Restaurateur Martha Hawkins chronicles the rise of her soul food eatery.
At her soul food restaurant in the Deep South, Martha Hawkins, 62, serves squash casserole, baked turkey, bread pudding—food that, in her view, is “really going to make you feel good inside.” Her memoir, Finding Martha’s Place (Simon & Schuster), which includes 10 hearty recipes, is likely to do the same.That’s because Hawkins is a natural storyteller, full of engrossing tales of growing up black in segregated Montgomery, Alabama, and later struggling with single motherhood: “I was . . . depressed and lying on my mama’s couch with four boys to look after and no husband to love me and harder things than that ahead.”
Hawkins dreamed of owning a restaurant, but it wasn’t until she began reading the Bible while institutionalized for depression that she turned her life around. In 1985, she started selling homemade baked goods. Soon enough, an attorney who loved her pound cake found her a spot for an eatery—moving her headquarters out of Montgomery’s projects and into a two-story house with a wraparound front porch. At 41, Hawkins opened Martha’s Place with a $5,000 loan and help from her family, friends and neighbors.
The business quickly developed a loyal following, including Whoopi Goldberg, Sissy Spacek and Rosa Parks. (Hawkins remembers the civil rights icon, who passed away in 2005, as “sweet, timid and quiet.”) Over the years, Hawkins has become a bit of a star herself, speaking before the Senate, the United Way and companies such as Sam’s Club about topics ranging from low-income housing to the importance of “hard work, determination, and faith.”
