For much of the last century, West Coconut Grove was home to dozens of small mom-and-pop grocery stores and markets, including some\u202fthat served as informal community centers where residents could pop in for a loaf of bread\u202for\u202fsomething for dinner and perhaps linger to talk to a neighbor they hadn\u2019t seen for a day or two.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Throughout the\u202fhistorically\u202fBlack section of the Grove, shopkeepers mentored neighborhood youngsters, sponsored sports teams, cashed paychecks and even extended credit to customers they knew.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like family,\u201d says Winifred Pope, who, with her late husband Isiah \u201cIke\u201d Pope,\u202fJr., for 30 years ran the Douglas Road grocery that still bears his name.\u202f<\/p>\n
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Constructed in 1937, the two-story building at 3374 Douglas Road has operated as a market since the early 1950s and as Ike\u2019s Food Center since the late 1960s. Recent signage on the structure\u2019s north face reflects a changing West Grove consumer landscape.<\/p>\n
(Patrick Farrell for the Spotlight)<\/p>\n
\u201cIf people came in and they\u202fdidn\u2019t\u202fhave money, Ike\u00a0had a book where he\u202fwrote down the name\u202fand the amount.\u202f\u202fIf they paid later,\u202ffine\u202fand good.\u202fIf they\u202fcouldn\u2019t, fine and good.\u202fHe thought no one should go hungry.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
With\u202fthe\u202frecent\u202fclosing of Queen Supermarket on Grand Avenue, only one of those small groceries\u202fremains\u202fin the West Grove: Ike\u2019s Food Center.\u202f<\/p>\n
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Winifred Pope, who ran Ike\u2019s Food Center with her late husband for three decades, sits recently in her home in Goulds, reflecting on the store\u2019s role in West Coconut Grove and her husband\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
(Mike Clary for the Spotlight)<\/p>\n
The store is now owned by Richie Cooper, who\u202fbegan working for\u202fthe\u202fPopes\u202fas a teenager and then\u202fbought the business when\u202fIke\u202fPope\u202fretired in\u202f1999.\u202fIke\u2019s is run by a group that includes store manager\u202fMohammed Jamal.\u202f(Cooper could not be reached for comment.)\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ike\u2019s is\u202fan enduring\u202fWest Grove\u00a0institution, and\u202fstill a neighborhood store.\u202fNo one\u202ftravels from Westchester or even Central Grove to shop there.\u202fTwo and a half years ago,\u202fthe discount grocer\u202fAldi\u202fopened a\u202fno-frills\u202fsupermarket\u202fsix blocks away\u202fon\u00a0U.S. 1, but many\u202flocal\u202fresidents\u202fprefer the\u202ffamiliarity\u202fand\u202fconvenience\u202fof Ike\u2019s.\u202f\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Isiah \u201cIke\u201d Pope Jr., shown in an undated photo inside Ike\u2019s Food Center, which he founded in the late 1960s after purchasing the longtime neighborhood market on Douglas Road.<\/p>\n
(Courtesy of Winifred Pope)<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople with no car come over for water, soap, whatever they need,\u201d said lifelong Grove resident David Washington, 60.\u202f\u201cWe don\u2019t like going out of our neighborhood.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nate Donaldson, 76,\u202fpops\u202finto Ike\u2019s \u201cat least twice a day,\u201d he says,\u202foften\u202fto buy\u202fa\u202flottery ticket.\u202fDonaldson\u202fremembers\u202fgetting to know the grocer\u202fbefore\u202fgoing\u202fto Vietnam\u202fas an Army\u202fcombat\u00a0infantryman.\u202f<\/p>\n
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Nate Donaldson, 76, left, and Perkin Burney, 80, shop at Ike\u2019s Food Center, a fixture of daily life in West Coconut Grove for generations of residents.<\/p>\n
(Patrick Farrell for the Spotlight)<\/p>\n
