“I am historically the only restaurant on Staten Island to ever receive 2 stars in The New York Times, and then put on the 100 best restaurants 80 days later.” Today, Bon Appétit is spending a day on the line with Shaw-naé Dixon, founder of Shaw-naé’s House on Staten Island. Shaw-naé’s started as a local favorite serving soul food from the comfort of her own home, but now with a brick-and-mortar location and a shout-out from The New York Times, this restaurant is becoming an NYC sensation.
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00:00Sean A's house is a soul food sanctuary.
00:09I am historically the only restaurant on Staten Island to ever receive two stars in the New
00:14York Times.
00:15And then he put on the top 100 best restaurants, and it was done with six tables, 32 seats.
00:22We sell out of food every single weekend.
00:24Soul food is a passage.
00:26It also is tied to what we are as African Americans.
00:29We're preparing these dishes that are not new to us, but we elevate them and make those
00:34things really beautiful.
00:36Hello, I am Sean A, and you are at Sean A's house right here in Stapleton, Staten Island.
00:51I need you guys to get in here so we can get it together because it's going to be a very
00:54busy night.
00:58This is my house.
00:59It is a very intimate space.
01:01I will say we got a living room.
01:03I started this whole project in my real house.
01:06So when I got into the business of actually owning a brick and mortar, it was like, don't
01:10stress it.
01:11Just open up exactly what you had at home.
01:14So it is a packed and very busy night tonight.
01:17I got a lot going on.
01:18All right, let's go get the vibes.
01:19Let's get cooking.
01:26So this is my station.
01:27It is a very small and tight station, but just like at home when you're at home and
01:31you're in your kitchen with your family, you find your spot and you kind of like get comfortable.
01:35I work with my husband who is so wonderful for doing so much fabulous stuff for me.
01:41He preps a lot of what it is that I get done, like cutting my collard greens.
01:44He trims the fat on my oxtails.
01:46This goes in right now.
01:48I started doing oxtail probably about 10 years ago.
01:52So what I decided to do was put a twist on a cultural dish.
01:55I've seen people do recipes where they've thrown ice chips into their oxtails to create
02:00whatever they consider to be more moisture.
02:02I think that if you do it frozen and then you season it properly, it's going to have
02:07the moisture because it has the ice already embedded in the oxtail.
02:11And then I put some bouillon in there because that gives it a nice little seasoning.
02:14It's going to make it even more just, I don't know, what's the word you want?
02:19Delectable, delicious, off the hook, crazy, out of control.
02:22Like that's just what it is.
02:23A little bit of brown sugar.
02:25And then I have a secret blend and it'll have hidden spices in there that people keep trying
02:30to figure out and I never give them.
02:32Soul Food has adopted oxtail and they do cook it in the South, but this one is sort of like
02:36the twist on the Caribbean and on the Southern-styled oxtail.
02:41I also like to put, this is ashwagandha, and so I stick these things in here, soursop leaves.
02:48They do all those good things for you.
02:49Just like your mom used to throw mushrooms in your spaghetti.
02:52That's what that is for me.
02:53Soul Food for me is the experience.
02:55I believe that when I'm cooking Soul Food, I become the servant of unconditional love.
03:01It's not necessarily all about the food.
03:03It's about us making sure that we're serving people.
03:06All food is not the food that's best for us, that makes us feel good or reminds us of things
03:11that our families used to do or go through or experience.
03:14And I believe that Soul Food does that.
03:16This is browning sauce.
03:18It's burnt sugar and it allows for the oxtail to have its color.
03:22My grandmother was a dietician for over 40 years and I know that my grandmother taught
03:27me a lot of different recipes when I was growing up.
03:29And it wasn't necessarily about the recipes in the food, it was about the technique and
03:34making sure that I could feed a lot of people at one time.
03:37Because she believed that if somebody walked in the door, they needed to be able to be fed.
03:41So this is a little bit of barbecue sauce.
