Shanae

to try to get people to come into the restaurant.

Because one day had passed and nobody showed up.

Two days had passed, nobody still showed up.

And that became an entire year.

I needed to get creative, and I'm extremely creative when it comes to, like I said, planning a party.

So I went out into the community and I started telling people, I opened up a restaurant, do you want to come hang out with me?

I'm giving out free food.

Nobody wanted free food.

And even though I sat in front and put benches and plants and I taught people medicinal properties of parsley, nobody really cared.

This little white lady, Grace, would pass by with her little cart and she'd stare at me and she'd look and with pity in her eyes, she'd hand me $5 and say, baby girl, just hold on.

I felt like it was ministry.

I said, I have to figure this out.

So I started letting people do all kinds of crazy things in the restaurant just to keep the lights on.

I did painting sips.

I had book readings.

And I even let Method Man shoot a music video in there.

That began to get a little bit daunting.

I couldn't plan enough parties.

And so a year and a half had gone by, and I still wasn't really selling any food.

Someone comes into the restaurant and they said, hey, we want to film you while you're bringing food out to the table.