Biden’s guests for Thursday’s debate are these persevering Durham restaurant owners
In the audience for Thursday night’s final presidential debate in Nashville will be Durham restaurant owners Leonardo and Zweli Williams.
The couple are guests of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. Their restaurant Zweli’s Kitchen and Catering is believed to be the only Zimbabwean restaurant in the country.
On Sunday, when Biden was in Durham for a campaign rally, Williams and Mayo-Williams hoped the former vice president might stop by for some piri piri chicken or peanut butter collard greens. Instead, Biden made headlines by picking up milkshakes from Cook Out, a fixture of North Carolina’s fast food canon.
Still, on Wednesday, the couple were invited to be in the audience Thursday night at Belmont University in Nashville for the final debate between Biden and Republican President Donald Trump.
Williams, a former Durham County school teacher, said he briefly met Biden years ago at a National Education Association conference in San Diego and more recently last year in South Carolina during a Democratic candidate debate.
“Kamala Harris kicked his butt that night, but he kicked everyone else’s butt,” said Williams, who said he met Biden after the debate, as the former vice president stuck around on stage after other candidates left. “That night showed me that he’s real, he’s a human; I was really appreciative of that. I vowed I was going to support this man and do everything I can to get him elected.”
The Biden campaign said that the Zweli owners were invited as examples of business owners impacted by COVID-19. At the beginning of the pandemic, they lost dozens of catering jobs and 80% of their total business.
“Small business owners all over the country are grappling with how to make ends meet and provide for their families and employees,” said Biden senior advisor Symone Sanders in a pre-debate conference call. “They’ve had to make decisions they shouldn’t have to make, because the president failed them.”
Before opening Zweli’s in 2018, Williams left his teaching job and liquidated his retirement after the couple were denied a small business loan. The restaurant has been one of the most popular recent openings in Durham, but the couple said starting a business is often harder than it should to be for African-Americans.
“The process we went through, we had to take stronger measures,” Mayo-Williams said. “It becomes very discouraging to start building something and being denied a loan. Even with the talent and passion, everyone was saying no no no. ... It was more difficult how we had to go through it. We had to roll up our sleeves and do everything ourselves.”
The couple painted the walls of their dining room and bought used kitchen equipment. Mayo-Williams said they were worn out by the time the restaurant was ready to open.
“We were exhausted,” she said. “We had to put in all that work. We had to open by any means necessary. I don’t think a lot of people go through that.”
They now say their grateful for how the early difficulties prepared them for the current global pandemic.
“The hardship of getting a restaurant started without capital, of not having the concept believed in, now that we are open and functioning, we know how to pivot and know how to be creative and innovative,” Williams said.
Hours before Thursday night’s debate, the couple said they looked forward to hearing more from Biden.
“What I admire most is he’s prescriptive in his plan that the recovery comes from folks like us, building from the bottom up,” Williams said. “That’s the American small business plan.”
This story was originally published October 22, 2020 at 3:13 PM with the headline "Biden’s guests for Thursday’s debate are these persevering Durham restaurant owners."
