October 17, 2024 • 33 mins
In this episode of Voices of Legacy, we sit down with Keenan Wells, owner of Joyful Koney Island in Toledo, Ohio. Keenan opens up about his upbringing in Toledo, his move to Detroit, and how bad decisions led him down a dangerous path in street life, resulting in incarceration. During his time in prison, Keenan discovered a passion for cooking, which would later fuel his journey to start a new life. Join us as he shares his powerful story of redemption, resilience, and how he turned his past struggles into a thriving business and a hopeful future.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Good day, listeners, Welcome to another edition of the Voices
of Legacy. Today we have a special guest joining us.
This is your friend, Pastor Carl, someone who has roots
in Toledo but was raised in Detroit, Michigan. He's a
proud business owner making a significant impact on our community.
(00:45):
Please join me in welcoming mister Keenan Wells, the owner
of a popular restaurant, Joyful Coney Island here in Toledo, Ohio.
Mister Wells, Good morning, sir.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Good morning mister. How are you doing today?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Oh? I'm blessed with the joy of living.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
We have an interesting interview today because I think there's
a story past to be shared. And I spoke to
you previously, and I know you said that your wife
says that you need to write multiple books. Maybe this
is the beginning of that, along with your article in
the Toledo Blade as well your background, your experience, the
(01:24):
deep connection that you have to both Toledo and Detroit,
bringing a little bit of Detroit culture to Toledo, which
is really cool because he staid, back when I was
about your age, used to have to go up to
Detroit to get real Coney Islands. But We're thankful for
having you here the voices of a legacy today. Tell
us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
First, thanks for having me. Oh.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
My name is Keenan Wells. I am the owner of
Joy for Coney Island. I'm born in Toledo. I'm raised
in Detroit. Cooking became cooking because of my incarceration. I
went to prison for a conspiracy, a drug conspiracy. I
was the only person on my case not a police officer.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I did twenty years in the penitentiary. During that time,
I found God who had always had me, but I
didn't know he had me. One day, I'm walking down
the hallway and I'm going to stab a guy. M
And I've had multiple I've been involved in multiple stabmings.
(02:30):
Before this particular day, I had a voice say to me,
you've tried this your way for forty years.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I was thirty nine years old.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
And.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
My mother had always told me a fool forty as
a fool forever.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
So when I hear his voice, it says come to
church and listen to me. It was amazing. It was
like it was h like God was standing on my shoulder.
I waited a couple of days and I went to church.
When I went to church, a friend of mine from Sagona,
I haven't seen him in multiple years, named big Zeke
(03:09):
was up on the stage and he was talking. And
when I came in, guess what he was talking about?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Me? Wow?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
And the devil right away said to me, look at
him down here gospeling about you. But he was saying
all positive things. And God said to me, only me
and you knew you was coming today. You didn't tell
nobody you was coming. Sit down and listen. And what
he was telling guys is that if you need a
workout partner, if you're hungry, if you need some we
got a homeboy here.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Go ask him. He'll give it to you.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
He ain't coming outside to do no gospeling, but if
you need something, go to him. And it was amazing.
And from that day on, I just been listening to
God and I've been trusting God. Wow.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
And this was in prison.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
This was in prison. This was while in prison. So
little things start bothering me to become a man. M
I learned that it was a difference from a male
and a man. I could be sitting down and I
could drop a piece of paper on the floor, and
my conscience would say, that's not what a man does,
(04:13):
that's what a male does. Things started bothering me. I
started having consciousness conscious problems about not doing right all
the time. So I just started practicing doing right all
the time. And when I started practicing doing right all
the time, things just fell in line for me. It
was so easy. All of a sudden, my counselors loved me,
(04:34):
all of a sudden, the police officers loved me. All
of a sudden. White Arian brotherhoods would sit down and
discuss things with me. It wasn't about hate. It was
just about they beliefs. And I didn't judge people cause
I had been judged so harshly myself. So I sat
down and I listened and it It would be times
that uh guys would be sitting in my room talking
(04:57):
to me, and other guys kept coming to look in
the window, like man when he coming out.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
I need to talk to you, I need to talk
to you.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
So I went from becoming a youngster to a og
in prison during my twenty year in consperration. Oh were
you when you went in? I was twenty nine years old.
Oh well, yeah, I was twenty nine years old. I
went in with an attitude. I went in feeling the world
owed me something. And probably for those first ten years
(05:25):
I I I had planned on coming home being a
minute to society. I felt like, Oh, i'm'a get back.
