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Sylvia’s, Harlem’s soul food mecca, hasn’t changed much since it opened in 1962.
The origin story is the stuff of American dreams. Sylvia Woods was a South Carolina farm girl who followed her ambitions to New York City, where she worked as a waitress and cook at Johnson’s Luncheonette in Harlem. After a few years, Mr. Johnson was so impressed with Woods’ work ethic and dedication that he offered to sell her the place. Woods’ mother, a farmer and midwife, loaned her the money by mortgaging her farm.
Woods renamed the place Sylvia’s and brought Southern hospitality — not to mention ribs, fried chicken, and cornbread — to Harlem.
Six years later, the restaurant moved from the corner of the block to the center, which is now 328 Malcolm X Boulevard. In 1972, they opened a new dining room and put up the iconic marquee sign that still lights up the boulevard.
A Harlem Legacy
For many years, Sylvia’s has been known as the social center of Harlem, serving local politicians and die-hard regulars. Spike Lee used the restaurant as a location for his 1991 film “Jungle Fever.” Photos of celebrities line the walls; Sylvia’s has served the likes of Roberta Flack, Diana Ross, Muhammad Ali, and Bill Clinton. Recent visitors include Kamala Harris, Eric Adams, and Ice T (all of whom couldn’t have been nicer, according to a manager, Sean).
It’s still a scene — a lively crowd, evenly divided between regulars (some of whom have been coming since inception) and tourists who want a taste of classic Harlem.
Now, the only thing missing is Sylvia herself: Woods died in the summer of 2012 at 86 years old, after finally retiring at 80. Her death came a few hours before she was to receive an award from former mayor Michael Bloomberg commemorating the 50th anniversary of Sylvia’s Restaurant.
Woods, who’d married her South Carolina childhood sweetheart, Herbert Woods, left behind four children, 18 grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren, many of whom work at her restaurant. Her four children continue to own the business while one of her grandsons, K. De'Sean Woods., is the current CEO. Other grandchildren (Zaqura Frierson, Kendra Woods, and Marcus Woods) operate the restaurant in executive management and executive culinary roles.
Preserving the spirit of a place without its matriarch is what drives them.
“My mom knew everybody because she loved people,” says Kenneth, who spoke with me on a recent Monday afternoon visit to the famous restaurant. “When you genuinely love people, you feed off people. It was in her makeup. We are trying to replicate that personality as generations change. I always used to say, ‘There are four of us kids, and it takes four of us to make one of my mom or dad.’”
Legendary Soul Food
But Kenneth certainly seems to know everyone in the dining room; he spent the lunch rush glad-handing the regulars. When someone dropped a fork, he went to fetch another one. As he walked across the room, more guests called out to greet him. He spoke to each of them in turn, asking after family members, chatting about this and that. He’d come in early that day: Every Monday morning, before they open at 11 a.m., they have a staff tasting of everything on the menu.
About that food: As soon as you sit down you’re treated to mini cornbread muffins, crisp and moist and just sweet enough. They’re perfect. You could order fried chicken and waffles, and many people do, but as our waitress pointed out, that order doesn’t come with side dishes, which are key. (Pro tip: Go with a crowd and order it all.) It feels almost impossible to choose two sides among stellar options like baked mac ’n’ cheese, smoky collard greens, candied yams, and tangy potato salad.
I went for the collards and potato salad and have no regrets. The fried chicken comes with either white or dark meat, crispy or smothered in gravy; the ribs arrive with extra “sassy sauce,” aka homemade barbecue sauce. Dessert feels compulsory, even though you’re already well-fed: Coconut cake or peach cobbler? Can’t go wrong either way.
Southern Hospitality
But the food is the easy part, according to Kenneth. “If you follow the recipe, you're going to get the results,” he says. “But it’s hard to fake good Southern hospitality. And the challenge that I see is, generationally, that kindness is waning in society.”
They have an intensive training program to combat just that, and it’s working. Judge it by the crowd on any random weekday — I showed up before noon and there was a 20-minute wait — or by the James Beard America’s Classics award they won this year, which called the restaurant, “the embodiment of American entrepreneurial self-determination” and predicted that it will “remain one of America’s Classics for decades to come.”
There’s a lot to celebrate, but Kenneth won’t rest on laurels. He feels the responsibility most keenly toward the regulars. “There are so many guests that have been coming here since the beginning. So, 60-plus years, you can imagine,” he said. “I started taking pictures of all of my guests who are over 80 and 90 years old. I want to make a wall of pictures of them. They are a part of our history.”
It’s a telling project: While Sylvia’s draws celebrities, it truly serves the community, and that’s why it’s lasted so long.
“When you come to Sylvia's,” Kenneth said, “you want to have that experience of not just going to the restaurant, but coming into our home. We are trying to retain what made Sylvia's. The restaurant has such an interesting journey and personality — because the restaurant really does have a personality.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Simon Leung
