Floyd’s has been a Charlotte staple for nearly 40 years — because of a grandmother’s love
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Floyd’s Restaurant has been a staple in the Charlotte community since I was a small child — 1986 to be exact. I vividly remember those random weekdays when we would stop by one of the soul food restaurant’s locations to pick up a hot, home-cooked-style meal — especially on an evening when my mom was tired and didn’t feel like preparing something herself.
The plates filled with hearty portions of fried chicken, baked macaroni and cheese, cabbage and even a side of banana pudding were reminiscent of my grandmother’s cooking, and you could always tell the dishes were made with love.
Grandmothers hold a special place in our hearts. For many of us in the Black community, we remember the family gatherings where the matriarch spent hours in her kitchen preparing a meal so special that, at first bite, our souls were fed.
Floyd’s owner Tyrone Floyd shares that same sentiment, and says the love of his paternal grandmother — Mrs. Clatie Bell Floyd — was the inspiration behind the start of the restaurant, which has now been in existence for over 35 years.
Clatie Bell Floyd’s love for cooking
Tyrone’s father, Otis Floyd Jr., always wanted to give his mother her own place to cook for others. In the mid-1980s, Clatie was working in the kitchen of her sister’s bar and convenience store, and while she loved it, Otis wanted to do more.
“My dad wanted her to be able to share her cooking with more people outside of her sister’s business,” Tyrone Floyd told CharlotteFive. “So, he bought her a small building off of Tuckaseegee Road. It was called Floyd’s Sandwich and Beverage. That was actually the start of Floyd’s Restaurant.”
Located between a rock ‘n roll nightclub and a jazz club, the sandwich shop would see a rush of customers on the evenings the clubs were open. While it was great for business, patrons soon started coming in, asking if Clatie could whip up anything beyond the typical hoagie sandwiches sold.
“Being the woman that she was, my grandmother would without question go into the kitchen and cook up dishes with whatever ingredients she had left over,” Tyrone Floyd said. “She could fry up a pan of cabbage in a matter of minutes, and the customers absolutely loved it.”
Like most grandmothers, Clatie simply wanted her guests to enjoy a hot, comforting meal.
Seeing that the business had more success offering Clatie’s hot dishes, Otis Floyd Jr. decided to convert the sandwich shop into the Floyd’s that we know and love today.
Expanding to multiple locations
If you’ve been in the Charlotte area for some time, you’ve likely seen at least one of the family’s many locations over the years. Starting on Tuckaseegee Road in 1986, the original location moved to Freedom Mall in 1995, and then to a now-torn down building on Wilkinson Boulevard in the early 2000s.
“As we opened more locations, we would add a number behind the name to distinguish between them,” Tyrone Floyd said. “In 1994, we opened Floyd’s 2 in a building we purchased on Milton Road. Floyd’s 3 — which is the current Graham Street location — was opened in 2008, and Floyd’s 4 on Nations Ford Road was opened in 2013.”
While the original location, as well as Floyd’s 2 and 4 have since closed, the Graham Street location is still running — and serving the exact same recipes Clatie Bell Floyd started out with.
A staple for Charlotte’s Black community nearly four decades later
Successfully running a small business for over 35 years is no easy feat. From the current pandemic and family issues, to the overall ups and downs of being an entrepreneur, Tyrone Floyd has found the secret.
“It’s literally grandma’s cooking,” Floyd said.
Before she died in April 2021, Clatie spent years walking Tyrone through her recipes to ensure the family business could continue.
“My favorite dish of hers is the meatloaf,” he said. “Since I was 12 years old, I have been blown away by her recipe. It’s not like anything I’ve ever had, and our customers say the same.”
In addition to the meatloaf, Tyrone says her sweet potato pie, dressing, potato salad and fried chicken — which is cooked fresh nearly every 30 minutes — are other dishes on the menu that are dear to his heart.
“We’ve been able to stay around so long because we are consistent,” Tyrone Floyd said. “As long as we keep cooking hot, homemade, large-portioned plates at reasonable prices, our customers will continue to support us. It’s not many places that you can go and get collard greens and cabbage straight from a garden cooked fresh daily. I can’t even keep our fried chicken on the line long enough before we have to drop the next batch. We are just selling the food that most Black families grew up eating from their grandmothers.”
While many people today — myself included — don’t have the time to always whip up the meals we grew up on, what we can agree on is that there is no cooking like grandma’s. But when you take that first bite of a Floyd’s plate, it always takes you back to a special place. And for me, that place is my grandmother’s kitchen.
Floyd’s Restaurant
Location: 4122 N. Graham St., Charlotte, NC 28206
Neighborhood: Sugar Creek
Cuisine: Soul food
This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 6:30 AM.
