CLEVELAND — Wayne Whitmore still cooks the way his family has for three generations, in a no-frills kitchen on the city’s East Side.
He started working at Mt Pleasant Bar-B-Q when he was six years old. Now he’s 62, still flipping ribs, making macaroni and cheese and seasoning collard greens in a modest brick building at East 128th Street and Kinsman Road.
"I love to see a smile on people's face when they eat," he said.
The family business hasn’t changed much over the years. The surrounding block is a different story, though. The dry cleaner, barber shop, pool hall and salon are long gone. So are the ice cream shop, the pharmacy and the bars that once lined the street.
But Whitmore and his sister, Wendy Dennis, aren’t giving up. They’re reinvesting in their restaurant – with some help from Cleveland City Hall.
On Wednesday, the city announced more than $1.9 million in grants for 29 businesses, property owners and organizations on the Southeast Side, along key commercial corridors. Mt Pleasant Bar-B-Q is one of the recipients, set to receive $93,514.50 for renovations that Dennis and Whitmore have been dreaming about for years.
They plan to use the cash to fix up the inside of the take-out-only restaurant; install new exterior lights and signs; and create a handicapped-accessible front entrance.
“We have people roll up from the street in wheelchairs,” said Whitmore, whose staff will go outside to take and deliver orders when customers can’t navigate the front step.
Dennis said she found out about the grant approval last week – and was floored by the amount. Other recipients, ranging from restaurants to barber shops to early learning centers, are set to receive anywhere from $7,374 to $99,999, according to city records.
The grants are part of a broader revitalization effort on the Southeast Side, spanning the Lee-Harvard, Union-Miles, Lee-Seville and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods.
In 2023, the Bibb administration and Cleveland City Council pledged $15 million in federal pandemic-recovery money to kick-start investments in that part of the city. The money is earmarked for home repair; investments in business districts; redevelopment of a few large sites, including former school properties; and targeted demolition and clean-up.
Of the $5 million slated for businesses and commercial corridors, about $2.5 million is left. The city made its first business investments last year, through a partnership with nonprofit Cleveland Neighborhood Progress.
But officials found the geographic footprint of the program was too limited. Money wasn’t getting out the door quickly enough. So the city paused and changed some things. City Council approved legislation in July to make the grants more broadly available – and bring the program in-house, to be run by the city’s economic development department.
“My goal is for us to move faster,” said Joevrose Bourdeau Small, the city’s economic development director. “And for folks to really start feeling the impacts.”
She said the grants aren’t just about the money. They’re about fostering a sense of momentum and boosting pride in neighborhoods that have been overlooked for decades.
“It’s about building opportunity, and creating opportunity for everyone,” she said.
Marvin Owens, the city’s senior strategist for the Southeast Side, said Cleveland is trying to prime the pump – in hopes that private investment will follow. Many of the grant recipients are clustered along Kinsman, Lee Road and Union, Miles and Harvard avenues.
The economic development department, which vetted and scored funding requests, hopes to finalize the grant contracts by the end of this year.
At Mt Pleasant Bar-B-Q, Whitmore and Dennis aren’t sure yet when they’ll be able to start construction. But they’re hoping to move quickly. Their goal is to preserve the familiar while making the space more inviting for customers and employees.
Whitmore is the hands-on owner, cooking and feeding people. Dennis, 63, works behind the scenes, managing the paperwork and the finances.
As they’ve aged, along with their longtime employees, they’ve moved equipment upstairs from the basement and into the former dining room. It’s too tough to navigate the stairs all the time. During the pandemic, they cut the restaurant’s hours, getting rid of the late-night and early-morning shifts.
But they’re still keeping the flame.
“If it’s not broken, you don’t fix it,” Dennis said of staying put and betting that the block will eventually rebound.
“The neighborhood doesn’t have any other businesses,” she added. “And most of our customers … they walk here. Most of the workers, they live in the area. And they can walk or take the bus or ride the bike or whatever. So it’s convenient. And everyone knows where it is.”
