B & H Cafe

B & H Cafe was listed in the Green Book as “B & H Cafe — 411 S. Blount” in Raleigh from 1947-1952.  The business was actually located at 410 S. Blount Street.¹

William H. Bryant opened the B & H Cafe in a space previously occupied by another business, Savoy Cafe [LINK TO SAVOY]. The cafe, located at 411 S. Blount Street, was open from the mid-1940s until 1950. William was married to Lucille M. Bryant and lived at 908 Fayetteville Street.²

B & H Cafe offered home-cooked meals. Advertisements for the cafe boasted about “what a meal it will be—seasoned exactly right, and every dish boasting a real home-cooked flavor.” ³

Bryant had at least two business partners. George H. Mitchell, a Shaw University graduate from Greensboro who ran for Raleigh City Council, co-owned the restaurant in 1947. William A. Harrison co-owned the business in 1946.⁴

William H. Bryant was known locally as the “Kingpin” of “running numbers” – a moniker which landed him in jail in 1949. B & H Cafe was purchased by Isaac Brown (married to Alberta Brown) in 1950 and the business permanently closed in 1951. A new restaurant, Pop’s Cafe, opened in its place.⁵

An apartment building stands on the property today.⁶

Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2024

Notes

1.  Victor Green, 1947 Green Book, 65; Green, 1948 Green Book, 63; Green, 1949 Green Book, 57; Green, 1950 Green Book, 63; Green, 1951 Green Book, 54; Green, 1952 Green Book, 54. 
2. Hill’s Raleigh City Directory, 1943-1951, alphabetical listing, street listing.
3. “B & H Cafe Advertisement,” The Carolinian, August 31, 1946, p. 2, accessed from North Carolina Newspapers/Digital NC, http://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn80008926/1946-08-31/ed-1/seq-2/.
4.  Hill’s Raleigh City Directory, 1943-1951, alphabetical listing, street listing; “Two Enter Race for City Council,” The News and Observer, March 25, 1947, p. 5, accessed from www.newspapers.com.
5. “‘I’m not Guilty,’ Bryant Declares, Mum on ‘Facts,’” The Carolinian, April 18, 1959, p. 1-2, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn99061519/1959-04-18/ed-1/seq-1/; Hill’s Raleigh City Directory, 1949-1951, alphabetical listing, street listing.
6. Bowers, Katherine, Derek Huss, and Rachel Jacobson, “The Green Book Assignment, North Carolina, Durham, Wake, Halifax, Vance: Historical Structure Report for the North Carolina Historic Preservation Office,” HI 587: Cultural Resource Management, North Carolina State University, Spring 2016, 38.