and so she started selling what she was cooking. Is that about right? Is that story close?

Yeah, the part of the building, which is now the, I guess the back part of the restaurant now was just storage when we went in and started working on it. That was originally a salon. So she came to New Orleans and was working as a cosmetologist. I think she was cutting air and doing stuff and grabbed a piece of the building and opened the bar and... Cosmetology during the day and day and bartender at night.

And yep, and started doing that. Then our food caught on and ultimately the saline left. And at some point, the Scotch House took up the whole building. But by the time I started going and eating there, it was literally just the front little bitty room. And then the kitchen immediately adjacent to it. The back of it was just... That's all right. it was just a mess.

Yeah. That's what it was. And it was candidly this little African American woman who was old, but don't think she was not strong. Cooking chicken and people from all walks of life going there because it was the best chicken in the world and I assume her fish was probably just as good and making a life. And that's part of your life and where you came from and Katrina hits. And that is the

very area that got the worst of the flooding, right? Yeah, it was about eight feet of water. I wouldn't say the worst. When you got out to Lakeview where 17th Street canal busted and you just, you know, you had a, you know, a fire hose of water coming through there and, you know, they had, they just, they took a lot. So they took a lot. How deep was that restaurant or the water? Eight feet.

Eight feet. Yeah. Eight feet. Eight feet. Yeah. Eight feet. And if we go back to what you said about your first day of stepping out the street and the smell and it's eight rancid disgusting, stagnant, hot, smelly, floodwater, which gets into sheet rock and it gets in insulation and it gets into studs and it melts paint off ceilings where the water didn't even get and it warps furniture even on the second

story and it completely destroys electrical wiring. And it is, it's not like when you get a foot of water in your house for, you know, 30 minutes because of tub upstairs leaks. It's, it's standing rancid stuff that absolutely wreaks carnage. And nobody could live there. And all of the folks from these areas took refuge, like we said in places like Jackson, Mississippi, Little Rock, Houston, Shreveport, wherever the buses took them, wherever the buses took them, because these are largely people of very, very little means. And the only way to survive was to get on a bus and they did, bus took them where the bus took them. And then they ended up sleeping on cats and churches and red cross stations.

That's pretty much it, right? 100%. Except for Willie May, who at 89 years old said my entire life is that restaurant. That's my home, my restaurant, my place work. And she got an airplane slipped away from her family and got an airplane by herself and flew back to New Orleans. Yeah. And there's there may be some question on whether it was an airplane or bus.

It doesn't matter. She was 90 and And the restaurant was all she knew and I mean it was her I mean it was her reason for being and so yeah, she slipped away from her family came back to New Orleans the the water had been pumped off and receded at this point. And so what remained was this shell of a building that had been neglected for 80 years that was just totally washed out.

So, and what it did was just basically, it gave everything inside of her building the ability to just say, not a hell with it. I'm just... I've held on. It was a mess. And so it was a mess. And the reason that I got involved is to go back to May of that year. So Katrina had on August 29th in the beginning of May of 2005 at the James Beard Awards.

William A. had been recognized as one of the four America's classics to be recognized that year. They recognize restaurants that are not, you know, Foufi, you know, over the top, they're carrying on a tradition that wouldn't exist if the folks populating, you know, that business were not there to carry on the tradition. And she was awarded an America's classic. And so she comes back to New Orleans. I mean, we, a group of us had to figure out how to get her to New York at almost 90 to get her to up on stage, to get her to the awards up on stage, get her paid for. I mean, all of it. She, I mean,

she literally could not have lived any more hand-amout than she did. I mean, she literally could not have lived any more and a mouth than she did. She had her money in a coffee can. Yep. And you know, bought her stuff from the grocery store, got it to the restaurant, prepared it, you know, saved the money, her great-granddaughter got tipped, and that's how she made her money, and that's how they lived.

And so all of a sudden, she comes back and there's a little bit of recognition. She about doubles her triples in business. All of a sudden folks are taking interest in this place. And so she was struggling a little bit with an increase in business. She did pretty much all the work in the kitchen by herself at 89 and her great-granddaughter helped out a little bit, but a great granddaughter had to basically do all the the hustling out in the dining room. And so this is all of a sudden at a new level, they were struggling

to figure it out anyway, then the storm hits and everybody picks up, you know, and goes off to Houston. And so yeah, she she can't get her head around at all. And so, takes off, comes back to New Orleans, is apparently just despondent sitting on the curb. Little and everything she owns was in that restaurant slash house and was rude. And a New Orleans police department officer finds her sitting on the stoop and goes up to get her identification, find out who she is. Willie May is, at this point, she's in shock. She can't talk.