\u201cIke was an icon,\u201d\u202fsays Donaldson. \u201cI knew\u202fhis\u202ffamily,\u202fhis kids.\u202fAt that time,\u202fIke\u2019s was in a\u202fBlack neighborhood.\u202fNow\u202fthere\u2019s\u202fa variety\u00a0of people in\u202fthe\u202fneighborhood.\u202fThe\u202fface of the Grove has really changed.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
The history of Ike\u2019s and its predecessors in the same location, 3374 Douglas Road, reflects the evolving nature of life and culture in a section of the Grove that is steadily being eroded by gentrification, a soaring cost of living and out-migration of the descendants of the original Bahamian settlers\u202fand migrants\u202ffrom the South\u202fwho can no longer afford to live there.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u202fAfrican-American\u202fpopulation of the neighborhood dropped more than 40 percent between 2000 and 2020, according to an analysis of U.S. Census figures by the University of Miami law school\u2019s Center for Ethics and Public Service.\u202fAt the same time, the number of white residents climbed by 178\u00a0percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Perkin Burney, 80, picks up a few items during a midday visit to Ike\u2019s Food Center, where regulars still stop in for everyday essentials and familiar faces.\u00a0<\/p>\n
(Patrick Farrell for the Spotlight)<\/p>\n
As the number of Black residents of the West Grove declines, places like Ike\u2019s \u201care very rare and more important than ever,\u201d says Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, a professor at the University of Miami\u2019s School of Architecture.\u202f\u201cThey bring people together.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
The question now, added Plater-Zyberk, is,\u00a0\u201cHow to keep those places in place?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ike\u2019s has endured, but, like the neighborhood,\u202fit is not the same.\u202fThe sunburst logo on the front of the\u202fyellow-and-white\u202fstucco\u202ffacade\u202fremains\u202fover\u202fthe name,\u202f\u201cIke\u2019s Food Center,\u201d but\u202fred-letter\u202fsignage\u202fadded to\u202fthe side of the portico\u202freads\u202f\u201cIke\u2019s Market Smoke Shop and Vape.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A copy of \u201cRain in Our Hearts: Alpha Company in the Vietnam War,\u201d opened to a story about longtime Ike\u2019s customer and Vietnam War Army veteran Nate Donaldson, reflects the store\u2019s role as a neighborhood gathering place with deep personal ties.<\/p>\n
(Patrick Farrell for the Spotlight)<\/p>\n
Just inside the front door is a grill where\u202fcustomers can order\u202fa hot\u202fbreakfast\u202fof\u202fham and eggs or a sausage\u202fsandwich\u202ffor lunch.\u202fThere is no meat counter.\u202fThere are surveillance cameras.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
As manager,\u202fJamal spends much of the day\u202fin an elevated booth\u202fbehind\u202fa\u202fbullet-resistant\u202facrylic shield selling lottery tickets and\u202fworking\u202fthe register.\u202f<\/p>\n
He says the\u202fbooth was installed after the COVID-19\u00a0epidemic.\u202fThe\u202fstore\u2019s\u202fdoors are locked at midnight, Jamal says, but customers can make purchases\u202fall night through a\u202fsecure slide-out\u202ftransaction\u202fdrawer\u202fin the front of the building.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
After 10 years\u202fat\u202fthe store,\u202fJamal\u202fknows most of his customers by name, and tries to stock items that\u202fpeople\u202frequest.\u202fHe\u202frealizes\u202fmost patrons\u202fwant to\u202fquickly\u202fget what they came for \u2013 drinks, snacks, cigarettes, cereal, beans\u202f\u2013\u202fpay and get out.\u202f\u202f<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t want to wait,\u201d he says.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
He has also been known to\u202frun a\u202ftab for regulars.\u202f\u201cWhen you see the same\u202fcustomers every day, it becomes a relationship,\u201d he says.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Jamal is not\u202ffrom the community.\u202f\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
