Elihu and Carolyn Brayboy didn’t intend to open a fine-dining restaurant of their own along St. Petersburg’s “The Deuces.”
The couple, both 65 and serial Midtown revitalizers, saw opportunity in the neighborhood’s historic two-unit building at 901-903 22nd St. S., renovating the 1939 landmark that housed the Sidney Harden grocery store and George Washington Tavern.
But even though Midtown is in what Elihu calls “renaissance mode,” people were very suspect of establishing businesses on 22nd Street, he tells CL.
“We had to go full steam ahead,” Brayboy says.
Mr. and Mrs. B thought other entrepreneurs would recognize the space’s potential as a restaurant after its facelift. But with no offers made on the building, where Harden used to sell grub like gopher tortoise and Dixie Lily grits, they launched a new inside-outside noshery themselves: Chief’s Creole Cafe.
The spot, which opened Nov. 1, joins the increasing number of New Orleans-style restaurants throughout the region. In Hillsborough, Suzanne and Roger Perry’s long-awaited Roux opened in August. Just last month, Tampanians saw the premiere of Greg Brown’s not-for-profit TACE Lounge.
And now there’s Chief’s Creole Cafe. Pinellas’ latest restaurant á la NOLA caters to taste buds drawn to local stalwarts like Cajun Cafe on the Bayou and Ricky P’s, which plans to hold its Third Annual Gumbo Cook-Off this month.
The Midtown restaurant’s name pays homage to Brayboy’s mother Mary Brayboy Jones, a Louisiana native affectionately nicknamed Chief. With chef Rodney Rayford heading the compact open kitchen, the menu is comprised of Chief’s own homestyle recipes.
It’s unlikely that the Harden-Washington site, or the Moure building the Brayboys restored next door at 909-913 22nd St. S., would’ve survived much longer without the couple’s involvement.
“The movement in the city right now is: If it’s boarded up and blighted, tear it down,” says Brayboy, who greets and shakes hands with diners who know him by name.
Gallerie 909 occupies the Moure space, along with the Brayboys’ consignment and ice cream shops, which they’ve put on hold since the restaurant’s debut. They’re looking for folks interested in taking over either biz.
“The 22nd Street corridor isn't new to me,” Brayboy says. “But to witness its 35 years of devastation… it’s important to me from a spiritual standpoint [to help rebuild].”
Chief’s incorporates many original details of Harden’s store, including the tin ceiling and the tavern’s ornate bar, which graces a wall in the main dining room. Mr. and Mrs. B, estate sale and thrift store enthusiasts, repurposed scrapyard-destined iron doors for the dining area outside and more.
Brayboy describes himself as the gofer, running errands for materials, and Carolyn as the construction maven, building flower beds and laying concrete alongside contractors.
The restaurant’s restoration theme goes deeper, though. Brayboy says Chief’s hired locals who were unemployed, and that it’s committed to paying living wages “because it’s what we have to do.”
Chief always cooked at home, Brayboy says, furnishing the dinner table with Creole-inflected staples such as red beans ’n’ rice and jambalaya. His favorite dish was her seafood gumbo, now offered daily at the restaurant.
Other items include sugar-dusted beignets, corn chowder, shrimp and grits ($9), house-made limeade and the Down on Central Jones ice cream ($5), dedicated to Brayboy’s stepfather Norman Jones.
Baked ham, mac and cheese, candied yams, collard greens and bread pudding are among the restaurant’s Soulful Sunday offerings. The assorted comfort-food spread runs eaters just $15.
“We want to make it affordable,” Brayboy says.
According to Rayford, who says he loves people and interacting with them via the open kitchen, the eatery has received great feedback from diners.
“And that makes it all good,” he says.
Once Chief’s stabilizes its goal of serving 200 diners per day, the restaurant will add live music into the mix, Brayboy says. He envisions a diverse lineup of musicians, everyone from soulful soloists to full bands.
Chief’s operates from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
