Markeshia Ricks Photo
Stallings behind the grill on Dixwell.
Sultan Stallings had been in New Haven only a few weeks when he heard about the historical Freddy Fixer Parade and the fictional character who has inspired the black community to clean up since 1962. Stallings, who’s in the process of opening a series of Dixwell Avenue businesses, had an epiphany: “I’m Freddy Fixer reincarnated.”
He said his modern-day Freddy mission starts with keeping the outside of the restaurant that he manages, Supreme Eatery Carryout at 300 Dixwell Ave., swept clean every day. It continues with reaching out to neighboring businesses and offering to help to fix up their storefronts.
“I want to know what they need to beautify their establishment,” Stallings said, after dropping some fish in hot grease to fry. “Whether it’s labor, resources to help paint or fix a roof, and then take that all the way down the street. That’s how it should be in this community.”
Stallings came to New Haven recently from Raleigh, N.C., to manage the carryout. He takes over from outgoing manager Jock Hargraves, who will head to Chicago to help get a carryout, bakery, and grocery store in that city.
Welcome handles the customer service.
The Supreme Eatery Carryout, which specializes in high-quality fish and chicken-based dishes, has been operating out of a brightly painted yellow and orange storefront for about a year. It was a popular spot on Wednesday as teachers from nearby Amistad High School popped over to pick up lunch.
Stallings said soon other Supreme businesses will open down the street, including a bakery at 899 Dixwell Ave. and a breakfast parlor at 1351 Dixwell, part of a social mission to promote self-determination and pride in the black community.
An artist affiliated with The Value Creators creates all of the artwork featured in Supreme food stores.
The businesses will join a growing chain of such businesses that have opened in Virginia, Maryland, and Atlanta in predominately black neighborhoods that have been slow to recover from the ravages of crime, drugs, and disinvestment.
Stallings said the businesses are the brainchild of The Value Creators, an arm of the United Nation of Islam that focuses on entrepreneurship.
“Our goal is to restore life and the planet back to its original design,” he said. “That means we must clean up the water, clean up the air and the food.”
Jock Hargraves, Alonya Muhammad, Ronchelle Welcome and Sultan Stallings
The hallmark of the business is cooperative work. Stallings said everyone who works for one of the Supreme businesses is an unpaid volunteer.
“The business takes care of us,” he said. “We’re a group of like-minded folks who understand that either you’re going to do it or allow it to be done.”
Further down Dixwell, a new bakery will be pumping out bread, bean pies, and other treats like these cookies.
Instead of waiting for outside corporate interests to come in and take from the community, he said, The Value Creators see an opportunity to give back. And people have got to eat.
“You need three things to sustain life,” Stallings, a California native and former truck driver, said. “That’s food, clothing, and shelter.”
Part of the mission of the Supreme food chain is to raise the quality of the food that comes into communities that often lack places to obtain fresh meats and vegetables.
“When we start eating right — according to how our body is designed, it will align and allow us to experience life the way it is designed to be,” Stallings said. “Your body will be feeling better, your thoughts will be clearer. There will be no mood swings.”
Former manager Hargraves, a transplant from Baltimore, said that on occasion people balk at Supreme’s prices because nearby carry-outs offer some similar food for less. But once they taste the quality of Supreme they understand why prices are a little higher, he said.
Ronchelle Welcome, who is originally from Florida, said many of the people who hang out on the street near the restaurant have come to understand the effort that it takes to keep the store’s appearance up. And they’ve taken some ownership of it too.
“Those hanging out front won’t allow people to [litter],” she said. “The changes have already started.”
Freddy Fixer reincarnated offered one more vision for Dixwell: a big day of service when people grab their brooms, a trash bag, maybe even a paintbrush and some tools, and really clean up the neighborhood.
