Hospitality Design - April 2023 - 103

perspectives interview
By Will Speros
Photo by Haamza Edwards and Clay Williams
FINDING NOURISHMENT
Community and romance bloom for two culinary entrepreneurs
Food has fostered community for chefs
Omar Tate and Cybille St. Aude-Tate
since childhood. For Tate, who was
raised the oldest of four boys by a single
mother, mutual aid and community food
distribution stoked a sense of connectivity,
while St. Aude-Tate recalls holidays in the
company of her Haitian-American family.
" I was taught how we can build community,
and that food can be a part of that, " she says.
Boiled peanuts was the fi rst dish the two
New Yorkers shared aſt er meeting in March
2020 at a South Carolina food festival. " We
fell in love over the course of the weekend
under a full moon surrounded by food, " St.
Aude-Tate explains, though Tate recalls
sparks fl ew under an " orange moon. "
Romance followed-but so did COVID-19.
" We were just like, 'Okay, we're going to
fall in love and be a couple and commit to
this thing while there's fi re all around us, "
St. Aude-Tate says. " It makes for a very
hopeless romantic kind of story. "
As the crisis set in, Tate stayed close
to his mother in Philadelphia, where he
observed pervasive food scarcity. The
neighborhood's sole grocery store had
shutt ered and access to fresh produce was
limited. His dining pop-up Honeysuckle
was also upheaved, off ering only takeout
in the early days of the pandemic. St.
Aude-Tate's own Caribbean pop-up, Caona,
halted as well. Down but not out, St. AudeTate
joined Tate, and the couple sought to
redeem the West Philadelphia food desert
through a distribution network composed of
Black farmers, producers, and butchers in
their orbit. " It's reframing the supply chain, "
she explains.
Aſt er months of networking, guerilla
marketing, and introducing a CommunitySupported
Agriculture (CSA)-style
subscription, the market and takeout
destination dubbed Honeysuckle Provisions
launched in a permanent Walnut Hill
storefront in early 2022. But demand was
so robust upon move-in that the Tates had
already outgrown the space. As the team
continues to seek out a roomier address,
the current location accommodates
facilities for its Black farmer box
program and 24-hour wholesale bread
production. Funded in part by a 2020
GoFundMe campaign, community
support helps sustain the endeavor.
" Every engagement with our store doesn't
necessarily have to be pennies and
dollars, " Tate says. " Some investments
are mentorship. Some investments are
equipment. We've had friends and chefs
come in and just work the store. "
In rapidly gentrifying West
Philadelphia, residents are eager to
upliſt the dynamic community platform.
" They're very active in wanting to see
their neighborhood fl ourish, " St. AudeTate
says. The spot refl ects not only the
values and ingenuity of the two culinary
entrepreneurs, it embodies what they
found in each other. " It doesn't feel like a
corner store, " St. Aude-Tate adds. " It just
feels like an extension of our home. " hd
hospitalitydesign.com April 2023
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Hospitality Design - April 2023

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