The upstairs nook of Jet Metropolis Harley-Davidson bears little resemblance to Ms. Helen Coleman’s legendary restaurant at 23rd and Union, the place she fed her soul meals to the likes of Richard Pryor, Ernestine Anderson, and Ken Griffey Jr. However the brisket Coleman’s daughter, JesDarnel Henton, now serves on this unlikely location hasn’t modified in any respect, the meltingly tender chunks served over a basic mac and cheese.
Ebony Journal as soon as known as Coleman’s cooking “The principal Seattle motherlode of soul meals.” Former mayor Norm Rice ate there, and final week present mayor Bruce Harrell checked in on Henton to see what she was as much as. Muhammad Ali, B.B. King, and Gary Payton got here by way of Helen’s Diner and the later iteration, Ms. Helen’s Soul Meals.
Henton labored alongside her mom from 1971 till the Nisqually earthquake took out the restaurant in 2001. After that, the restaurant took over the kitchens of nightclubs for just a few extra years, however failed to seek out one other everlasting location. Henton all the time held onto the dream of reopening her mom’s restaurant, persevering with to function as a catering firm and, extra just lately, doing pop-ups. Now, for the primary time in a decade, Ms. Helen’s Soul Bistro has a devoted location with common weekly hours, and clients can are available in for breakfasts of smothered potatoes or shrimp and grits for lunch.
To get to the restaurant, clients might want to undergo the foyer of the Harley showroom and up the steps within the again, to the place Henton’s meals sits in chafing dishes on the bar. It’s not the identical because the Seattle location the place her mom made her identify, however it options the identical meals, the identical heat hospitality, and continues the mother-daughter enterprise into a 3rd technology.
Henton had hoped to reopen within the Central District, however struggled to make a too-large area in Midtown Sq. work, particularly as soon as her mom retired. Within the meantime, she ran the kitchen on the Central Space Youth Affiliation and, when known as on, made lunch for her personal grownup daughter.
Nicole Henton works on the web gross sales workforce at Jet Metropolis Harley-Davidson, and when she began bringing in her mother’s meals, coworkers took be aware. Quickly, Henton was making lunch for the employees on a weekly foundation, then catering the shop’s month-to-month breakfast conferences and any occasions. When the shop wished to make itself extra of a vacation spot for present and potential clients, the chance for a symbiotic relationship with Henton made sense. “Now we’ll have individuals which can be coming from throughout the state to purchase bikes that get to have our meals,” Nicole mentioned. It isn’t a very distinctive concept—in Tacoma, Vacation spot Harley-Davidson hosts the cafe outlet of a soul meals truck, Lizzie Lou’s Too.
Henton remains to be finalizing all the small print across the new Ms. Helen’s, together with the schedule—she plans to open from 10am to 2pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays, to remain open in a while Fridays and Saturdays, and hasn’t discovered Sundays but (search for updates on the restaurant’s Fb web page). What she does know, is that that is simply one other step within the persevering with legacy of Ms. Helen’s. “I’m going to maintain it increasing, increasing, increasing. I am simply beginning off easy,” Henton says.
Final Wednesday, Henton opened Ms. Helen’s Soul Bistro in Jet Metropolis for the primary time, however on Friday, she deliberate a menu of grilled catfish and inexperienced beans for a extra unique viewers: Ms. Helen herself, the grande dame of Seattle soul meals, in celebration of her 89th birthday.
