Palace Grille Restaurant

Palace Grill was advertised in the Green Book from 1940-1941 and 1947-1956. It was listed in the Green Book as “Palace Grill -- 19 Eagle St.” Palace Grill was marketed as a cafe and grill. This historically African American area of Asheville, the intersection of Market & Eagle Streets, is often referred to as “The Block.”¹

Palace Grill opened in 1935 by Ira Isadore Angel (1901-1968), a prominent businessman and real estate developer from Mississippi. Angel was a 1924 graduate of Knoxville College (Tennessee) and an active volunteer with the YMCA. When the Palace Grill was first featured in the Green Book in 1940, Angel lived with his wife, Ada, at the Criterion Hotel at 409 Southside Avenue. By 1941, the Criterion Hotel had become the Booker T. Washington Hotel (another business listed in the Green Book). In addition to running the Palace Grill, Angel managed the Booker T. Washington Hotel and, later, its ballroom.²

Asheville doctor and educational leader John P. Holt remembered the grill as a good place to hang out when he was a teenager (and one that earned the approval of his sanitation-minded father). A newspaper advertisement for the “New Palace Grill” in 1939 listed some of the restaurant’s dishes: “tender juicy steaks,” “tasty fried chicken,” “choice chops,” and “delicious pies and cakes.” The restaurant had private dining rooms available for small parties and accepted reservations by phone.³ 

Angel remarried during World War II, to Lessie Nellie King, and moved to 115 Oakland Avenue. He briefly brought on co-owners for the restaurant (Charles W. Colette in 1944 and W. Forrest Harty in 1945) before shifting his focus to his real estate and grocery businesses in 1947.  Fletcher Breeland (owner of Breeland Sandwich Shop and Breeland Taxi) took over management of the Palace Grill for about a year.⁴

From 1948-1955, the Palace Grill was operated by Robert Edward Haynes and his wife, Mildred Haynes, who was listed as the restaurant’s cook in 1954 and manager in 1955. The couple closed the restaurant in 1955 and opened Hayne’s Grocery at 81 Blanton Street.⁵ 

The Green Book continued to advertise the Palace Grill in 1956 and 1957. Travelers looking for a bite to eat would have found Ebony Grill instead; Alice Collette, wife of previous Palace Grill co-owner Charles W. Collette, moved her restaurant, Ebony Grill, from its location at 12 Eagle Street to the old Palace Grill location at 19 Eagle Street in 1956.⁶

19 Eagle Street is now a mixed-use residential building called Eagle Market Place.⁷

Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2019

Notes

1. Victor Green, 1940 Green Book, 35; Green, 1941 Green Book, 35; Green, 1947 Green Book, 64; Green, 1948 Green Book, 61; Green, 1949 Green Book, 55; Green, 1950 Green Book, 61; Green, 1951 Green Book, 52; Green, 1952 Green Book, 52; Green, 1953 Green Book, 52; Green, 1954 Green Book, 52; Green, 1955 Green Book, 52; Victor Green, 1956 Green Book, 45; “Opening of the New Palace Grill,” (advertisement), Asheville Citizen Times, May 10, 1939, p. 2, accessed from www.newspapers.com; “BLOCK: Business Owners Hope New Development Brings Traffic,” Asheville Citizen-Times, August 25, 2004, pp. B1, B7, accessed from www.newspapers.com. Note: some editions of the Green Book have a typo and list Palace Grill as “Palace Grille.”
2. “Pedestrian Hit By Car, Injuries Fatal,” Asheville Citizen-Times, November 7, 1968, p. 48, accessed from www.newspapers.com; Miller’s Asheville (Buncombe Co., NC), 1936 City Directory (Asheville, NC: Piedmont Directory Company), pp. 36, 369, 577, 648, 773, accessed from https://archive.org; Johnny Baxter, “Black Businessmen From the Turn of the Century to the Present Times, Asheville and Buncombe County,” No Date, AB-Afro-Americans/Community/History-2 Vertical File, NC Collection, Pack Memorial Library; “Awards Program Will Salute Black Excellence,” Asheville Citizen Times, February 20, 1983, 1D, accessed from www.newspapers.com.
3. Rob Neufeld, “Eagle Street business brimmed behind City Hall,” Asheville Citizen-Times, July 9, 2018, p. A3, accessed from www.newspapers.com; “Opening of the New Palace Grill,” (advertisement), Asheville Citizen Times, May 10, 1939, p. 2, accessed from www.newspapers.com.
4.  “Lessie Nellie King Angel, September 27, 2005, Rutherfordton, NC,” U.S. Obituary Collection, 1930-Current, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Miller’s Asheville (Buncombe Co., NC), 1944 City Directory (Richmond, VA: Piedmont Directory Company), City Directory: pp. 44, 380, Street Directory: pp.55, 126, Classified Directory, p. 575; Miller’s Asheville (Buncombe Co., NC), 1945-46 City Directory (Richmond, VA: Piedmont Directory Company), City Directory: pp. 37, 390, Street Directory: p. 57, Classified Directory, p. 739; Miller’s Asheville (Buncombe Co., NC), 1947 City Directory (Richmond, VA: Piedmont Directory Company), City Directory: pp. 39, 89, 446, Street Directory: p. 60, Classified Directory, p. 847; Miller’s Asheville (Buncombe Co., NC), 1948-49 City Directory (Richmond, VA: Piedmont Directory Company), City Directory: pp. 34,35, 60, Street Directory: pp. 35, 60  Classified Directory, pp. 29, 607; all city directories accessed from https://archive.org.
5. “Robert E. Haynes” (obituary), Asheville Citizen-Times, April 14, 2010, p. 14, accessed from www.newspapers.com; Miller’s Asheville (Buncombe Co., NC), 1948-49 City Directory (Richmond, VA: Piedmont Directory Company), City Directory: pp. 34,35, 60, Street Directory: pp. 35, 60  Classified Directory, pp. 29, 607; Miller’s Asheville (Buncombe Co., NC), 1954 City Directory (Richmond, VA: Piedmont Directory Company), City Directory: pp. 205, 344, Street Directory: p. 54, Classified Directory, p. 69; Miller’s Asheville (Buncombe Co., NC), 1955 City Directory (Richmond, VA: Piedmont Directory Company), City Directory: pp. 202, 339, Street Directory: p. 55, Classified Directory, p. 60; Miller’s Asheville (Buncombe Co., NC), 1956 City Directory (Richmond, VA: Piedmont Directory Company), City Directory: p. 210, Street Directory: p. 209; all city directories accessed from https://archive.org.
6. Miller’s Asheville (Buncombe Co., NC), 1944 City Directory (Richmond, VA: Piedmont Directory Company), City Directory: pp. 126, 380; Miller’s Asheville (Buncombe Co., NC), 1956 City Directory (Richmond, VA: Piedmont Directory Company), City Directory: pp. 106, 143; all city directories accessed from https://archive.org. 
7.  “Vivid Portrayals of Asheville’s African American History – The Isaiah Rice Photo Collection – To Be First Exhibit at New Eagle Market Community Exhibition Space,” University of North Carolina at Asheville: News, May 17, 2019, accessed from https://www.unca.edu/events-and-news/stories/vivid-portrayals-of-ashevi…; Eagle Market Place website, https://eaglemarketplace.org/.