She doesn't have any ID and the officer ends up going through her purse with her and wrapped up in tissue paper in her purse as her beard award. We're just amazing unto itself. Right. Just staring at that. And so the police officer calls the Beard Foundation. The Beard Foundation says, well, I mean, we're not charge-over, but you could try this guy, LoLis Eli.

He might be able to help. So they get in touch with LoLis. LoLis calls me and another friend here in town, John T. Edge, who runs the Southern Foodways Alliance and says they've found Willie May. And he says, we got to do something to help her. And at the time that I got that phone call, I was in Philadelphia, Mississippi, Philadelphia, Mississippi. And I had done, the casino had done a fundraiser. I was getting phone calls to go everywhere to work fundraisers to raise, you know, $5,000, $7,000, $10,000 here and there money that wasn't accomplishing anything, but until I could find out what my job was going to be, I said yes to everything. And I get this call in Philadelphia

and we said, look, this is something we can get our arms around. I know that restaurant. I know what's there. This is something that we could take on. And put up some new sheet rock, where sheet rock had come down. Just get her, you know. Maybe a new fryer. Right. You know, polish off the equipment and then off we go.

Five weeks, off we go. Yeah, again, the second worst miscalculation of my entire life. The first miscalculation was going to an all-mail college in Virginia in the middle of nowhere and thinking How could he get distracted there, but it had up? There about five all-girl colleges nearby We'll be right back

What is this place? Wait, why my handcuffed? What am I doing here? 13 days of Halloween, Penance. Season 4 of the award-winning horror fiction podcast presented in immersive 3D audio. Where am I? Why, this is the Pendleton. All residents, please return to your habitation.

Lights up! On your feet! You're new here, please return to your habitation. Light stuff on your feet! You're new here, so I'll say it once. No talking. Starring Natalie Morales of Parks and Recreation and Dead to Me. Am I under arrest? We know what can use that word. Can I leave of my own free will? Not at this time.

So this is a prison then? No. It's a rehabilitation center. Premiering October 19th, ending Halloween. I'm gonna get out. And how may I ask for you going to do that? Escape. Listen to 13 days of Halloween on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Danielle Moody here from Wokey F Daily. As we head into 2024, let me be your go-to guide for unpacking the election chaos. Bench this season of Wokey F Daily to hear me and my gallery of guests examine America's decline into dysfunction. 150 episodes are waiting for you right now to dive into conversations with dozens of expert guests that are sure to keep you woke. Whether it's labor strikes, climate change, public health, gun violence, book bans, attacks

on America's marginalized populations, or the literal trials and tribulations of Donald Trump, WokeF Daily is your place to catch up on this year's biggest stories. WokeF Daily is your destination to hear my unfiltered thoughts about everything going on in America, with a mustard seed of hope for a better tomorrow. All 150 episodes are available for you to dive into right now. Listen to all of Woke AF Daily on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. You know, we speak things into existence here on the old calm down podcast, isn't that I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

You know, we speak things into existence here on the old calm down podcast. Isn't that right, Aaron Taylor? I don't know what you are doing in your life right now. Besides rocking the United States, but I will say this. Please try our friend Travis. He is fantastic. We started with the Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift thing. What is next, Gal? You're gonna have to stay tuned to find out

as we talk about the real stuff people want to know about. Like, why do I keep picking my face when I know I shouldn't and an antibiotic prescription later? I'm still doing it. Meanwhile, will I ever figure out how to get TSA pre-check? I swear to God, I can't. Just send me through security.

I waste so much time with this. Somebody help me. I need a lawyer. Stop breaking the law and they will approve you. We also one time, one time too many. We also talk about the struggles of being women in a male dominated industry and all the people we love in it. If anyone needs to calm down, it's us, but knowing us,

we probably won't. So make sure you listen to the calm down podcast every week. Visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. So we got in and we partnered with some folks that were part of a preservation group out of the Northeast that they wanted to sink their teeth into something. And so they brought down all these Ivy League educated fellas to sort of take a look at the building and help us figure you know, figure out the best way that we could surgically remove the weather board on the outside of the building up to

six feet. I forgot, six. Isn't it funny how smart people could be so stupid? Yeah, and it was, you know, it was all dry rod. And so it started splintering immediately. And, you know, there was just, there was going to be no salzing in it And so what about termites? I would think termites would be a thing Uh, you know termites, you know, you know termites work, you know, you've got to have regular moisture and water, right?

