Wilmington celebrates tenacity, legacy during Black Restaurant Week

“Everyone has a Walt’s story,” as Larry Fletcher, owner of Walt’s Flavor Crisp Chicken Express on Lincoln Street, likes to put it. 

For example, Wilmington City Councilor Alex Hackett has been a patron since childhood. Every day he attended the H. Fletcher Brown Boys & Girls Club, a counselor would give him a golden dollar for playing a chess match before running off to play sports. Hackett would spend that allowance at Walt’s.

“As a young teen growing up in the city, it got me through. I didn’t have to worry about dinner because I could go get that golden dollar, and I could go get that thigh sandwich,” he said. “My family, I mean, we basically lived through Walt’s Chicken. My dad, I don’t even know, he might have been a chicken (with) as much Walt’s Chicken as he ate.”

Hackett recently got a look behind the scenes at Walt’s — and even served a few customers — in celebration of Wilmington Black Restaurant Week, which takes place through Sept. 27.

The week features specials at participating restaurants, culminating in a car show and community workout in Rodney Square on Saturday and a food festival at The Queen on Sunday. 

Skratch Bar + Kitchen in Trolley Square will also be hosting a block party with a live DJ and food specials on Friday, 5-9 p.m — but co-owner Newton “Newdy” Felton intends to keep the party going until the pub closes at 1 a.m.

“I think representation matters. It’s important (for members of) my community to see someone who looks like them, to see what’s possible,” Felton said. “There’s a lot of restaurants (that) don’t get the exposure. Some of them don’t have the money (for advertising). … Some of them aren’t in ideal locations. So, for Wilmington to highlight Black Restaurant Week, (it gives) them visibility and that foot traffic they probably wouldn’t have gotten.”

That’s exactly why City Council President Ernest “Trippi” Congo came up with the idea for Black Restaurant Week four years ago. 

“A lot of times, especially in the Black community … we’re just not exposed to different lanes where we can have access to capital, have access to meeting the right people who can take our businesses to another level,” he said. “Food is like the carrot that we’re waving in front of everybody. But we really want this to be a week of exposure.”

Despite being a Wilmington staple for 51 years, even Walt’s has had its struggles, according to Symanthia Sheppard, wife of the late co-founder, Harry Sheppard, and owner of the Miller Road location.

“In the city of Wilmington, we have a lot of transient people that have come in, and came in as a result of us being a banking capital. So, people don’t know that we’re here. (Black Restaurant Week) is another avenue that we can utilize to say, ‘Hey, we’re still here,’” she said.

Symanthia joined her husband’s operation in 1982. Harry had founded the restaurant with Walter Samuels in 1975, moving to Vandever Ave. as the sole owner three years later. 

According to Symanthia, Harry started running the restaurant before the building’s front facade was fully constructed.

“For two weeks, he sat in front of the restaurant 24 hours a day, slept in a chair in front of the restaurant until he could gain enough money to put a door, walls, on the building,” she said. “When you have that kind of tenacity, it is a privilege and an honor that today, we’re still here.”

Fletcher joined Walt’s in 1989. He had been working at fast food restaurants like McDonald’s and KFC since he was 14, and by 17, he’d realized he wanted to be a restaurateur. 

“I advanced to management and so on, but the ceiling was always blocked for me with ownership. Mr. Sheppard provided a chance for ownership,” he said.

In 2003, Harry allowed Fletcher to open his own Walt’s location under the same name on Lincoln Street.

Fletcher described Harry as modest, hardworking and always willing to provide second chances for those who needed them.

“If you came out of the Plummer (Community Corrections) Center (or) you were transitioning from hard times, he provided the opportunity to get back out and become a productive citizen,” he said. 

That legacy of giving back to the community has continued beyond Harry’s death. For example, Symanthia still runs Walt’s summer internship program.

“They learn all of the skills of (working in a restaurant), but they also learn life skills,” she said. “(We’re) constantly trying to invest in them, teach them, train them about integrity, about being a person of your word … how important it is to have that tenacity, follow through on everything that you do, no matter what it is.”

It’s not just the interns that Symanthia has watched grow up at Walt’s, but generations of customers and family members like her niece, Essence Sheppard. Symanthia plans to retire in the near future and pass the torch to Essence. Fletcher hopes to find a successor and do the same. 

Symanthia’s advice to budding restaurateurs is to “stick it out.”

“Every negative word that you hear, everything that seems like an obstacle or a struggle, use it as a stepping stone,” she said. “Then, have the tenacity to continue — especially if you’re doing it because you want to build a legacy.”