Izola White with the ham hocks and black-eyed peas at her namesake Izola’s Restaurant, 522 E. 79th St. | Sun-Times files Everybody ate at Izola’s Restaurant — cops, politicians, judges, Mayor Harold Washington, Count Basie, Pulitzer prize-winning playwright August Wilson.
For over a century, Izola White’s delicious soul food — and the lively customer debates at her Chatham eatery — made it a South Side landmark.
“Everybody was privy to everybody else’s conversations and contributed back and forth, and Izola was like the referee,” said funeral director Spencer Leak Sr. “Not only was the food good, the politics was good.”
Ms. White, who had dementia, died Tuesday at Holy Cross Hospital, said DeWayne Mason, a retired Chicago police officer who served as her guardian. She was 96.
“She’s probably one of the first black restaurant owners in the city of Chicago, and female — that’s a lot back then” when she opened in 1957, Mason said.
In a 1988 interview, she told the Chicago Sun-Times she was born in Kenton, Tennessee, and came to Chicago in 1940. Before opening Izola’s Restaurant at 522 E. 79th St., she worked at a soda fountain at 61st and King Drive, as a waitress at the Vernon-Rhodes restaurant and at Vernola’s eatery on 61st Street.
Her biscuits were famous. So were her ham hocks and black-eyed peas. She always cooked the ham hocks and peas separately.
“Ham hocks are tough, so they need to cook longer,” she’d say. “I throw salt pork in the black-eyed peas for flavor.”
“I was crazy about the short ribs of beef and the pork chops; greens and sweet potatoes, mac and cheese — the best in the world,” Mason said.
One of her most popular breakfasts was brains-and-eggs.
“We first came to Chatham, and that was 1959, and Izola’s Restaurant was there,” Leak said. “At that time, 79th Street was really busy, one of those South Side streets where there was every kind of business you could think of.”
Ms. White, who had dementia, died Tuesday at Holy Cross Hospital, said DeWayne Mason, a retired Chicago police officer who served as her guardian. She was 96.
“She’s probably one of the first black restaurant owners in the city of Chicago, and female — that’s a lot back then” when she opened in 1957, Mason said.
In a 1988 interview, she told the Chicago Sun-Times she was born in Kenton, Tennessee, and came to Chicago in 1940. Before opening Izola’s Restaurant at 522 E. 79th St., she worked at a soda fountain at 61st and King Drive, as a waitress at the Vernon-Rhodes restaurant and at Vernola’s eatery on 61st Street.
Her biscuits were famous. So were her ham hocks and black-eyed peas. She always cooked the ham hocks and peas separately.
“Ham hocks are tough, so they need to cook longer,” she’d say. “I throw salt pork in the black-eyed peas for flavor.”
“I was crazy about the short ribs of beef and the pork chops; greens and sweet potatoes, mac and cheese — the best in the world,” Mason said.
One of her most popular breakfasts was brains-and-eggs.
“We first came to Chatham, and that was 1959, and Izola’s Restaurant was there,” Leak said. “At that time, 79th Street was really busy, one of those South Side streets where there was every kind of business you could think of.”
Visitation is planned from 6 to 9 p.m. April 18 at Leak & Sons Funeral Home, 7838 S. Cottage Grove. A wake is scheduled from 10 a.m. April 19 until the start of an 11 a.m. service at the funeral home.
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