Food has fostered community for chefs Omar Tate and Cybille St. Aude-Tate since childhood. For Tate, who was raised the oldest of four boys by a single mother, mutual aid and community food distribution stoked a sense of connectivity, while St. Aude-Tate recalls holidays in the company of her Haitian-American family. “I was taught how we can build community, and that food can be a part of that,” she says.
Boiled peanuts was the first dish the two New Yorkers shared after meeting in March 2020 at a South Carolina food festival. “We fell in love over the course of the weekend under a full moon surrounded by food,” St. Aude-Tate explains, though Tate recalls sparks flew under an “orange moon.” Romance followed—but so did COVID-19. “We were just like, ‘Okay, we’re going to fall in love and be a couple and commit to this thing while there’s fire all around us,” St. Aude-Tate says. “It makes for a very hopeless romantic kind of story.”
As the crisis set in, Tate stayed close to his mother in Philadelphia, where he observed pervasive food scarcity. The neighborhood’s sole grocery store had shuttered and access to fresh produce was limited. His dining pop-up Honeysuckle was also upheaved, offering only takeout in the early days of the pandemic. St. Aude-Tate’s own Caribbean pop-up, Caona, halted as well. Down but not out, St. Aude-Tate joined Tate, and the couple sought to redeem the West Philadelphia food desert through a distribution network composed of Black farmers, producers, and butchers in their orbit. “It’s reframing the supply chain,” she explains.
After months of networking, guerilla marketing, and introducing a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA)-style subscription, the market and takeout destination dubbed Honeysuckle Provisions launched in a permanent Walnut Hill storefront in early 2022. But demand was so robust upon move-in that the Tates had already outgrown the space As the team continues to seek out a roomier address, the current location accommodates facilities for its Black farmer box program and 24-hour wholesale bread production.
Funded in part by a 2020 GoFundMe campaign, community support helps sustain the endeavor. “Every engagement with our store doesn’t necessarily have to be pennies and dollars,” Tate says. “Some investments are mentorship. Some investments are equipment. We’ve had friends and chefs come in and just work the store.”
In rapidly gentrifying West Philadelphia, residents are eager to uplift the dynamic community platform. “They’re very active in wanting to see their neighborhood flourish,” St. Aude-Tate says. The spot reflects not only the values and ingenuity of the two culinary entrepreneurs, it embodies what they found in each other. “It doesn’t feel like a corner store,” St. Aude-Tate adds. “It just feels like an extension of our home.”
This article originally appeared in HD’s April 2023 issue.