He is not\u202fIke.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ike\u2019s\u202fin the \u201970s, \u201980s and \u201990s was a family operation.\u202fWinifred kept the books.\u202fIke\u2019s sister Maggie\u202fworked\u202fthe register. His brother Harold was the butcher. Deliveries were free. Customers were extended family.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a 1996 story in the Miami Herald, Pope was portrayed as a role model for the community, a shopkeeper with a heart who knew\u202falmost all\u202fthe kids in the neighborhood.\u202f<\/p>\n
If he caught a youngster shoplifting,\u00a0he said\u00a0at the time, he\u202fdidn\u2019t\u202fcall the police; rather, \u201cI just try to talk a little to the kid, to tell him how\u202fhe\u2019ll\u202fend up if he keeps going that way.\u202fMost of the time, he listens.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pope noted that while the neighborhood was changing, he still knew 90 percent of the kids who came into the store.\u202f\u202f\u201cIf I don\u2019t know their names, I know what family they belong to,\u201d\u00a0he\u00a0said\u00a0in the Miami Herald interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pope certainly knew the family of Denise Wallace.\u202f<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u202frecall rushing to Ike\u2019s\u202fand other stores in the neighborhood, like the Dew Drop Inn,\u202fto show our\u00a0report\u202fcards,\u201d\u202fsaid\u202fWallace,\u202fharking back to the\u202flate\u202f1960s\u202fwhen she walked home from\u202fFrances S. Tucker Elementary School.\u202f\u201cWe would show\u202four grades\u00a0to\u202fIke\u202fand he would give us a penny, candy\u202for a cookie.\u202fAnd\u202fhe\u2019d\u202fgive us words of encouragement.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe never denigrated anyone,\u201d said Wallace,\u202fa third-generation Grove resident and former co-chair of the Coconut Grove Village Council whose family owns the\u00a0nearby\u00a0Ace\u202fTheater.\u202f\u201cHe always found something encouraging to say.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Winifred Pope says she can recall no incidents\u202fof violence\u202fwhen she and her husband ran the grocery.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the world has changed.\u202fWhile West Grove, like other parts of the city, has seen a\u202fsharp\u202fdrop in crime in recent years, Miami Police Commander\u202fFreddie Cruz, who oversees Coconut Grove, says the area around Ike\u2019s\u202fremains\u202fstubbornly troubled.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over the past month, police have made four arrests for drug- or alcohol-related offenses and one arrest for theft\u00a0within a block of Ike\u2019s.\u00a0In August, a 30-year-old Coconut Grove man was shot and killed\u202fby\u00a0an assailant\u00a0who chased him into the store during what\u202fCruz at the time described\u202fas a\u202fdrug- and gang-related incident.\u202fThe alleged shooter,\u202fKeith Wilson, 33, is being held without bond on a second-degree murder charge.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ike\u2019s and nearby corners\u202fare hangout spots, despite\u202fmany\u202f\u201cNo loitering\u201d signs, including one on the front of the building that includes\u202fthe name Isiah\u202fPope Jr., as if in memoriam.\u202fYoung men congregate.\u202fThe\u202fsmell of weed\u202ffloats\u202fon\u202fthe breeze.\u202fThere is a\u202frumble of\u202flively voices\u202fall through the day and evening.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Occasionally, says Jamal, he\u202fgoes outside and asks people\u202fto move away from the door. \u201cMost\u202fof the time, people\u202fare respectful,\u201d he says.\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first business known to\u202foccupy the lot\u202fwhere Ike\u2019s stands\u202fwas\u202fthe\u202fNew York Bargain Store, which\u202frelocated\u202fto the Grove\u202ffrom downtown Miami\u202fin 1925,\u202faccording to\u202fMiami historian Iris Guzman\u202fKolaya.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
