We all know restaurants have suffered in the pandemic – breakfast joints disproportionately so, and Black-owned restaurants even more so. But a Black-owned breakfast joint? Let’s just say the odds are stacked against them.
Kentrail Davis opened Brick & Spoon inside the Villages at Lake Lily in February, mere weeks before COVID-19 sent restaurants reeling. I paid a curbside visit to the restaurant back in April for some beignets, and it felt like the Maitland outpost of the Lafayette, Louisiana-based chain was on its deathbed. Two months later, I found myself sitting at a table inside the spacious restaurant absolutely ravishing a plate of bananas Foster French toast.
It took me all of two minutes and change to lick that plate clean – Foster sauce, caramelized bananas, pecan bits, whipped cream and all. I didn’t think this breakfast dessert would travel well, thus the difficult, yet conscious, decision to eat it inside the restaurant, which seemed to be about 30 percent full. All workers – hosts, servers, even Davis himself – wore masks, and all were so congenial that it felt damn good to eat there. For the “Dining-In” part of this diary, I took home some flaky biscuits and sausage gravy, along with an order of Creole-dusted hash browns. Three minutes and change is all it took to scarf that down – emphasis on the change, ‘cuz it’s coming. #blacklivesmatter #blackrestaurantsmatter
(933 S. Orlando Ave., Maitland, 407-790-4345, brickandspoon restaurant.com)
– This story appears in the June 10, 2020, print issue of Orlando Weekly. Stay on top of Central Florida news and views with our weekly newsletters.
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