MARYLAND-A teacher on the Eastern Shore pays tribute to her beloved grandmother with a pop-up restaurant located in the exact same spot where her grandmother owned her popular place back during the civil rights era in Snow Hill, Maryland.
Evelyn's Village Inn on Green Street in Snow Hill was a popular restaurant between 1955 and 1987.
In fact, Evelyn Allen won the 1986 Worcester County NAACP Business Award for her restaurant, and was so beloved that people would visit from all over and wait even up to an hour to get their fresh, comfort food.
"(She was) definitely the only Black female that had a business there and I grew up there because I lived there until I was 10 years old, so I really grew up there and I've always wanted to cook, everybody in my family cooks," said Allen's granddaughter, Tracey Lynn Townsend-Ruiz. Townsend-Ruiz described her grandmother as a woman who was "bigger than life," and even though she said she was called to be a teacher, the only ESL and Spanish teacher in Wicomico County at the moment, she said her heart always lied in the kitchen. "Throughout my life, I have had this reoccurring dream that I have like two or three times a month, where I'm always like 9 years old and I am in her restaurant, but I am cooking and it's my restaurant, it's always my restaurant," she explained. Coincidentally, the space became available in October of 2020 and despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Townsend-Ruiz took it as a sign. Two generations later, she was able to recreate the beloved family recipes with a pop-up restaurant located at 'The Changing Palette."
"I cried, the first weekend I just cried all day long because there were so many people that I hadn't seen, people that flew in from the West Coast...like my whole school district was there it seemed like...childhood friends from first grade, there was so much support, it was like a family reunion," she said. Honoring Evelyn Allen's legacy with a bucket-list dream come true. The food includes Evelyn Allen's famous fried chicken and potato salad, and it is carry out only. The pop-up takes place once a month and details can be found the 'Snow Hill Live Facebook' page. The next one is set to take place on the April 17-18 weekend. You can contact Tracey Lynn Townsend-Ruiz directly, by calling her at 443-366-7800 or via email: tracyruiz62@gmail.com .
