Eating my way through Taste of Black Chattanooga
It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I realized Chattanooga had five Blackowned restaurants just on M.L. King Boulevard alone. Of course, those numbers pale in comparison to the heyday of when that corridor was dubbed the “Big 9” and teemed with the hustle and bustle of Black culture and commerce.
Then you take a city like Wilmington, North Carolina, where I grew up. I struggled to tally seven Black-owned restaurants, caterers or food trucks in the entire city, let alone on a single street. To be fair, Chattanooga has about 60,000 more people than Wilmington, which has an African American population of 17%, compared to 30% here.
Those restaurants I mentioned on M.L. King Boulevard are just the tip of the iceberg that is Black-owned restaurants in Chattanooga. There’s Herman’s Soul Food and Wright’s Barbecue, whose ham hocks and scrap plate, respectively, represent the letters “H” and “S” on my A-Z guide of what to eat in Chattanooga. There’s Lois’s Restaurant on Dodson Avenue, where you can get chitterlings with a side of pinto beans and potato salad. There’s pot roast at C&W’s Cafe and chicken fajita fries at Cornelius Lathans’s food truck — The Bistro. I could go on for at least another paragraph rattling off different dishes from different Chattanooga Black-owned establishments, which is exactly why I knew the third annual UTC Taste of Black Chattanooga event would be nothing short of epic.
After I grabbed my plate and utensils, Crystal Edenfield, director of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s student success programs (a division of diversity and engagement and Africana studies) explained the origins and significance of the event.
“Three years ago, we wanted to do something to highlight and bring awareness to businesses owned by people of color, particularly for Black History Month,” she said. “So, we reached out to a bunch of different people and were able to get vendors. Food brings everybody together, no matter what culture.”
While DJ Chi played songs by Drake and Jack Harlowe, I joined a mix of mostly UTC students as we ate our way through a handful of dishes from local Black-owned restaurants and caterers.
No matter what, Mrs. Shon from The Island Vibe will always hold a special place in my heart for introducing me to pikliz, a beloved Haitian side dish that reminds me of the hot slaw I was introduced to in nearby Cleveland, Tennessee, and chow chow (the condiment, not the dog).
This celebration also marked the first time I’ve had my ice cream “fried” from Charlie Bell, owner of Cold Fusions fried ice cream. Novelty aside, it was delicious, and I’m looking forward to trying the “Rock City” flavor named after the tourist attraction. The flavor features “fried” vanilla ice cream covered with walnuts and caramel syrup.
T.Rowe Creative Kitchen wowed everybody with its “soul food shot,” a muffin cup stuffed with stuffing, topped with macaroni and cheese, which is topped with a baked chicken wing. The “soul food shot” was followed up with something with an even more zealous title, “strawberry heaven in a cup.” It’s a cup of diced fresh strawberries and crumbles of strawberry cake all held together by some sort of cheesecake pudding. My last stop was at Shey Natural, a health bar specializing in healthy smoothies, organic tea and herbal supplements. Shey Natural’s juice, a mixture of oranges, ginger, lemon and turmeric, made me feel halfway better about the gluttony I’d just partaken in.
All in all, Taste of Black Chattanooga was a beautiful event that will undoubtedly get even bigger and tastier and continue to bolster Chattanooga’s Black food scene.