You know, you've got to have A post that's that's sitting on concrete that's sunk and gotten into wet dirt. Right. So they can crawl up in a nest. Right. I was expecting to building like that was eaten up with this. This, this is building that there was a lot of dry rot, but I mean, it was, it was some wood that had that had dry cured and hardened to petrified. Wow. It was... It was... Yeah, I mean, there were still magnificent issues. The back half of the building, once we sort of dug into it,

determined that there were about eight layers of shingles that had been laid on top of shingle. So shingle, on shingle, on shingle. So the roof was sagging The roof was saying from a construction standpoint, I don't think in the back half of the building that there was a single, there was anything bigger than a two buff or framing up the roof. Right. So that should be two by eights. Right. And what's worse is there wasn't two buff or that spanned all the way from the apex to an outside wall. Everything was scabbed together.

Everything was scabbed together. And bending. And so all of a sudden we realize that, you know, we've got, you know, two tons of shingles that the hand of God is, is keeping from... The hand of God in probably six, ten pinnacles. Right. And removing that was was really dangerous anyway the You know the the point was and we got into this thing we thought five weeks

We can get the sheet rock cleared out get it cleaned up Hang new sheet rock paint it get ready to go get the stuff plugged back in and off we go. And she can be cooking chicken, making a living again. And in an area of the city that desperately needed one thing to look fixed again, this is the flag I was talking about. I mean, this is an area of the city that there was a lot of neglect. It's not like the federal government swooped in and helped out all that much.

No, no. I did, I mean, I had two calls from the White House where they wanted to come take pictures there over the course of the project and take credit for it. And a mayor may not have ended up on a watch list because of some language they used. because of some language I used. Um... ... ... The city desperately needed things to open that reminded them of New Orleans and their culture and this was one of them.

And so, in and out in five weeks, you got the people from the Northeast going to help out and... no problem. Right. And it ended up being. Well, it ended up being the 16, 18 month project instead. The folks from the preservation society threw up their hands after week four and said, this is beyond the scope of our ability. Do you mean the Northeast smart people? Yeah. Right. And I think we just lost Yeah, right. And I think we just lost, that the show just lost all of the new England listeners.

So. A harboring O.L. feelings. Yeah. So the same group of us ended up back on the phone once we realized, okay, we've gone through five weeks now and folks came from all over the world. So the Southern Foodways Alliance helped set up a network to encourage volunteers who wanted to come to New Orleans and help out to do something to come work with us. Kind of like you were. I want to do something but how, and this gave the answer to the how to well-intentioned people the one to volunteer

And so you had a small army of people show up as a result of them plugging those people in yeah So you know five weeks past it turns out it took every bit of those five weeks to get the place cleaned out I think in that first five weeks we ended up getting the roof I think in the first five weeks we ended up getting the roof off of the back part of the building, reframing the roof with proper timber and re-roofing it. So we got it in the dry, but the rest of the building, and this is 2,500 square feet, was completely gutted to studs. And by the way, there was no insulation. It was wiring from the 30s, 40s, 50s.

I mean, there were still a couple of circuits that were being carried on insulators. The plumbing. Not a tube stuff. Yeah, I mean, and there were lead pipes. There was cast iron. There was no AC. I mean, so we put it all down. Some just, you've

got a business to run. So how are you working that? Well, this, the first five weeks, it just went down on the weekend. So, you know, I can work during the weekend and go down and do my thing. You know, when we ended up with a follow-up phone call with myself and LoLis and John T. Edge, and maybe one or two other people in there at this point, and everybody is scratching their heads, going, what the hell are we going to do now? And I just out of the blue, I just said, I got it. I mean, if you guys will continue to help arrange volunteers, I'll take this thing on. I'm just that dangerous that I know, you know, that much about construction.

