The historic Eastside restaurant was featured in City of Grudges.
H&O Cafe served Southern-style soul food. The fixtures of the thirty-seat diner—with a lunch counter that could accommodate another dozen or so—were candied yams, collard greens, black-eyed, mac & cheese, fried pork chops and chicken, sweet tea and peach cobbler and its neon-colored jukebox.
Its origins go back to the 1920s, when Hamp Lee and his brother opened a grocery and pool hall in a building on the corner of Haynes and Gonzalez streets. Legend has the brothers named the businesses “H&O” by combining the first letters of their wives’ names, Hattie and Ola.
In 1942, Givens Grier purchased the building and opened the restaurant. Grier’s brother, Raymond Grier Sr., an aircraft mechanic and the first Black foreman at the Pensacola Naval Station, bought the café in 1957. H&O Café was the heart of the Black community during the 40’s, 50’s and the Civil Rights era.
In 1974, an arsonist tried to burn the restaurant the same week someone tossed three Molotov cocktails into two police cruisers parked at Pensacola Police headquarters and set fire to Emmons Grocery Store, another staple in the Black community.
When Raymond passed away in 2001, the Pensacola News Journal interviewed H&O regulars (PNJ, “Grier will live on through H&O Café,” 5/18/2001).
“Raymond’s restaurant probably did more to calm the situation than else I know of,” said longtime friend Henry Cassidy, a retired Pensacola police officer. “It was a gathering place for a lot of community leaders. Raymond’s calm demeanor spoke well in the community.”
His wife Dorothy took over operations. Her son Michael and daughter Christa Grier Holmes managed the restaurant until it closed in September 2015.
Over the years the restaurant served a number of celebrity patrons, including civil rights activist Rosa Parks, Senator Bob Graham, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, boxing promoter Don King and local champion boxer Roy Jones, Jr.
In its early days, H&O operated twenty-four hours, seven days a week and then cut back to 7 a.m.-7 p.m most days and twenty-four hours on only Fridays and Saturdays in 1990s, when it became a favorite late-night dining spot for Gen-X. By the mid-2000s, the hours had changed to 7:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m. on Sundays.
In 1985, the Pensacola News Journal reviewed H&O and only gave the restaurant three stars, penalizing it for its location next to elevated I-110 and not having a smoke-free section. The average cost for dinner was $3.50-$5, breakfast under $2 and lunch about $3.
I went to H&O for breakfast—eggs, bacon and grits— and to catch up on gossip.
In City of Grudges, I used some of the history of H&O Cafe and recreated it with a fictional owner, Lee Booker, and his children. I also borrowed from a tale that I had heard about another popular local eatery and added a few creative touches:
In the 1950s, “Little Book,” Booker Lee’s son, nearly lost the restaurant when he almost beat a customer to death. The legend was a pregnant woman had tried to sit on one of the counter stools in a very tight, short skirt. Noticing how exposed the woman was, a man sitting nearby shouted, “My, my, I’m looking at paradise.”
Little Book, who stood over six and a half feet tall and weighed about three hundred pounds, took offense to the remark. One version of the story had the woman as his girlfriend. Lee came from behind the counter, dragged the man outside, and began beating him with a belt. He was arrested and charged with aggravated battery. Judge Beckham let Lee off with a fine. Ever since a sign hung over the H&O Café lunch counter: “No Pregnant Women Allowed on Stools.”
In Blood in the Water, a cook from the cafe becomes Walker’s cell mate.