Along Moody Street and Highway 59 sits a building with hot pink accents and inside, is a cowboy-hat wearing cook, with big aspirations.
For Quenten Thomas-White, owning Big Daddy’z BBQ & Soul Food will be just another stop on his path of life. But while he’s at that stop, he’s going to make the most of it, uplifting his community in the process.
A seventh-generation rancher in Victoria County, Thomas-White sold his cattle when the price went up, planning to start his restaurant. As a young Black man in Victoria, he says he knows the racial struggles that he and his community face, and he wanted to do something about it.
So, he started a restaurant.
After driving by an abandoned building at 611 S. Moody Street three years ago, he felt God calling to him, telling him that the building could be something. He tracked down the owner, and began leasing the building, fixing it up to run his restaurant out of. The process took him nine months, but now, he’s four months into running a restaurant.
Growing up in the Black community, soul food was always a huge part of his life. Most of his recipes were inspired from his grandparents, and it’s a tradition the Thomas-White feels has gotten lost in the struggle to make ends meet.
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So, he cooks for his people, and anyone else that wants to eat. His most popular dish is oxtail and is often what sells out first.
“Oxtail, it used to be what we call slave food,” Thomas-White said. “Back in the day, Black people really didn’t have a lot of money. Oxtail was the scraps, it’s the cow’s tail. Out of Mission Valley and in other places the poor Blacks would go to the butcher and whatever he had left over, he would just give it to us. The older blacks, before my generation, were able to turn the scraps into a delicacy. Growing up a lot of times, oxtail was free. They just gave it to us. But now that it’s gotten popular, the price has gone completely up.”
What originated as a means of survival has become popular, and while some might be hesitant to share that, it’s what Thomas-White is all about. He’s giving Victoria what it doesn’t have, a soul food restaurant.
Thomas-White has seen first-hand how Black people in Victoria struggle, and how difficult it is for them to find jobs.
“Victoria has a lot of small mom and pop places, and a lot of like, first generational businesses, or family owned businesses, and a lot of entrepreneurship,” Thomas-White said. “But a lot of people here in Victoria, it’s kind of like they want to hire their own, own people, like the Spanish people want to hire the Spanish people. The whites want to hire the white people. Well, who’s gonna hire the blacks if there’s no black business here?”
He’s seen Black people get hired at large corporations and franchises, but he knows how long of a process it is, and that it can often lead to people missing out on bills.
At 6 p.m., when he closes for the day, Thomas-White isn’t done. Whatever he has that’s leftover, he makes plates and gives it out to homeless people.
With aspirations to be a preacher, Thomas-White wants to help everyone. He calls himself a street preacher and hopes one day to have his own church, valuing the power of conversation over anything else.
Having his own restaurant has given him the chance to have conversations with people from all walks of life.
Quenten Thomas-White sits behind the counter of his restaurant, Big Daddy’z BBQ & Soul Food, with his daughter. (Lindsey Plotkin/Victoria Advocate)
“I’m 27 years old, but you’ll never realize looking at an 89 year old white man, how we have so much in common until we speak and we talk,” Thomas-White said. “So that’s really what this place is, really, honestly showing me how, how much we are alike, different, but alike in so many ways. That’s the most rewarding part of this, is just getting to know people, meeting new people, and just having long, lasting relationships and friendships.”
Everything for Thomas-White goes back to God and wanting to help people, even the name of his restaurant. He drew inspiration from two people, his great grandfather, who he called “Big Papa,” and God, who he calls his “Daddy.”
Staying humble, his true personality, Thomas-White loves being amongst his community with his location. He sees his restaurant as a way to bring people together, like how his family reunions brought his family together growing up.
On top of running a restaurant, he’s studying political science and as another step, can see himself in politics.
But most of all, Thomas-White’s mission is to uplift the Black community in Victoria and bridge the poverty gap, and to spread the word of God. And for now, he’s using food to do that.