At that\u202ftime, the surrounding blocks were dense with small groceries, meat markets, and corner stores, many within\u202fwalking distance\u202fof each other.\u202fThe Bargain Store closed\u202fby\u202f1927, followed a\u202fdecade later\u202fby\u202fJoe\u2019s M.G. Market, run by Joe\u202fMongay.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
The current two-story building\u202fwas constructed in 1937, according to\u202fMiami-Dade property records.\u202fBy the early 1950s, the address\u202fwas home to\u202fPhil\u2019s Food Center, owned by real estate developers Philip Bloom and Bernard Hammersmith.\u202f<\/p>\n
\u201cPhil\u2019s carried forward the corner store\u2019s tradition as a social space, hosting community events and an annual holiday party for hundreds of neighborhood children,\u201d said\u202fKolaya.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Retired teacher Judith Davis\u202frecalls\u202fBloom\u202fgiving\u202fa\u00a0silver\u00a0dollar\u202fto each\u202fmember of\u202fthe\u202f1966\u202fsenior class\u202fat\u202fCarver High School\u00a0to\u00a0commemorate\u00a0the last\u202fclass\u202fto graduate from the segregated school.\u202f<\/p>\n
As a\u202fgrade schooler, Davis and friends\u202fmade candy apples from\u202fingredients\u202ffound\u202fin the store and sold them out front\u202fto raise money to pay for choir robes.\u202fHer aunt lived in\u202fthe\u202fapartment\u202fover the store.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody knew everybody,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was a community center.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ike\u202fPope\u202fwas in his teens when he\u202fbegan\u202fhis career\u202fin the grocery business\u202fat a store in Goulds.\u202fHe then took a job at Phil\u2019s, becoming manager\u202fin\u202f1964.\u202f<\/p>\n
Five\u00a0years\u202flater,\u202fBloom sold the business to Pope, who used a\u202fSmall Business Administration\u202floan to open\u202fIke\u2019s Food Center.\u202fFor the next three decades, Ike made the 20-mile drive from his home in Goulds to the store\u00a0daily.\u202fHe\u202frarely\u202ftook\u202ftime\u202foff.\u202f\u202f<\/p>\n
\u201cHe felt that he had to be there,\u201d said Winifred Pope.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
During\u202fhis\u202f35 years\u202fin the Grove, Ike made the grocery thrive by giving locals what they wanted.\u202fIf he ran out of a product someone asked for, he would often drive to a distributor to get it, said Winifred Pope\u00a0recently, from the same Goulds home.\u202f<\/p>\n
He also began\u202facquiring\u202fother nearby properties: a beauty parlor, a laundromat, a beauty shop, a\u202ffish market. He sold everything to Cooper, Winifred Pope said.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ike\u202fdied in 2020 at the age of 83.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Popes\u2019\u202fyounger son, Kraig, worked in the market for most of his childhood.\u202f<\/p>\n
\u201cOn Saturday\u202fmorning I\u2019d go in early with my father,\u201d he recalled.\u202f\u201cThe old timers would meet\u202fthere,\u202fhave coffee.\u202fMy father had\u202fKrispy Kreme doughnuts delivered.\u202f\u202fIt was\u202ffun, and\u202fgave me a lot of insight on life to hear all the old men talk.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
After he got out of the Army, Kraig Pope, now 60,\u202fsaid he considered going into the business, but could see\u202fthat\u202fsmall\u202fstores\u202fwere struggling.\u202fHe\u202fworks as a security manager for the federal government.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Developer J.S. Rashid\u202falso\u202fhas\u202findelible\u202fmemories of\u202fIke, and especially\u202fthe little book the proprietor used to track accounts.\u202fBut Rashid has not been in the store for years.\u202fLittle markets like Ike\u2019s are \u201cbeing edged out,\u201d he says.\u202f<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope it can survive,\u201d Winifred Pope says\u202fof the\u202fbusiness\u202fthat stands as\u202fher husband\u2019s legacy,\u202f\u201cbecause Ike was a Black man\u202fwho wanted things to be good, and stay good, for the Grove.\u202fSometimes you\u202fhave to\u202fjust hope and wish.\u201d<\/p>\n