In honor of Black History Month, HOT 97 is spotlighting professionals that are currently making waves across the country. Adenah Bayoh co-founded Cornbread in 2017, a fast-casual soul food restaurant in New Jersey and New York.
We got the chance to catch up with Bayoh about her journey as a Black founder and restaurateur. Get into the conversation below as she opens up about escaping the civil war in Liberia, the inspiration behind the recipes at Cornbread, the future of the brand and more.
Oumou Fofana: Tell me about your journey with creating Cornbread.
Adenah Bayoh: It is very important for people to know that I am Liberian. So by nature, Liberians have a real connection to soul food because the founders of Liberia were slaves that left the United States and went to West Africa and found this little country called Liberia. So, a lot of the traditions and food that we ate when I was in Liberia were centered around soul food. Collard greens, cornbread, pound cake, mac and cheese… I was used to eating all of those things on special holidays. I’ve always had this love affair with soul food. And then unfortunately for me, when the civil war broke out in my country in Liberia, we started a journey to come here. When I got here, I was so fascinated by the food. All of the stuff that I would eat on special occasions, I get to eat it here every day. So, interestingly, I became an IHOP franchisee. In 2007, I was the youngest Black woman franchisee at IHOP. I had about four IHOPs and I recognized that the neighborhoods that I was doing business in weren’t really catering to the Black community. I started selling soul food on my IHOP menu. So, long story short, IHOP wasn’t having that. I was told that I had to cut back or stop. I started thinking about how we have a Mexican concept, we have an Indian concept. Every nationality has a brand concept except for soul food. I wanted to create a space that people of color can go to and unapologetically enjoy our food without judgment. I wanted to do it in a really dope, bold a** kind of way. I started toying around with this whole concept of why don’t we do a soul food concept of fast casual, like a Chipotle style. I’m not a chef, so quite naturally you can’t have a restaurant and not be a chef. So, it took me about three or four years to actually connect with the right person. And that’s how I connected with my partner, my co-founder Elzadie Smith. She’s from Tifton, Georgia. I mean, she’s worked with Dr. Martin Luther King. I tell people all the time, I am on the journey to introduce the world to Elzadie’s cooking because soul food cooking is an art and I feel like she’s mastered that art. Once I met her, stuff just hit the fence. We just took off running. She is the mastermind behind all of our recipes. We opened our first location in Maplewood and fast forward, we have about four locations. We’re in Brooklyn, we’re in Newark, we’re in Maplewood, we’re in Montclair. So that’s about the journey for Cornbread right there. It’s a long one.
Fofana: You escaped the Liberian Civil War at the age of 13 and achieved the American dream. That’s epic! How do you feel?
Bayoh: Tired. I think when I was back home, I developed a really nice work ethic. I was 13 years old but imagine going through a civil war and you have no idea what that’ll do for you. Like, you are in survival mode 24/7. There’s somebody either trying to kill you or trying to kill your family. So when I got here, I hit the ground running. So I had a real high power work ethic. Like, no one’s gonna outwork me when I put my mind to something. And, I think that plus the generosity of my community, I feel like people often say stuff like, ‘Oh, Black people don’t work together.’ That’s not true. I feel like we support each other more than we get credit for. One of the quotes that I live my life by is, ’50 percent of your life’s outcome is gonna be based on a zip code that you were born in.’ And for me, my zip code doesn’t even exist, right? And the other 50 percent of your life’s outcome is gonna be based on the generosity of the people that you meet, right? So for me, when I sit and think of my journey now, sitting here talking to you, it’s heavily based on the generosity of the people. And those people have been Black, white, you know, all spectrum of people have helped me in my life. So, I’ve always said to myself, if I put people first in my businesses and my relationships, the sky’s the limit for me. So, I’m sitting here thinking about the businesses, the buildings, the restaurants and right now, we have 10 restaurants, and I really honestly feel like I’m just getting started to be quite honest with you.
Fofana: Why didn’t an African restaurant appeal to you being that you are African?
Bayoh: I think coming here at 13 years old, I navigated the culture here so well, that there was a natural progression towards African American food and the culture. I feel like there was that connection that was already there for me because of my background and my heritage. So, I felt drawn to that, not taking anything away from African food. It’s not out of the future. I was very drawn to the cuisine of soul food because the story is so rich, the culture is so rich. If you dive back and think about what we as Black people had done. We made meals and the master would leave his dinner table and come to the yard and eat from us. That’s talent. And for me, there is always this under-appreciation for Black cuisine and even sometimes Black culture, period. We don’t get the credit for movements, right? I think when Black people come into something, we bring such a movement to it that it’s undeniable. When I think about Cornbread, we are talking about food that our ancestors built with their hands. Now, we’re looking to take all over the country with pride and dignity.
Fofana: Would you ever open up an African restaurant?
Bayoh: Absolutely. I love African food. African food is the base of all cuisine. Look at our spices.
Fofana: You often discuss the importance of empowering Black women and putting them in leadership positions. How do you incorporate that into your businesses?
Bayoh: Exposure. I think you have to expose people to opportunity. We don’t have a talent problem, we have an opportunity problem. I’ve never seen somebody so starved for opportunity and that’s why every time they put us in rooms, we kill it. So, I wanna expose women early on. 58 percent of the leadership in my businesses are women. About 79 percent of that are women of color. As Beyonce would say, “Just pass me the ball and I got it.”
Fofana: Can you explain how hard it is to get investments as a Black business owner? A Black woman at that.
Bayoh: Oh my God, girl. You have time? It is like trying to get blood out of a brick. They don’t want to finance us. They don’t wanna support us and when they do, they give us these little drops. There is no meaningful place right now for me, someone that owns 10 restaurants, to be able to go somewhere and say, ‘You know what, let’s go ahead and give her $2 million — unrestricted capital to grow her business of $5 million.’ They keep us at this low of $500,000 or even $250,000. We can’t really build meaningful businesses if you keep giving us $500,000 to build our businesses. We need real meaningful money that can allow us to think. Because, let me tell you something. When you have money to run and grow your business, it’s a completely different mindset than when you don’t have the money. Because when you don’t have money, you can’t go out there and hire the best talent. You’d just have to hire with what you got? And it’s a left sided conversation. It’s very hard. Venture capital is not lending to Black women and now when we start to lend to each other, they start to attack us. It’s very disheartening and very disingenuous. We are locked out of the capital markets. If it wasn’t for Richelieu Dennis, the one that owns Essence Magazine, and New Voices Foundation, Cornbread would not be talking to you today.
Fofana: Richelieu Dennis invested in Cornbread?
Bayoh: Yes. He invested in the company. Richelieu Dennis and New Voices Foundation gave us money to grow the business. And not when people were doing it because it was a sexy thing to do. He did this about five, six years ago. So, it’s people like that that we need to really highlight because they’re doing the work out here that the banks and the other people are not doing.
Fofana: Anything else you’re working on besides Cornbread?
Bayoh: I’ve always said Cornbrand is the focus. I wanna grow this brand to be a household name and I want Black and brown people to support us. We can’t create jobs, we can’t create opportunities if we don’t have the support of our community. So for me, the focus is to grow Cornbread and get a franchise. Five years from now, Cornbread will be a national brand and a household name that is franchised all across America.