Race, restaurants and the messiness of friendship
John O. Morisano and Mashama Bailey.
(Marcus Kenney)
Jan. 23, 2021 6 AM PT
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When the Grey opened in Savannah, Ga., late in 2014, the national food media instantly latched onto the restaurant’s unlikely origin story: New York venture capitalist and first-time restaurateur John O. Morisano purchased a once-grand former Greyhound bus depot that operated until 1964. Pre-renovation, he could see where waiting areas and restrooms had been marked as clearly segregated.
His search for a chef — specifically, he had decided to find a Black woman chef as a business partner who would helm the kitchen — led him to Mashama Bailey, a sous chef at Prune, Gabrielle Hamilton’s tiny East Village game changer. Bailey had been in the restaurant industry for almost 20 years. She was ready for a big leap; a native of Queens, she also happened to have spent part of her childhood in Savannah.