03:43So I saw that Caribbeans, right, they were like putting ketchup in there and I'm like,
03:47I'm so not a fan of ketchup.
03:49Like get the ketchup away from me.
03:50The barbecue sauce has molasses, it has a little bit of sugar in it.
03:53This is a little bit of starch and that's thickening it over time and it doesn't send
03:57your burn.
03:58Putting this starch in here while it's cooking and me not having to disturb it made the recipe
04:04better.
04:05And I'm adding water into here right now because this is going to create the gravy and the
04:09broth for the oxtail.
04:11Literally when I put this top on here and I go put this in the oven, you can forget
04:15about it.
04:16Stop talking to me about oxtail because it's not coming out for four hours.
04:19This is bye bye.
04:20I told you don't ask me about this, right?
04:21Like we can't ask about this because when those doors open up, the oxtail orders go
04:25crazy.
04:26If you come here after eight o'clock, just order something fried.
04:29That's all I can tell you.
04:31Oxtails are gone.
04:32We go through probably roughly about 30 pounds a day of oxtail.
04:35So we want to make sure that we get these oxtails in.
04:38I'm going to pretend to be super strong.
04:40This is very heavy.
04:41For now, four hours.
04:44When I tell you it has to be taken out at exactly four hours, it has to come out at
04:47exactly four hours.
04:48A minute over and those oxtails are like meat gravy and you might as well just throw them
04:53on french fries.
04:59So mac and cheese is definitely a soul food staple.
05:03The elbows have already been cooked for 10 minutes and then I start to combine my products
05:08in here to make it fabulous.
05:10I'm adding in a little bit of milk here.
05:12The macaroni and cheese, I started doing when I had my kids and had my family at family
05:16gatherings.
05:17They were asking me to do it and I would try all these different cheeses.
05:20Every time that I tried it, I never liked it when it came out too sharp.
05:22I liked it more on the milder side.
05:25What I noticed with customers is they do too.
05:28People don't want the cheese to punch them in the face.
05:30They want the slight taste of like a cheddar, but they want things to be very like smooth
05:35and easy to take down.
05:36You got to do what you like.
05:37So I got American, a mix of cheddar, mild cheddar, and I add a little bit of Monterey.
05:43I don't really think that macaroni and cheese is so much about the cheese.
05:47I think it's one, the way that you take care of it and it's how you season it.
05:51I just think it should be just salt and pepper.
05:53So my grandmother was like, if you can't cook with salt and pepper and it don't taste good,
05:56get out the kitchen.
05:57And I'm like, cool, I got you.
05:59But we don't use no salt with the cute little girl holding the umbrella trying to trap us.
06:04We messing around with pink salt.
06:05It's pink, it's cute, and I'm a girl.
06:07And then we're going to add the heavier black pepper.
06:10I melt the cheese down just a little bit so that I can put it into the pans and layer
06:15it with more cheese and then put it in the oven so that it bakes.
06:18I do pretty much all the cooking and I managed to do it because I've been doing it for a
06:23very long time.
06:25My husband, we have learned how to work together and figure these things out.
06:29He fills in every single blank and every single gap that I have going on in this kitchen to
06:33make sure that things are running as smoothly as possible.
06:37Hey, babe, honey, husband, can you get the pans for me for the macaroni and cheese?
06:44I love putting them on the spot.
06:46This is the beauty of marriage.
06:47Thanks, babe.
06:48You're the best.
06:49And we're going to just layer it.
06:51Don't overdo it.
06:55Putting the cheese on top creates like a little blanket for it.
06:58We're going to slip these in the oven, 20 minutes to cook.
07:01We want to make sure that this melts down and gets nice and crispy and golden and then
07:06it's ready to go on your plate.
07:08So it's about noon.
07:10It's time to get this fried chicken.
07:11Let's go.
07:12This is such a soul food staple right here.
07:22I personally love fried chicken.
07:25It's probably my vice.
07:29I don't know because my dad is a fried chicken fanatic.
07:32He loves fried chicken and we only eat the flats.
