Big Mama's shuts down for good

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ^ | 8/25/10 | Jeremy Boren

[raccoonradio]

'Big Mama' shuts down oven for good

Brenda "Big Mama" Franklin is finished frying chicken and cooking greens in her House of Southern Cuisine on Liberty Avenue, Downtown.

The Garfield woman closed her restaurant Monday and posted two hand-written notes on the front doors today thanking her loyal customers, praising God and excoriating the Pittsburgh Parking Authority for levying parking fines against her that she said sapped her restaurant's modest revenues.

"Due to parking issues beyond my control I am forced to close. However, I'll be relocating to another state," Franklin wrote. "I've been targeted by the Parking Authority, which makes it very hard for my customers to park."

Franklin has not been targeted by parking enforcement agents, said David Onorato, executive director of the Pittsburgh Parking Authority.

[raccoonradio]

Lots of puns today! Here are some of mine:

Why is proper behavior at a convention like one of the New
England states? Because it’s Con etiquette.

What’s the difference between a TV news van and the car
Ted dumped in the drink? One’s a newsmobile, the other’s an Oldsmobile.

[raccoonradio]

That had to be her old location in the Strip (never went there, hadn't heard of her at that point). Here is my pic of the new location (on the left) taken from across the street. Now it will be something else, I guess.

[Army Air Corps]

Quite a line! Can we draw this out much longer?

[kickonly88]

I read where she’s considering moving her operation to D.C. Now there’s a plan. Good luck with that!

[Personal Responsibility]

I don't think we would have agreed on politics, though; a couple employees wore T shirts saying "Big Mama's For Obama".

Due to parking issues beyond my control I am forced to close. However, I'll be relocating to another state

Liberalism - because the drive for more tax dollars via fines is to fund liberal policies - kills her store. So instead of learning from it she will stay liberal and just take her policies somewhere else and ruin that place with them too.

Just another example of "You can lead a person to knowledge but you can't make them think."

[AGreatPer]

Thanks for posting the picture because I couldn't picture where this place was.
Now I remember. It used to be a bong shop.

[jessduntno]

“Quite a line! Can we draw this out much longer?”

Like Pogo said when they stripped the trees in the swamp;

“No moss.”

[hometoroost]

"Why didn’t Big Moma contact “Big Obama” about her problem."

Well, it doesn't sound like she's a Muslim, she's in this country legally, and she's running a business. Three strikes against her as far as the Kenyan Commisar is concerned.

[Bitsy]

Three strikes against her as far as the Kenyan Commisar is concerned.
Point. When they relocate maybe they should shed the O shirts.

[raccoonradio]

Maybe that was awhile back but the Steel City Diner was there
from 06-09 IIRC...same exact setup as the SCD.

[RayBob]

Never went there... colleague tried to get me to go, but I was never in the mood. The guy raved about the place, then the next couple times he went, he said it sucked.

The place next door, Fernandos, has some hippie donut joint inside... horribly overpriced, tiny donuts...

African American History Center is failing because all the guilty white liberals made their obligatory visit early on and the blacks in town are ignoring it. Waste of a perfectly good parking lot that it replaced.

I’m sure that they’ll get subsidized and propped up with tax dollars to keep it open even though no one goes there...

[raccoonradio]

Some were raving about the donuts in FUR-nando’s, as he retitled it, but I didn’t try any. But the Italian sub wasn’t bad. A quick get-in, eat, get on your way place (Furnando’s). Golden Palace buffet around the corner
on Smithfield St (Chinese) was good. Hit them twice.

>>African American History Center is failing because all the guilty white liberals made their obligatory visit early on and the blacks in town are ignoring it. Waste of a perfectly good parking lot that it replaced.

I figured I’d catch it to see if they had some stuff on
jazz/blues. I did learn George Benson came from the area, etc. and there was something where you could take a bunch of sound (including the Mr Rogers theme) and make your own
mix, etc. I noticed they had a pic of civil rights protesters picketing U.S. Steel and I figured, USS probably
helped to fund the museum. A story I read about the museum mentioned the money drying up. Agreed.

[BigGaloot]

I ate there twice, both times it was gross, greasy food with awful service. Parking has nothing to do with the place, there was plenty of foot traffic in the area.