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Black pitmasters left out of US barbecue boom
BBC News Magazine ^ | Jessica Lussenhop

Posted on 08/24/2015 1:30:34 PM PDT by Albion Wilde

The US is in the midst of a barbecue boom. But as television programmes and restaurants celebrate mostly white pitmasters, are the cuisine's African-American roots being forgotten?...

...the Brantleys have enjoyed a great deal of success with their traditional St Louis-style barbecue. There are lines out the door, as well as accolades from both local and national media...

But things aren't as good as they used to be. Daryle once had three locations and sold the sauce bottled at local supermarkets - today he only has the original shopfront.

The decline happened as factory jobs left St Louis and the recession of the 1990s took its toll. Once the outlook improved and he wanted to expand or make improvements, he found no bank would loan to him.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: africanamerican; barbecue; blackbbqisbest; food; pitmaster; racism
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Regardless of the fake outrage by academics and race hustlers, there does remain some remnants of racism that suppress capable, hard-working black entrepreneurs. This article makes the point without preaching.
1 posted on 08/24/2015 1:30:34 PM PDT by Albion Wilde
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To: Kid Shelleen
Remembering an early pioneer in drawing white consumers to a sumptuous, black-owned barbecue: Bea Bea's Lawnside Barbecue on Philadelphia's famed South Street, owned by Bea Gladden, who died in 1986 at age 70:

Beatrice 'Bea Bea' Gladden, Barbecue Maker To The Stars

2 posted on 08/24/2015 1:33:51 PM PDT by Albion Wilde (If you can't make a deal with a politician, you can't make a deal. --Donald Trump)
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To: Albion Wilde

Can’t have them succeed, otherwise they might not vote for Democrats anymore.


3 posted on 08/24/2015 1:35:04 PM PDT by Shadow44
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To: Albion Wilde

The best B-B-Q I have ever eaten was in the South at restaurants run by Blacks and that goes back as far as into the 1950’s. Ga. Ala. Ms. I knew where they all were and made it a point to enjoy the food whenever possible.


4 posted on 08/24/2015 1:38:41 PM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: Albion Wilde

Dunno. The same might be said concerning the NBA.


5 posted on 08/24/2015 1:38:50 PM PDT by LouAvul (Adios America. We hardly knew ye.)
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To: Albion Wilde

Arthur Bryant’s in Kansas City set the standard during his life.


6 posted on 08/24/2015 1:39:56 PM PDT by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius now available at Amazon.)
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To: Albion Wilde
I call bs.

Virtually every BBQ joint of which I'm aware is owned/run by blacks.

7 posted on 08/24/2015 1:40:50 PM PDT by gogeo (If you are Tea Party, the eGOP does not want you.)
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To: Albion Wilde
Without preaching? You need to clean your ears.

This was a full sermon on cultural appropriation.

Banks have a lot of Fed supervision these days to avoid any racist tinge. Not getting a business loan in St Louis probably means the business is in a Ferguson-like area. That he's had to close 2 of 3 stores also suggests that the area is not the up and coming kind. That he had to close those stores might lead the bank to think poorly of his business acumen.

8 posted on 08/24/2015 1:42:04 PM PDT by slowhandluke (It's hard to be cynical enough in this age.)
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To: Albion Wilde

Blacks make up 13% of the US population. And someone who has had to close 2/3 of their business will have a hard time getting a loan. That isn’t “racism”.


9 posted on 08/24/2015 1:42:58 PM PDT by youngidiot (God help us.)
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To: Albion Wilde

Most unusual BBQ joint is Harold’s Ribs in Palo Alto. He runs it in a little outdoor stand at Lozano’s Carwash on El Camino. Nice guy and great ribs and chicken. Must be the lowest overhead operation ever. Carwash & Ribs...how can you beat that?


10 posted on 08/24/2015 1:43:39 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not, no explanation is possible)
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To: Albion Wilde

Sad - Blacks just opened a BBQ place in my small town Featured on local TV in travel show and yet before we might make the decision to try their menu —pfft it was gone. Bad timing on their part, even though it was claimed their food was delicious. Eateries always seem to be the first to disappear in this type economy. Three come and go in this particular building in just a matter of a year or two. Sad for all concerned.
another in a small German oriented town just north had been there for over 40 years. Good location, terrific food and service. Great summer/winter jobs for HS Students. Just this past year it was heard they are no longer in business. One owner had died and the partner didn’t care to carry on. Sure miss that place ‘The Center’ in Munster, Tx. Really miss that place as well.


11 posted on 08/24/2015 1:44:15 PM PDT by V K Lee
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To: gogeo

12 posted on 08/24/2015 1:44:54 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: Albion Wilde

It’s TV shows so who really cares.