07:35My family is flat rat only.
07:37Then every single recipe that every single person in my family has ever done or worked
07:42on has been something that gets worked on moving all the way up into our eighth generation.
07:47And so I believe that I've improved my grandmother's version of certain recipes.
07:51One of my secret sort of things that I teach people when they don't know how to fry chicken
07:56is to do this.
07:59This is chicken broth, right?
08:01So I just added a little bit of bouillon.
08:03So I have what my husband calls magic.
08:06This is just a seasoning blend that I make here.
08:08It's a secret.
08:09I'll keep some things for myself.
08:11So I like to season my chicken first.
08:13You want to kind of mix it in and get it all good.
08:16I like to make the smaller batches.
08:18You want to make sure that you don't crowd it.
08:20So now there's another layer of seasoning.
08:22What I do is I dip them in here.
08:25Or what you can do, if you don't really want to mess with it and you don't want to be crazy
08:30about it, you just pour some in there.
08:32So we come over here to my flour.
08:34My dredge has seasoning in it.
08:36This is all purpose, AP, regular old grandma flour.
08:40I like the flat because it's just like it looks sexy.
08:43It's cute.
08:44It's like, you know, it's like a little, just a flat little piece of chicken and you like
08:47just bite the meat off and it's got two little bones in there.
08:49It's like fabulous.
08:50So I want to make sure that I check my cooking oil.
08:53So you see it fizzling right there.
08:55That means that it's ready to go.
08:57And I'm putting just about 10 wings on each side.
09:01One of my cooking rules, chicken is very chatty.
09:05And it will talk to you when it first goes into the cooking oil.
09:09When chicken is done, it just shuts up.
09:11The grease, the cooking oil is quiet.
09:14By the time that happens, that chicken is so crispy and golden and beautiful.
09:19And it was like, you know, when a girl put a dress on and she go like this, she know
09:24she ready.
09:25That's how that chicken be doing it.
09:26It be knowing it's ready.
09:29So we do a double fry technique and we do fry the chicken ahead of time and then we
09:34store it and then we bring it back out and we fry more.
09:38I'm going to need to take this macaroni and cheese out because I cannot burn my macaroni
09:41and cheese.
09:42I got to get it.
09:43So golden.
09:44It's such a blessing.
09:45So that's done.
09:46I'm going to cover it and put it in a steamer so that it stays hot into temperature.
09:49You want to make sure you protect your people, protect your neck like Wu-Tang, protect your
09:54mac and cheese.
10:00It is looking like it's done.
10:03All the chicken is floating and it's very quiet.
10:05It's like calm.
10:06It's like, I'm ready to go.
10:07So now we know to take it out.
10:09For the people who are a part of the flat tribe, right here, whoo, that's a golden flat
10:16right there, baby.
10:17You ain't messing with that.
10:19So I need to fry some more of this chicken because we got to get these batches out and
10:22then we're going to get to this cornbread.
10:41This is the part that makes people so happy.
10:43The cornbread I'm serving in here is elite.
10:46Vanilla, sweet potato, strawberry, blueberry, chocolate chip, Oreo, banana pudding.
10:51You tell me which one you want.
10:52And then they're looking at me like all crazy, like, wait, hold on.
10:55Did you just name multiple cornbreads?
10:57I'm like, yeah.
10:58For me, I don't really like mess with a whole lot of stuff.
11:02Cornmeal, sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt.
11:08This is the cornbread mix right here.
11:10I do a sweet potato cornbread dessert.
11:12Now this sweet potato cornbread dessert is punch your mom in the face delicious.
11:17Like when I tell you, can't nobody beat me doing this, can't nobody beat me doing this.
11:22These are my cooked sweet potatoes right here.
11:24These are already, as some people would say, candied.
11:27And then you cannot be scared of how much you put of this in here.
11:31What the sauce of the sweet potatoes does is it softens it and makes it very, very moist.
11:37So a lot of people, they say, oh, I don't like cornbread because it's very gritty.