And I've got tools and generators and, you know, and I've got a couple of friends here and there that'll help out. But, you know, this isn't a huge job. This is a kind of thing that we can do and we'll get some support out of like people will be interested in this story. And why, why John why well I mean first of all there was a massive fascination with southern food you know you had people who were just pouring their hearts out about the significance of New Orleans at that point and wanted to be a part of it they were looking for feel good stories you know everybody was lobbing grenades at the federal government and you know and

let me be very clear you know when a lot of people feel like they know what my politics are and how I feel. There was no playbook for how to deal with that. And I think we had a president who had some magnificently wrong people and wrong positions at the time when all this happened. And so, could the response have been better? Sure. But who the hell was thinking at that time?

Okay, well, let's just say New Orleans floods and the entire city, right? Like, what do we do? So, you know, it was easy for us to look like these nights in Shining Armor going into, you know, a blighted neighborhood, taking on a restaurant that very few people knew about, but the story was that if we didn't do it, there was no insurance. There was no savings that this was a 50 year old fried chicken restaurant that would cease to exist in

that moment. I mean, if we had not stepped in, I believe fully that that building would be a pile of rubble on that corner right now. Which by the way, today there are still shells of buildings littering the New Orleans landscape from Katrina that nothing's happened with. So when you say a pile of rubble, don't think that all this revitalization and all these areas going around to this thing would have been cleared in a Starbucks sitting on the corner. It literally probably just be a class pala rubble like so many structures. All this time later still really are. Right.

Yet now it is a building that six days a week has a line outside, two hours long waiting to get in. Is it really like that now? It's unbelievable. Oh, it is. It get in. I mean, it's really like that now. It's unbelievable. I mean, it is a, you know, it, it, it, It was nothing like that when, when I went through it. No, no. And, and so, you know, I think the combination

of the, the press that it got, the association that was made between the Southern Foodways Alliance and Willie Mays, and the fact that once they reopened, every food show and every food writer wanted to come through there and shoot footage and write about it being the best fried chicken in the country and y'know, y here we are 20 years later, and Kerry Seaton is still sitting on that corner, making fried chicken every day, and we say this all the time, the thing that's really inspiring about it from a generational standpoint. That restaurant is better today than it was on the best day that her great-grandmother cooked in it. We'll be right back. Bye. Why, this is Dependleton. All residents, please return to your habitation. Light stuff on your feet!

You're new here, so I'll say it once. No talking. Starring Natalie Morales of Parks and Recreation and Dead To Me. Am I under arrest? We don't like to use that word. Can I leave of my own free will? Not at this time. So this is a prison none?

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podcast. all of Woke AF Daily on the I Heart Radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. You know, we speak things into existence here on the old calm down podcast, isn't that right Aaron Taylor? I don't know what you are doing in your life right now. Besides rocking the United States, but I will say this, please try our friend Travis. He is fantastic. We started with the Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift thing.

What is next, gal? You're gonna have to stay tuned to find out as we talk about the real stuff people want to know about. Like, why do I keep picking my face when I know I shouldn't and an antibiotic prescription later I'm still doing it? Meanwhile, will I ever figure out how to get TSA pre-check? I swear to God, I can't.

Just send me through security. I waste so much time with this. Somebody help me. I need a lawyer. Stop breaking the law and they will approve you. We owe it to one time. One time too many. We also talk about the struggles of being

women in a male dominated industry and all the people we love in it. If anyone needs to calm down, it's us. But knowing us, we probably won't. So make sure you listen to the Calm Down podcast every week. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Willie Mae was there the entire 16 months from the day she showed up in Houston sitting on the corner to when you showed up in her life and all the volunteers.

But sadly, once it finally opened up at 92, I think 91 years old, 92 92 years. No, she's been 91. Yeah. At 91 years old, she was just physically unable to stand over the stove and cook all day and mentally it took a toll on her and she was never able really to to work in and run her restaurant again, but her great-granddaughter stepped up. Yeah, it was a, that part of the process was going away the most challenging part. For the better part of a year, I was going down in New Orleans, you know, twice, I mean, three times every two weeks, basically, I'd go down for three days, come home for a couple days, three days, come home for a couple days, four days, you know, and work and come home

for a couple of times. I mean, running a business, going back and forth, that's a lot for 14 months now. It was, but I was 40 and I still had a lot of energy when I was 40. I remember those days too. But so I spent a lot of time in there by myself. Willie Mae would hurt her son drove a taxi when bring her over and unload her and put her in a chair and she'd sit in the corner with the newspaper and just talked to me whatever I was doing. And you know, as we moved through this project and the project was getting written about and

there was interest in it. All of a sudden, family members started showing up that never had any interest in the restaurant before. And in their minds, this is something that is all of a sudden, they've got some sort of generational equity in it. And this is going to in order there benefit somehow and Which is not what you bought in for now, right and as You know as time went along

