Gumbo Social is set to reopen on August 17 after a six-week-long summer closure.
Over the past three years since Gumbo Social opened on the corridor it’s grown quickly, and that’s come with some growing pains, wrote owner Dontaye Ball on the restaurant’s website. Gumbo Social has become “one of the most visible Black-owned businesses in the neighborhood,” wrote Ball, who has also taken ownership over City Hall’s Cafe Melange in March of this year.
“Either we pause for six weeks, or we risk closing in six months,” Ball continued. “We owe ourselves, our staff, and our guests a better experience, and the only way to do that is to take a step back and retool … We’re not stepping away from Gumbo Social, we’re making sure Gumbo Social is still here five, ten, and twenty years from now.”
A GoFundMe posted by Ball in July seeks to raise $7,000 to add a walk-up takeout window to Gumbo Social, which Ball says would allow the restaurant to continue serving food until 10 p.m., instead of closing at 6 p.m. So far, it’s gathered $1,700 in donations.
“We’ve been running hard and hot since the pandemic,” said Ball. Ball said he hasn’t taken a break since the restaurant opened, though he added that he likely worked more hours during the restaurant’s closure than he did while it was open.
Ball was able to install new equipment and is close to securing a takeout window and with it new, extended hours — hopefully by September, he said.