I’ve written of Cousin Tilithia Brewington King Godbold Dabney here and here. Her restaurant in Norfolk, the Strand Cafe, made a deep impression on my grandmother, who laughingly recalled waiting tables there on childhood visits and being dazzled by Cousin Tilithia’s menu offerings.
Thanks to B.J., great-granddaughter of Tilithia’s sister Mattie Brewington Braswell, who found these Norfolk Journal & Guide articles, we now know more about the cafe:
12 March 1921.
9 December 1922.
28 May 1927.
Larry Artis, Norfolk VA – butcher, 1897.
Lloyd Artis, Norfolk VA –baker, 1897.
Celebus Thompson, Goldsboro NC — restaurant keeper, circa 1913.
Columbus E. Artis, Wilson NC — operated an “eating house” at 214 Goldsboro Street, circa 1912; proprietor of The Delicatessen, circa 1922.
Milford E. Carter — husband of Beulah Aldridge Carter; chef at the Lincoln Inn, Coatesville PA, circa 1917; New Britain CT, chef, circa 1924; Queens NY, restaurant chef, 1930s-1960s.
Tilithia Brewington King Goldbold Dabney, Norfolk VA — owned and operated Strand Cafe, 426 Brambleton Avenue, as early as 1920.
Mike Taylor, Wilson NC – cook, café (probably his son-in-law’s), circa 1920.
William I. Barnes, Wilson NC – husband of Madie Taylor Barnes; owned and operated café, circa 1920.
Barbara Brewington, Brooklyn NY — wife of Elijah Brewington; worked in a “tea room” circa 1930.
Luther McNeely, Bayonne NJ — restaurant chef, circa 1930.
J. Maxwell Allen, Washington DC — waiter in restaurant, circa 1930.
William J. Murdock, Statesville NC – husband of Bertha Hart Murdock; caterer, owned and operated Bill Bailey’s Steakhouse, 1930s-1944.
Bertha Hart Murdock, Statesville NC – managed husband’s restaurant/roadhouse, 1930s-1940.
Allen Aldridge, Goldsboro NC — Central Cafe, Center Street, circa 1940s.
Milford Aldridge, Goldsboro NC – Central Café, Center Street, circa 1940s.
Adam H. Artis – restaurant cook, 1960s.
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The first in an occasional series exploring the ways in which my kinfolk made their livings in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
I was thinking about Cousin Tilithia when I was a little girl. She had a restaurant large enough to work in and serve patrons. It wasn’t real big, but they were serving patrons, and Mama carried me up there, and we spent the night there. And whenever she’d come to Wilson she’d stay with us.
Tilithia Godbold, she lived in Norfolk, and she married this man. That wasn’t her children’s daddy. King was her children’s daddy. Godbold was the man she married later. He lived over in Rocky Mount, and he worked in the roundhouse or something. I think he fixed the train, but he wasn’t the one on the train. And Godbold, Tilithia’s husband, he stayed there in Rocky Mount. ‘Cause Tilithia lived in Norfolk. Her and her five or six girls or whatever it was, and she was running what they call the Strand Café. And it was down on the first floor, and they lived up over it. Go out there, and it was a sleeping compartment. I was over there one time, and I remember it. I think I was about seven or eight years old. Went with Mama over there. We was just running all over the place. She had us waiting tables. I wanted to wait tables. I was wondering, I asked Mama, “Well, why come we couldn’t have a place like that?” And all that food! Look like whatever the food was – I didn’t even know what it was ‘cause we ain’t never had none. It was a whole lot of stuff, look like they had, I didn’t want it, but then I know it looked good, and we ate down there in the café.
And another time Mama took me over there on the train to see her. And it was right down in South Philadelphia where we went to their house. Where they was staying. And when I moved up here, her sister, she was telling me ‘bout how the children were there in Norfolk, her sister and all them. I said, well, I could remember some of them, but I don’t remember what – and I asked where some of the girls was. Some of them in Norfolk and some of ‘em, one’s dead. [Inaudible] the family. We got strayed apart.
Virginian Pilot, 22 November 1965.
Interview of Hattie H. Ricks by Lisa Y. Henderson; all rights reserved.
