Sylvia's Restaurant of Harlem
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Sylvia's Restaurant of Harlem (often called "Sylvia's Soul Food" or just "Sylvia's") is a soul food restaurant in New York City. It was founded in 1962 by Sylvia Woods. It has since expanded to a much larger space at 328 Lenox Avenue (Lenox and 127th Street), and an adjacent building. The restaurant also sells a line of prepared foods, beauty and skin care items, cookbooks, and a children's book written by Woods.
Woods purchased the original luncheonette by borrowing money from her mother, who had to mortgage her farm to provide it. "I know I had to make it or else my mama was gonna lose her farm. So I gave it all that I had to give," Woods later explained.
The restaurant attracts a clientele that ranges from Harlem locals to visiting celebrities. Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela and Magic Johnson are among those who have eaten there.
On September 19th, 2007, commentator Bill O'Reilly spoke about having lunch at Sylvia's with Al Sharpton on his syndicated radio show. O'Reilly generated controversy with his comments on the restaurant, expressing that the predominantly African-American clientele acted friendly, polite, and did not use obscenities in their speech. O' Reilly reported that he "couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's Restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship."[1] These remarks were considered by some to be evidence of latent racism, something O'Reilly had been accused of in the past.[1][2] O'Reilly responded that his remarks were taken out of context and that he had told listeners how his grandmother - and many other white Americans - feared blacks because they didn't know any and were swayed by violent images in black culture.[3]