They were manipulating Willie May Willie May was was getting very confused. She was you know I watched a woman who went from a You know a 70-year-old, 90-year-old, you know, into a full-on, 100-year-old, 90-year-old, just by virtue of the fact that she was taken out of her regular routine that she had been in for 50 years. And- She may not have died in the flood, but the flood killed her. Yeah. And, you know, and she survived for, you know, a couple of years, a couple of five, six years after the storm. I mean, after we got her reopened.

And I mean, I don't know how much she was there, but the infighting that went on, you know, led me to a place where there were moments when I was in there, and I mean, I was on my knees praying because I didn't know what these hundreds and hundreds of hours were gonna ultimately lead to. If we were gonna, like there was a possibility in my mind, we're going to ultimately lead to if we were going to and that like there was a possibility in my mind we could hand the keys over to these folks

and they go thanks and next thing we know they're nailing a for sale sign to the side of the building and then they're just going to split up whatever it is that they can can make off of it. As you know as a Catholic no good deed goes unpunished. Of course. And that was one of those things where I really had to meditate on that you just, you can't qualify your philanthropy. I mean, you do the right thing for the right reason, no matter what the outcome is or what the consequences you're just doing. Did you question your efforts at some points?

Of course. There's a lot of money involved here too. I mean, you had to have spent a fair amount of money doing this. Raised a fair amount of money. We did. And, you know, and yeah, I mean, I never, I never until we, you just said it. Like, I never really thought about, you know, what I spent out of my pocket. I just didn't care

You know, but there's a lot of trips up and down the highway You know to the tune of about 150 bucks a trip You know on gas and a you know in a suburban sleepless nights away from your business. Yeah but You know, I those just weren't the things that I thought about that You know the the nice thing is that you know the end of the story is it you know in spite't the things that I thought about that. The nice thing is the end of the story is that in spite of the fact that Willie made ultimately passes right before her 100th birthday, that she never did work another day in

the restaurant. But it remains in the hands of the family. And the great-granddaughter who actually hustled for tips, originally, which is rightfully where it should have been to do that sounds like. Yeah. And the recipe on the chicken hadn't changed. No, no, it's still spectacular.

And as I said, they've expanded the menu slightly, but not gone beyond what they're capable of serving. One of the things that I always loved was that when I said you would get your plate of food with two pieces of white bread, she would go through the sunbeam or bunny loaves of bread bread and she'd serve all the bread out of them and she would keep one bag that she'd just throw the heels in and she would throw the heels from the loaves in the bread bag, throw them in the freezer and hang on to the heels until she had enough heels to make a pan of bread pudding.

No way. And so, and it was total Russian roulette. When you went in there, whether she was gonna have bread pudding. No way. And so and it was it was total Russian roulette. When you went in there, whether she was going to have bread pudding or not, she had bread pudding about once every, you know, or two days out of every two weeks or something. Because she had to get enough heels to make it. Right. And never saw, you know, that maybe if I just like left some bread out overnight and let it dry out, you know, I could sell bread pudding on the rag and so but Carry now keeps bread pudding on the menu. Here's the great great grand daughter. Yeah

She's downer and the operator. Yeah, she and she is married and they Think I read recently they're they're looking at opening a second location in the French quarter or somewhere. So I hope for her sake that she can do that, that her work continues to pay off because she could have walked away from the same thing and it wouldn't be there. So in that first few days of that five week process, where it was gonna be five weeks, I remember reading that there was, and I think you said, it took all that time

just to get everything out, but I think I remember reading that there was a debris field that was the inside and outside and what was this place that was like 10 feet wide by eight foot tall, by 50 or 60 feet long, just how many people did you have there? Because that's a bunch of crap to be carrying out of a building and putting on a curve. Well, the story of the people who volunteered, folks who came once, folks who came multiple times, folks who came from as far away as Europe and South America.

