Seattle’s soul food queen cooks again: Ms. Helen may return

It wasn’t until she heard Richard Pryor laugh that Jesdarnel Henton realized who he was. She more easily identified other celebrities who got through for their mother’s cooking, like Muhammad Ali. But the most famous things about Helen Coleman’s restaurants in Seattle were the oxtails, vegetables, and Mrs. Helen herself, who greeted customers with a gentle “Hey, baby.” Now the Seattle soul food queen and legendary chef seeks one last chance to serve sweet potato cake to her community while her daughter works to carry on the family’s culinary legacy.

From 1970 when Coleman first moved to Seattle from Los Angeles and Helen’s Diner in the Union south of the 23rd congregated neighbor. Her daughter, who started cooking in her mother’s restaurants 50 years ago – known to customers as “Squirt” – kept the business alive as a caterer, but now sees an opportunity to bring it to a wider audience. “I guess I still have at least a good 10 years to do it,” says Henton. “Then I can leave the rest of the family to carry on.”

Henton had been in Los Angeles the last time her mother cooked at a restaurant, but she came back in a hurry when she saw a 2015 Seattle Weekly story about the Rose Petals reopening at the White Center with Mrs. Helen in the kitchen – something that she knew to be untrue. Henton called the restaurant and asked to speak to Coleman, listening to the owner call her while Henton sat and looked at her mother across the living room. When the restaurateur said she must have got out, Henton said, “Ma’am, this is Squirt, this is your daughter,” and then heard the click of the other end hang up.

“That’s when I started protecting the copyright and registering our name,” says Henton, who now owns the rights to Helens Diner, Helens Soul Food, Helen Coleman and finally Helens Soul Bistro, the name of her upcoming company. Henton is currently forming an LLC and is hoping to begin producing a packaged cornbread mix in the next few months, and then opening Ms. Helens Soul Bistro somewhere in the Central District this spring.

Henton joined her mother at Helen’s Diner in 1971, a year after it opened, and a few years earlier Ebony Magazine had named it “The Main Seattle Mother Vein of Soul Food.” The doors opened at 7 a.m. to feed the workers, and if she had sold out her fried fish or peach cobbler by 6 p.m., she would close the shop.

“All the pastors came to Helen every day. All the contractors and we had black doctors and lawyers and Mayor Norm Rice, ”recalls Henton. The president of Liberty Bank, the first black-owned bank in the region, which was right next door, was one of Helen’s fans and, along with the rest of the community, helped her secure an adjoining room to expand the diner in 1975. “We opened that bigger place and had live music, ”says Henton. “Everyone who was anyone came to Helen’s Diner on Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Honey, there was a bang. We had the big, big, things going on. “

In a 2019 documentary about the neighborhood, On the Brink, Coleman said, “If someone in Seattle didn’t come to Helen’s diner, they’ve missed a lot of fun and good food.” Henton took on the media role, cooking gumbo on local morning shows and the catering arm, with Ms. Helen running the restaurant kitchen.

But the mother-daughter duo began to burn out in the early 80s, and Coleman filed for bankruptcy in 1983. They hopped around the neighborhood running the kitchen at Deano’s, a club owned by their friend Dean Falls before they opened Ms. Helen’s Soul Food on the 23rd in 1987, just around the corner from the original diner. There they made food for BB King, Ernestine Anderson and Gary Payton. Ms. Helen baked peach cobblers for Ken Griffey Jr. and Richard Pryor explained there that it couldn’t be a soul food restaurant because there were no flies.

“The walls are covered with pictures and hangings of fish and flowers, lace and cooking utensils. Water arrives in old jelly jars. The conversation is flowing, ”wrote the Seattle Times in 1991.“ The constant conversation is accompanied by the throaty chanting of owner and cook Helen Coleman as she scurries through huge, fragrant vats of food in a busy kitchen. ”

Helen Coleman works with a pan of smothered steaks for a Deano’s Bar & Grill customer.

Grant M. Haller / Seattle Post-Intelligence

In 2001 the hustle and bustle and black-eyed peas stalled when the Nisqually earthquake damaged the building beyond repair and ended Ms. Helen’s three-decade run at 23rd and Union intersection. Henton eventually took a job in catering at Microsoft before moving to LA to take care of the family. Ms. Helen went back to Deano’s kitchen. Then, in 2003, she and a partner took over the business as Club Chocolate City until the city closed it in early 2007. At this point, she began her last post before retiring at Rose Petals on Rainier. Seattle Weekly food writer Jonathan Kauffman described her kitchen in the low dive bar as “the best soul food I’ve ever tried”, the greens as “pork-flavored satin,” the dumplings as “like a luxury”.

Though Coleman came to Seattle from LA, her stove skills came from her grandmother, who studied in Oklahoma City. “I don’t cook out of a can,” she told the SeattlePI in 1999. “I don’t cook anything frozen.” Ms. Helen’s reputation is based on the crispy catfish, the hearty mac and cheese, the spicy vegetables and, above all, her oxtails. “She can stew oxtails so lovingly that the memory of it makes your eyes moist,” wrote Kauffman in 2007, calling them “exponentially beefy”.

But there is hope for those who are still weeping over the beauty of Ms. Helen’s flesh: Coleman will turn 86 on her next birthday, but according to Henton, it is fine and he’ll stay safe through the pandemic, while Henton on plans for Ms. Helens works soul food bistro. “My focus is on really keeping this business in the Central Area,” says Henton, who already has some potential spots on the table and is trying to get the funds together. “I understand everything has to change,” says Henton. “Historically, I know why it did what it did, but that doesn’t mean this is still not our neighborhood.”

Henton thinks the new place is mostly grab-and-go, with a little bit of seating for those who want to stay nearby. She promises liver and onions, pork chops – smothered or fried – neckbones, dressing, candied yams, macaroni and cheese, vegetables, green beans, gumbo, shrimp creole, fried fish, chicken wings, baked turkey wings, sweet potato pie, peach cobbler and of course the corn bread . She plans to add some heart healthier options, soulful salads, and homemade soups to her mother’s repertoire, and hopes to open next spring. promises everyone knows when it happens. “Mom taught me a long time ago,” says Henton.

With Ms. Helen’s Soul Bistro, Henton hopes to create something for her family that can be continued in the future – Henton’s grown daughter is involved in customer service. “She can cook,” says Henton, “but that’s just not her passion.” Her sister-in-law is also on board behind the scenes in the business. And then there is her mother. “Your knowledge is worth its weight in gold,” says Henton. “She’s still with me and I can still go and talk to her.”

The biggest problem with her mother, Henton explains, is that she’s used to doing all these things on her own and now has trouble keeping them still. But after five decades by her mother’s side in the kitchen, Henton knows what she’s doing and can keep the traditions alive. Except maybe the oxtails: “Nobody can do that like them,” says Henton. “I’m nearby, but mom is doing something special.”

Fortunately for excited customers, Ms. Helen can’t wait to get back into the kitchen. “Just take care of yourself and hold on,” Henton said to her mother. “Then we’ll let you in there again and you can put things in the pot.”