Shugga Hi serves Sunday brunch to honor Black history: 'I don't ever take it for granted'

Before May 10, 1960, Kathy Leslie could not have walked into the then-segregated Burger Boy building where she now runs a popular East Nashville southern food restaurant with her sister.

So, when Leslie and her sister Sandra Austin opened Shugga Hi Bakery in 2017, they returned to the site at 1000 Dickerson Pike with a purpose. Their decision to reclaim the building emanated from lessons their mom, an equal-rights activist, taught them early on at a McClellan's lunch counter line.

Leslie, just 10 years old at the time, was only a few years removed from the integration of lunch counters. Nashville was the first segregated Southern city in the South to allow Blacks and whites to eat together at then-popular lunch counters.

But, despite desegregation, racist divides persisted.

The little girl bought a soda and then reached out her hand for her change.

"But the white woman behind the counter didn't want to touch my hand, so she dropped it in my soda," Leslie said.

When her mom found out, she walked right up to that woman, never mind the line, and demanded another soda for her daughter.

"'Why would you think my daughter would want to drink out of a cup that had pennies in it?'" Leslie recalled her mom asking. "I felt sorry for the woman honestly. But my mother marched me right up there to the front of the line, and it made me feel proud to watch her stand up and fight for what was right."

Leslie's restaurant — home of lively jazz brunches where chicken-and-waffles is a top menu choice — will honor Black History Month on Feb. 25 with a menu that reflects some of what her mother used to serve at the dining-room table.

The significance of being able to do so in a building she could not have entered through the front door as a child is not lost on her, Leslie said.

"We were intentional about going over to that particular building to turn history around," Leslie said. "Every time I go into a restaurant today, and I'm able to walk in the front door and sit down and eat, I don't ever take that for granted."

Shugga Hi's Black History Month brunch will be from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Feb. 25.

Buffet items will include:

• Hot water cornbread

• Peach cobbler

• Black-eyed peas with ham hocks

• Sweet potatoes

• Collard greens

• Skillet corn

• Fried fish and grits

• Fried chicken

• A cereal bar

• Doughnut casserole

• Jowl bacon

• Biscuits and gravy

There will also be a la carte chicken and waffles, live music and a variety of soft drinks and alcoholic beverages.

Reservations are not accepted.

Shugga Hi is at 1000 Dickerson Pike and brunch prices are $23 for breakfast, $27 for dinner or $36 for both. More at www.shuggahibakeryandcafe.com .

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Shugga Hi serves epic Sunday brunch to honor Black history, traditions