Are you kidding? No. To help you? It was, it was, and this was really, this was not me. This was the SFA, the Southern Foodways Alliance, but they were helping you out. Right. Yeah. And you know, I think that most of them were connected to the SFA. You know, there were probably some who just wanted to come and be part of something and ended up falling in our laps. But those first five weeks, we took a picture every weekend with the volunteers on the side of the building and we have a vinyl banner with sort of the project

name on it and everybody autographed it. And it was hundreds and hundreds of people that came in those first five weeks. And not just from New World, literally from all over the world. All over the world. And you know, that the whole process, I made so many amazing friends. There's still a half dozen folks that, you know, I rubbed up against on that project that check in with me from time to time. They send me pictures from, you know, when they up against on that project that check in with me from time to time they send me pictures from you know when they run into a big bad breakfast in Charleston they you know just want to know how I'm doing and what's going on you know I met my wife and we courted through all of this and you know there were two people that came along as part of that project that locked arms with me and spent time with me and helped

me and became close enough friends that two of those guys stood in and are wedding together. I mean, they stood with us and are wedding. That's how profoundly moving, you know, this was that, you know, the relationships that were built and are forged as a result of the time that we spent together and how emotional it was. I mean, it was the rollercoaster of emotions that went on constantly, while they're both being fear, joy, sadness, love, backache. Yeah, exhaustion. I mean, it's truly something that I can't imagine.

And I know that it doesn't come close to any sort of true battlefield reality. But you do have to be. There were definitely some similarities. And it definitely took an army of folks just out of nowhere. But there's a pile of those that are their friends for life. It's an amazing story. So, have you taken the time to understand that save your involvement will emerge legacy in, Sykatrina? Yeah, more than likely. It's a hundred percent at a dead end. And also open the door to a, you know, similarly great exposure. You know, the volume of business they do now is just, it's.

Yeah, you can do more than make a living. Yeah. But the point is, John, nobody in Nguyen-Ju, you're do more than make a living. Yeah, but the point is, John, nobody inointed you. You're not a politician. You're not somebody that tabs you, the guy to go fix stuff. You're an old man going through life, building your business, building your brand, working hard. You see a need in your home in the face of a catastrophe and you

filled it and in doing so you you saved a family's legacy and really honestly a piece of New Orleans legacy and I don't care how many big bad breakfasts you build in your career nothing nothing can replace that. And I think it's a fabulous story, an amazing story. And you are almost overly humble about it. But you know, well, I want the risk of sounding condescending, you should be proud. Well, well, thank you. It's very kind of you to say. But I won't lie to you. One of the one of my favorite moments from it all only came about two years ago when we had a hurricane bearing down on New Orleans and I was talking to John T and I said, this thing can't hit New Orleans. I don't have another fried chicken restaurant. I can't do it anymore.

It's six years all I have. I can't do it anymore. I can't do it anymore. Hey, listen, one of the things we do is we share contact information. If someone hears your story and is inspired to help somebody else out that's indeed, is there an email address through your restaurant business

that people could reach out to you? I'm easy, I'm John at BigBadBreakfast.com. John at BigBadBreakfast.com and you're in 17 cities now, right? And BigBadBreakfast. Well, we have 17 locations. 17 locations. Yeah, I mean. And if you have a BigBadBreakfast in your town, this is a shameless plug. But if you have a Big bad breakfast in your town,

this is a shameless plug, but if you have a big bad breakfast in your town and you hadn't been checking out, it's an Oxford staple and it is really good breakfast stuff. So, and if you're ever an Oxford on the square, check out City Groucher, your B-Roy, John's food will be on display there. It's been wonderful, busy with you, John. I appreciate you, Tom.

Thanks, man. It's been great. This was a ball. And thank you for joining us this week. If John or another guest has inspired you in general or better yet to take action, please let me know. I'd love to hear about it. You can write me anytime at billatnormalfokes.us and I'll respond. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with friends and on social. Subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it.

Become a premium member at NormalFox.us, all these things that will help grow an army of normal folks. For our premium members, we'll have bonus content from this episode and it's John and I talking about restaurants in New Orleans and Oxford and his early career as a restaurant owner. If you don't want to miss it, become a premium member today. Lastly, thanks to our sponsor, Iron Light Labs. I'm Bill Courtney.

I'll see you next week. 13 Days of Halloween Penance Season 4 of the award-winning horror fiction podcast presented in immersive 3D audio. If I am under arrest, you have to tell me what I'm charged with. Starring Natalie Morales of Parks and Recreation and Dead To Me. Please, you've been some kind of mistake. I'm not supposed to be here. How do you know? I'm innocent.

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