11:40This right here will not do that.
11:43When I tell you it's fluffy, literally tastes like cake, it tastes like cake.
11:48I do have a sweet tooth.
11:49I'm not even going to lie to you.
11:51I didn't decide to make sweet potato cornbread like a dessert because I have a sweet tooth.
11:55I made it like a dessert because I don't bake, because I don't really care about the science
11:59of these things.
12:00I'm going to make some strawberry cornbread.
12:03It's one of our top sellers.
12:05The strawberry used to be my number one sale.
12:08Sweet potato kind of dwarfed it and took over.
12:10I love to be spontaneous with everything that I'm doing in the kitchen because that
12:14means that I am being present and living in the moment.
12:19And I'm not letting these things kind of like control me.
12:22Following a very, I won't say difficult time, but a pivotal time in my life, when I was
12:27in a coma, when I woke up, it said, chase your legacy and not the luxury.
12:32Opening up a restaurant was something I discovered I needed to do, but it was very little money
12:37put into us opening up this restaurant.
12:40After quitting my job, being a teacher for 10 and a half years, walking away from all
12:44of that, I came into this food business.
12:46We took a huge dip for the first two and a half years and didn't really see any customers.
12:50And then people just started to notice us.
12:53And then they came from all five boroughs, and then it spread very quickly like wildflower
12:57all over the world.
12:58So I'm going to slip my strawberry cornbread into the oven, and these are going to go for
13:02as long as I let them go.
13:04I kind of do like a whole look-see test, and it takes me roughly about 20 minutes to bake
13:10these off right.
13:11I don't really have to cook much else, because like I said, this is a slow process.
13:16So soul food is all about patience.
13:18You got to take the time out to make sure that things are doing what they do and not
13:22disturbing it.
13:23Real life, it's break time.
13:24I'm like a child, I need a nap.
13:26And so honestly, my husband being here, sweating to the oldies, suing his fried chicken, and
13:32I will be on my phone emailing and answering calls, and I will be doing everything else
13:38that makes this whole empire great, because I am multitasking, so I need a break.
13:42I'm a diva.
13:44That's just what I need.
13:45It is break time.
13:46Change my shoes.
13:49Say hi to my grandma.
13:52This right here is one of the biggest reasons why I'm doing all this.
13:57I wish my grandmother would have had the opportunity to see all of what I've done.
14:01I have a lot of like memorabilia, family pictures, books, albums, things that talk
14:07about my history in here.
14:09Staten Island is not known for soul food.
14:11To have a black-owned business on Staten Island and then be able to amplify black history,
14:18black culture.
14:19I tell people that my ancestors came here in 1799.
14:22They purchased property in 1828 as the first African Americans to purchase land here.
14:27We are a registered stop on what used to be the Underground Railroad, and we are the oldest
14:31community inhabited by its original descendants in the United States.
14:35Giving them that tidbit of history, anybody that comes in here, they are stunned.
14:39Their mouth goes on the floor.
14:40So I don't get a history check anymore from the Department of Education, and I totally
14:44need a break because I am super duper exhausted.
14:47I definitely need to take it down a minute.
14:50So you guys gotta give me a second.
14:52Let me take my hair down.
15:01So right now we're getting ready to have our very brief staff meeting, kind of like
15:20keep the staff abreast of what's on the menu for the day.
15:24So today it's a lot of small groups, groups of twos, groups of threes, and a group of
15:28four at night.
15:29We just communicate on 86 and things because it's a lot of groups coming in at different
15:36times, and we want to know when we sit them down, we want to let them know what we don't
15:40have.
15:41Stay positive and keep a smile on your face.
15:49All right, so it's five o'clock.
15:51The customers are getting ready to knock the door down.
15:53I'm very happy that you guys came into my house, but now it's time for you to get the
15:58hell out.
15:59Mi casa es tu casa.
16:00Good night.
16:01Bye!
16:02I love y'all.
16:03I love y'all.
16:04I love y'all.