Food For Thought: Legendary Chicago West Side Diner, Who Once Served MLK, to Go
Chicago West Siders continue to support the New Pine Valley Restaurant owner, who came from Mississippi and worked her way up. Some made sure the place was untouched during the recent unrest.
Owner Louise "Momma" Harper cooks at the griddle at the New Pine Valley Restaurant in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood. She's decided to sell the place and retire after 58 years. | Photo Credit: Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune
She’s a legend. Louise Harper, known to her Chicago customers simply as “Momma,” is retiring after feeding her community for decades, including Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived in North Lawndale on Chicago’s West Side in 1966, and he galvanized the neighborhood in a campaign against redlining and housing discrimination. Two years later, he was assassinated. In the wake of his death, riots erupted in North Lawndale. Local industries abandoned the neighborhood, population plummeted, unemployment ballooned, and today the area is still trying to rebuild from the ashes of ‘68.
North Lawndale suffered following the riots in 1968 that followed King’s assassination. Chicago recalled how Mayor Richard J. Daley handled the situation by telling police “to shoot to kill any arsonist or anyone with a Molotov cocktail in his hand… to maim or cripple anyone looting any stores in our city.”
Despite the challenges faced, since Louise Harper took over North Lawndale’s New Pine Valley Restaurant, 1600 S. Pulaski Rd., in 1975, she’s stuck to a daily routine.
Open at 3 a.m. Work till 5:30 p.m. Every day. Seven days a week.
That’s about to change, however. Harper, 77, “Momma Lue” to longtime customers, is retiring.
According to a recent interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, “I ain’t gonna never forget it here,” said Harper, a Lexington, Mississippi, native who came to Chicago in 1962, looking for work and a better way than what she’d been doing — picking cotton. “All the years — 60 year, here. … I was tired of working in the fields from sunup to sundown, so I decided to leave.
“I couldn’t find anything when I got to Chicago, so I had to go back home to Mississippi,” Harper said. “I said: ‘I’m going back to Chicago — I don’t want to stay here anymore’ ‘Daddy made me go back to the fields — I didn’t want to do that. I went back to Chicago, and I come to the people here, and they hired me. They said: ‘Let us try you out’ — they kept me until they got ready to retire. They said: ‘What are you gonna do now ,all the years you have been with us?’
The New Pine Valley Restaurant, 1600 S. Pulaski Rd. in North Lawndale.
Still, New Pine Valley, 1600 S. Pulaski Road, has managed to survive, even though when you drive by you notice many windows in the neighborhood remain boarded due to recent times. Riots long ago moved the restaurant from its original location. But throughout the changes to the neighborhood, the restaurant has provided the community with a place for a quality meal while maintaining fair prices.
“I went home, and I prayed. I asked God to bless me — help me in this situation I’m going through, and he gave me a mind to be successful. He he told me to sell your house. I sold my house and bought this restaurant. That’s where I’ve been this entire time.”
New Pine Valley’s menu is as old-school as it can get. Cheeseburgers cost $1.35 — $4.00 with bacon — and the soup of the day is $3.50.
The Trib notes that the price of a fried egg sandwich with a cup of coffee was $2.25 when the diner opened in the ‘60s. Now it’s surged to $3.
According to her interview with the Chicago Tribune, Harper, who worked at the restaurant in various capacities, including waitressing, said some of her favorite items to cook are chicken and dressing, hamhocks, collard greens, macaroni and cheese and peach cobbler.
Harper has served generations of West Siders. She’s also gotten to meet a few luminaries — like Muhammad Ali (he ordered a cheeseburger) and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who briefly lived in the neighborhood.
“Momma Lue” Harper prepares a hamburger at The New Pine Valley. | Photo: Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times
“When [King and his associates] came by, I made sure I had everything ready for them,” Harper said. “They would come by for breakfast, and they would have bacon, sausage, ham. And sometimes, when it wasn’t enough, they would order more.”
In her interview with the Chicago Sun-Times she said that, once she shifts from business owner to retiree, she plans to visit family in Florida and Los Angeles. After that, for the first time in decades, her schedule is pretty much wide open.
“I saw six generations grew up over here, and they are fond of me — they call me ‘Momma,’ Harper said. “All the kids around here call me ‘Momma.’ I know I’m going to miss them. But I got to get on with my life.”
She learned to cook as she worked her way up at the restaurant.