Cybille St. Aude-Tate and Omar Tate have brought their considerable food expertise to Honeysuckle Provisions, the Afrocentric grocery and café on 48th Street near Pine set to open this Saturday. (Photo by West Philly Local)

Cybille St. Aude-Tate quickly corrects herself when she talks about the folks who shop at Honeysuckle Provisions, the new Afrocentric grocery and café set to open this Saturday, Oct. 29 near 48th and Pine.

“Not customers … neighbors,” said St. Aude, an accomplished Haitian-American chef who runs the shop with her husband Omar Tate, a Philadelphia native who was named Esquire magazine’s “chef of the year” in 2020.

So why are two food heavy hitters who have been featured in Vogue, Food and Wine and Esquire and made their names in the super-competetive New York dining scene opening a gourmet takeout shop in West Philly? For Omar, it’s about coming home. He grew up in Germantown and his mother has lived in West Philly – on Parrish Street – for years.

“I feel a part of West Philly more than any other part of Philly,” he said.

For both he and Cybille it’s also about expanding the Black entrepreneurial footprint in Philadelphia. Through their umbrella organization Honeysuckle Projects, the couple plans to expand the concept, which couples food and community within a Black and Afrocentric framework. The framework, for example, draws on the work of George Washington Carver, who centered the innovative use of staple ingredients, like sweet potatoes.

So at Honeysuckle Provisions neighbors will find fresh produce and ingredients and a range of cuisine made in house, everything from salads and grain bowls to burgers (both beef and vegetarian), black-eyed peas scrapple and yam flour bread and English muffins (We had a slice of the yam bread slathered with some butternut squash butter and it was unbelievable!).

“We have a variety of ingredients that reflect the Diaspora, but they also give people a chance to try something they never had before,” St. Aude-Tate said.

The breakfast and lunch menu is take-out. They plan to add dinner in the new year.  The shop also carries a variety of condiments and sauces made in-house – like a hot sauce – and even a coconut yogurt. We tried the yogurt topped with benne seeds, commonly used in parts of Africa, and puffed rice granola.

Cybille and Omar are very aware that this comes with a cost.

“We are wary of making this inaccessible to folks who live here,” she said. “We care about people who shop with us otherwise we wouldn’t be so intentional with our approach.”

But they have tried to keep prices reasonable by sourcing locally. Their produce comes from FarmerJawn, for example, and their eggs and chicken are from Black-owned Smith Poultry in Williamstown, NJ.

Honeysuckle Provisions offers four breads made in house including the yam bread, a vegan sonora loaf, a hoagie roll (used for their hoagies) and a sweet potato English muffin.

Also, they will be offering fried chicken on Thursdays. Two pieces for $1!

“When we run out, we run out,” St. Aude-Tate said.

The Honeysuckle Provisions storefront at 310 S. 48th Street.