Sylvia's Restaurant of Harlem

The story

Sylvia Woods's mother mortgaged her farm so her daughter could buy a Harlem luncheonette — and Woods paid her back within a year of opening. That was 1962, and the restaurant at 328 Malcolm X Boulevard has never left the family since. Now owned by her son Kenneth and managed by her grandson De'Sean, Sylvia's has grown from that single luncheonette into an expanded space that draws Harlem locals and visiting celebrities alike, still rooted in the soul food Sylvia Woods built her name on.