The Soul of Como

Stephanie

Thomas,

matriarch of Como’s soul food joint Drew’s Place, serves home cooking on the journey to explore Black food culture in Fort Worth.

By Hannah Ezell Illustration by Conny Gonzalez

“Soul food, it would seem, depends on an ineffable quality. It is a combination of nostalgia for and pride in the food of those who came before … soul food looks back at the past and celebrates a genuine taste palate while offering more than a nod to the history of disenfranchisement of blacks in the United States.”

I close the book containing these words written by culinary historian Jessica B. Harris as the waitress serves me a traditional soul food plate piled with chicken, mashed potatoes and fried okra. The food that was commonplace for me growing up in a Black family with deep Southern roots takes on a new meaning to me as a food writer as my teeth pierce the crispy skin of a fried chicken leg that bursts with flavor at Drew’s Place, a storied soul food restaurant in Fort Worth.

Located in Como, a historically African American neighborhood in the western portion of the city, Drew’s Place is reminiscent of many soul food spots, hosting vibrant red-and-white walls littered with art and vintage pictures depicting Black subjects. As I take in my surroundings — the eclectic collection of borrowed walnut wood tables and chairs, the hanging frame containing the jersey of a local high school basketball team — it strikes me that even the interior of the restaurant is a testament to the perseverance that keeps its doors open today.

Stephanie Thomas, who co-owns Drew’s Place with her husband Drew Thomas, grew up in a small East Texas town called Emory. Her mother taught her and her siblings how to cook, raising them on nothing but home cooking. Foods that were thrown under the label “soul food” such as candied yams, collard and mustard greens, fried chicken, and smothered pork chops were the traditional foods she grew up eating. While Stephanie loves food and was taught how to cook and bake from scratch, she says the thought of running a restaurant was her husband’s idea.

When the couple first met, Stephanie said Drew ran a limited-menu sandwich shop that served french fries and salad as sides. After the place closed and her husband sold most of the equipment, Stephanie never foresaw him opening another restaurant again.

Once the sandwich shop closed, the couple, newly married, faced a difficult challenge when Stephanie was laid off from her job. During her period of unemployment, she said Drew started to realize that his passion for cooking and the restaurant business stuck with him despite the closure of the sandwich joint. From there, Drew’s Place was born.

Though they first opened the restaurant in a small space that could only squeeze in about three tables, they now serve their award-winning food out of a cozy, wood-and-stone-paneled building with a rich history of its own. Before the Thomases moved their restaurant in, the building housed a beauty shop. When it was first constructed in the 1960s, it was a dentistry owned by the first Black dentist in the neighborhood. The history of African Americans in the U.S. is not just apparent by looking at the current and past tenants of the building that now has “Drew’s Restaurant” plastered on the exterior, but in the food as well.

I ponder this history as I crunch into the wonderfully salted exterior of a piece of fried okra, a vegetable not indigenous to the Americas, but to West Africa, a region where most Black Americans can trace their ancestry to, dating all the way back to 1619. Okra made its way to the U.S. during the transatlantic slave route between the 16th and 19th centuries.

The collard greens I devoured — a famous Southern staple — are a testament to this history as well. The savory dish is full of silky, wilted, leafy greens stewed for hours in a pot often containing onions, ham hocks and chicken stock. It was one of the only vegetables enslaved Black Americans were allowed to grow for themselves and their families. The flavorful greens have remained a culinary staple among Black people in the U.S. throughout the centuries.

The deep significance of this food is not lost on Stephanie, who said that what people label as “soul food” has a much deeper meaning to her than the food that’s on the plate. To her, it’s food that truly touches the soul. “It doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter what color you are,” she says. “There’s something in the taste of that food that reminds you of something that your grandmother prepared.”

Drew’s Place, like many businesses, faced hard times during the pandemic and briefly closed due to issues surrounding the supply chain crisis. While they’re up and running again, they’ve had to make adjustments to keep the restaurant operational. Despite the obstacles they faced, Stephanie said the community has supported them from day one, in part, because of her husband’s local ties. “He’s from Como, right here where this restaurant is,” she says. “This is where he grew up. This is where he went to school. He went off to school at Texas Tech and migrated back to his own community to do what he was passionate about.”

That fiery devotion has kept Drew’s Place open for almost 40 years. Though Stephanie sees the fact that they’re still a viable business as a blessing, she is unsure of what the next few years hold. As she and her husband age, they look forward to retirement while they continue to work out the details of the future of Drew’s Place.

As for the journey she and her husband embarked on as restaurateurs, Stephanie believes Maya Angelou said it best when she said, “Wouldn’t take nothing for my journey.”

“Because it’s my journey, and it’s what I had been given,” Stephanie says. “And I have done it the very best I know how. And I wouldn’t change a thing about it.”