13 posted on 08/24/2015 1:46:56 PM PDT by maddog55 (America Rising a new Civil War needs to happen.)
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To: slowhandluke

It is almost impossible for a restaurant to get traditional financing. Their fortunes can change very quickly, and they probably fail at a higher rate than almost any type of business.


14 posted on 08/24/2015 1:51:46 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("It doesn't work for me. I gotta have more cowbell!")
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To: smokingfrog

FINE!

Why don’t You just go ahead and kill Me:)

(It’s a long way from Charlotte to Stubbs)


15 posted on 08/24/2015 1:52:09 PM PDT by mabarker1 (congress, The Opposite of Progress.)
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To: V K Lee

The fact of the matter is, restaurants are really, really tough to make succeed. Literally everything has to be right. Bad parking....bad neighborhood....obviously bad food, bad help....can’t get a liquor license....couple of food shards on the floor and the inspector wants a birbe to overlook it...and on top of that, the margins are small. Food cost bumps up 8% and suddenly it makes no sense to keep the joint open. Very tough business. And unless they open in a place where there used to be a restaurant, the gear is very expensive. And the place can be a reasonably working operation and suddenly the inspector comes in and demands, due to some new regulation, a $35K fume extractor upgrade the owner simply cannot afford. Boom, done.

You probably know all or most of this, but my point is that restaurants, unless they are in destination locations and have massive funding while they open, walk a razor’s edge in terms of feasibility.


16 posted on 08/24/2015 1:53:26 PM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (This space for rent.)
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To: Albion Wilde
The US is undisputedly in the midst of a barbecue boom - there are currently more than 14,000 barbecue restaurants in the country - but African American restaurateurs and pitmasters may be getting left in the dust. Thanks to television and professional barbecue competitions, barbecue chefs have become celebrities with cult followings, but those celebrity faces are largely white.

I call BS. Nothing is stopping black BBQ owners from entering and winning those contests. None of the judges know whose BBQ they are tasting, let alone the race of the cook. Maybe these guys are just good at making BBQ, but not such good businessmen. Maybe their credit isn't so good. I'm sick of the knee jerk call of racism.

17 posted on 08/24/2015 1:57:54 PM PDT by Hugin ("First thing--get yourself a firearm!" Sheriff Ed Galt)
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To: Albion Wilde
show the proof that there is still "racism"....where is the data?...

I think its entirely possible that many black owned businesses got easier money, govt help, extra media attention simply because they're black....I think its entirely possible and PROBABLE that many, many whites can not get business loans or free govt help or affirmative action privilege to establish business...

what is the BBC writing about anyway?...don't they enough problems with the muzzies raping young white British girls and getting them into prostitution that they have to come to our country make a big crisis out of nothing?

I notice that a lot of our sports talks shows have a lot of blacks, even though they make up only 13% of our population....

I notice that the fed govt has way, way too many blacks employed?....

and I notice that out of the thousands and thousands of white "storm chasers" the Driveby media found one solitary black guy to star in a show....

I could go on and on.....

and besides, the cave man discovered cooking over a fire....its been done since the dawn of humanity....in every single culture..

18 posted on 08/24/2015 1:58:56 PM PDT by cherry
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To: Albion Wilde

“Regardless of the fake outrage by academics and race hustlers, there does remain some remnants of racism that suppress capable, hard-working black entrepreneurs.”


Hard to tell if this applies to business loans (for which stats are not available, possibly for PC reasons), but blacks tend to default on student loans at 5x the rate of whites. My guess is that credit-worthy blacks are probably getting more loans than the equivalent white entrepreneur. The problem is that fewer blacks per capita are credit-worthy - they tend to avoid paying back student loans at 5x the rate of whites even when adjusted for debt as a % of income level.

http://tinyurl.com/ps54vb9

“Black students who graduated in 1992–93 school year had an overall default rate that was over five times higher than white students and over nine times higher than Asian students. The differences for Hispanic students are not as large, but are still substantial. Hispanic students’ overall default rate was over twice that of white students and four times higher than Asian students. And these differences cannot be fully explained by differences in borrowing patterns or salaries. The 1994 percentage of monthly income going to student loan payments—an indication of both how much debt a student has and their earnings—was actually lowest for Hispanic students and only slightly higher than average for black students. ...

The median monthly loan payment as a percentage of monthly income in 1994 for recent 1992–93 graduates was 6.7 percent for the United States as a whole, 7.4 percent for Asian students, 7.2 percent for black students, 5.3 percent for Hispanic students, and 6.8 percent for white students.”


19 posted on 08/24/2015 2:00:35 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Publius
Arthur Bryant’s in Kansas City set the standard during his life.

LC's, Heyward and Gates are three more in the area off the top of my head.

20 posted on 08/24/2015 2:02:33 PM PDT by Starstruck (I'm usually sarcastic. Deal with it.)
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