CRESCENT Places: Grits & Groceries (Part 2)

POST-KATRINA NEW ORLEANS

HEIDI: Our house had 9 feet of water in it so we would have lost pretty much our house.  And the restaurant in New Orleans survived without much damage except we wouldn’t have had any business for 6 months which would have put us out of business.

JOE: It’s progressing pretty well.  There actually more restaurants operating now than there were before Hurricane Katrina.  And they all seem to be staying pretty busy.  All of the things you go to New Orleans for are there.  You know, all the tourist stuff.  You get further out into some of the neighborhoods, there is still a lot of work to be done.

HEIDI: The people of New Orleans had a really hard time getting their insurance companies to pay because you had to have homeowners and flood insurance so the flood insurance said we’re not paying, it’s a homeowners problem and the homeowners insurance said we’re not paying because the flood did the damage.  So we have friends who have rebuilt their houses and their insurance companies are still in litigation, they’re not paying. We had a friend who basically redid their house with their credit cards thinking their insurance money would come in.  But it didn’t for a long time, so they were paying credit card interest on living.

THINK GRITS & GROCERIES ISN’T A DIRECT DRIVE FOR YOU?

HEIDI: That not true.  We are actually the center of the universe and everything revolves around us.  We have 9 miles to Anderson, 9 miles to Iva, 9 miles to Due West, 45 minutes from Greenville so no matter where you go, we’re in a central location.  It’s neat because we can be claimed by everyone.  We’re not in Belton, but we’re Belton’s restaurant.  We’re not in Honea Path. We’re in the center so we’re everybody’s restaurant.  They get to all claim us.

DON’T DEPEND ON GPS TO GET YOU THERE.

HEIDI: Actually, usually the GPSs take you about 20 miles out of the way.  They take you to Due West and back.

JOE: We’re kind of halfway between Greenwood and Greenville.  At lot of people from Greenwood and Greenville meet here.

HEIDI: We’re the baby drop off point.  You see on Saturday and Sundays, all the grandmamas who have had the kids for the weekend are dropping them off and the parents make us like the baby drop off station.  They stop at the chicken, take their picture at the chicken, trade off babies, trade off car seats and they’re ready to go their separate ways.  It’s pretty funny.

GETTING THE WORD OUT

HEIDI: When we first moved here, we, while we working on the building, we took a booth at the Anderson County Farmers Market so we could introduce ourselves to people.  So it built a really nice network…a lot of people got to know us, meet us, interested in us.  And Katrina helped because people were interested in the fact that we came from New Orleans and a lot of people think that we came because of Katrina.  Several of the newspapers wrote about us being here, Katrina-refugee type stories.

THE BIG REASON TO MOVE TO SOUTH CAROLINA?

HEIDI: We had a baby, at 40, and the only reason we really wanted to leave New Orleans was that school really wasn’t an option there.  $10,000 a year for kindergarten.  It’s a great place to have a kid, there are tons of great things to do with a kid.  I loved the fact it is a pedestrian city.  You know all your neighbors.  It’s a really close community.  But the public schools were not an option for me at all.  And the next rung up of Catholic schools and church schools are full, there are no spaces.  The next rung up would be like Country Day School and it was 10 grand a year for kindergarten.  One of the things we loved about this property, we have one of the number one elementary schools in the state right here, Wright Elementary.  They’re kind of left out of a district, it’s a funky little space that kind of got left to itself so the classes are small, the teachers are our neighbors, they know all the kids individually so it was the perfect place for us.

COMPARING SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOOLS

HEIDI: Well, compared to New Orleans schools, you’d notice a huge difference.  Schools in Sumter are OK, I would have sent my child to public schools in Sumter, at least through elementary and middle school.  Abbeville has nice schools, too.  It’s the same thing, they still have parents who show up, that’s the difference.  They still a community have parents who are involved with the school where as in the inner city, not so much.

Stay Tuned for Part 3 Next Week. Read Part 1 HERE.