You love her banana pudding. You love her meatloaf and pork chops.
Soon, you’ll also be able to love Peggy Brown’s barbecue.
Brown’s new location of Peggy’s Just Heavenly Good Home Cooking at 942 East E. H. Crump Boulevard came with a barbecue pit. “We’re trying to throw some barbecue in there,” Brown says.
“At one time this was a barbecue restaurant before it was a seafood restaurant,” she says, although the pit needs to be refurbished, which builder Audric Simmons says he’s going to get into shape.
Brown is going to use the “special marinade and special sauce” from her father, whose specialty was barbecued ribs. His sauce included cinnamon, nutmeg, and various spices, she says.
Brown is no stranger to barbecue. “I used to have a barbecue place when I was on Thomas,” she says, and it also was known as Peggy’s.
But she didn’t sell barbecue at her former location at 326 S0uth Cleveland.
“I don’t get rid of my old family recipes,” Brown says. The recipes were passed down, but, she says, “I’m the only one that carries it on.”
People can’t get enough of that food made with those recipes. They weren’t happy when she closed for a month before opening at the new location three months ago. “People were so upset when we closed: ‘Peggy, what are we going to do?’ I’d get calls all through the day, all through the night.”
Most of her regulars know she’s moved, but, Brown says, “Some don’t know we’re here.”
Her new location, across the street from the iconic Justine’s restaurant that closed decades ago, is almost twice the size of her former location, she says. There are two spaces: the dining room and the to-go area, both of which are spacious with tables and chairs.
The dining room walls are white with blue drapes. The to-go area is “yellowish gold,” she says and she’ll add gold drapes to that section and do more decorating as she gets time.
Brown plans to add a glass-topped table to the front entrance. “We’re going to put some flowers on it.”
She’s also got to place her angel statues after the shelves are built. People have been asking her, “Miss Peggy, where are the angels?” For now, they’re boxed up. Asked how many angels she has, Brown says, “We aren’t going to talk about it.” But then she adds, “Probably a couple of hundred.”
She began with four angels she put on a shelf at her former location. Customers would ask, “Miss Peggy, you like angels?” They then began bringing her angels. “I’ve got angels from New Orleans, Florida, Georgia, Texas, New York. People get them when they go on vacation.”
Brown is doing a lot of the cooking at her old location because part of the vent hood was stolen from the roof of the new location, she says. “They took the motor, the fan, everything off the roof.”
It’s going to cost $7,000 to $9,000 for the new vent hood, says Brown, who says she’s already spent $60,000 on the new place. And, she says, “I’m paying rent on this place and the other.” Customers suggested she start a GoFundMe page, but Brown doesn’t know how to do it.
Meanwhile, it’s business as usual on a bustling Tuesday morning. Yams are sliced and cooked. Meatloafs are pulled out of the oven. And all are waiting for hungry customers to enjoy.
“God has been good to us,” Brown says. “It’s truly been a blessing for us to do what we do.”
Peggy’s Just Heavenly Good Home Cooking is open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 12 noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays.