You know, you think fifty keys is something, Wait til
I come home. I'm'a get two hundred keys.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Wow. You know.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
So once I, once I found God, I my whole
attitude slowly but surely changed. I stopped wanna be involved
in any nonsense, anything that wasn't positive. I just didn't
wanna be part of it. So I had a what
they calling that, what they call in prison is keys
to the car. So that mean if you from Detroit
(06:00):
and you say you're at USP, Big Sandy, I was
there USP, Victorville. Those are some of the toughest places
to be in the world. USP at Water which is
a gang facility, and these are on prison. Those are
all prisons, federal prisons. And I had the keys to
the car no matter where I go, which means that
if one of my homeboys got into a trouble or
(06:23):
any issue, DC car would come and talk to me
about it. The GDS would come and talk to me
about it. The vice lords would come and talk to
me about it. These are groups in the prison.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Groups inside of the prison.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Because I had a calm and level mind, it wasn't
we didn't always have to go to violence or resort
to violence. Let's just do right. People s people make
it right and wrong. But when it's my homeboy, it's
a in between. It shouldn't be that. It should be
the right or wrong. If you can't tell your friend
he's wrong, then he's not your friend. You all sho
should be able to tell him he's right when he's right.
(06:59):
Those things helped me develop character in prison. So while
in prison, I had a captain named Captain Gordon. One
day asked me come to the kitchen. I need you
to go to the kitchen. And I said, Captain Gardon,
I don't do no kitchen work. If I had work,
I wouldn't be in prison. Yeah, So he said, come
to the kitchen. I need you down there. So you
weren't a cook beforehand, nope? Or I wasn't a cook beforehand.
(07:22):
So I go down there. I go to the kitchen
and I started working in the kitchen and I found
love in cooking. And guess what, before long I was
cooking for the whole compound, and it wasn't long after
that that I was working and what's called the officers mess,
which is cooking for the police officers and doing those things.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I could cook what I wanted to eat.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
I was allowed to make my own food, so that
became a hustle in jail, fixing food and serving food,
and I came up with my own recipes over time.
When I got out, I decided that I wanted to
open a restaurant, and it was a it's a small
story behind that. Also I went I went to a
restaurant that was supposed to be a Coney Island and
(08:08):
I wasn't happy with what they told me was a
Coney Island because I was like, it's not a Coney Island.
And I said, I turned to Joy and I said,
you know what, I'm opening up a Coney Island for listeners.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
This is a really good point, and it's on a site.
What is the difference. I know it, but I want
you to explain between a chili dog and a Coney
Island hot dog.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Well, one thing I do different than Detroit. I do
all beef hot dogs. I don't do the pork chicken
hot dog. There's usually a Coney Island hot dog, and
a Coney Island hot dog is grilled and it's chili,
onions and mustard. So I have a lot of people
call and say, what is on your Coney dog? You know,
a coney dog is all over the world is chili,
(08:53):
onions and mustard.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
I think I'm hungry already. Growing up in Toledo and Detrie,
which they're similar, but they're not exactly alike. Could you
share your upbringing in Toledo and Detroit and what shaped
your approach to running your business along with your incarceration,
because it sound was like you really started your business
(09:15):
before you ever got out.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
I did. I did well. I'm born here.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
When I was very young, maybe three, my mother and
father moved to Detroit, and in Detroit, I played high
school football, Little League pal football. I went to henry
Ford High School. I was a pretty good student. My
mother worked at christ and my father at General Motors.
I was the only bad apple. I have two other brothers,
(09:41):
siblings in that same household. When I was in the
twelfth grade, I was coming home from football practice and
I passed a place called Dexter Chevrolet, and I went
in Dexter Chevrolet and they had this green Blazer on
the floor S ten at that time. And I came
home and I told my mother and father. I said, man,
(10:03):
I want this truck. He said Dexter Chevrolet. And my
dad laughed at me, like, do we know what money is?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
You know?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Do we know what money is? And I'm like, yeah,
I know what money is. I want this truck. So,
because I was doing decent in school, I was pretty
much a decent football player. I made off City, I
wasn't an All American. My dad encouraged my mom to
take me the Dexter Chevrolet to look at the truck.
(10:33):
So when I get the decks to Chevrolet, I don't
know nothing about finance, and I don't know nothing except
for how much it costs I want to buy. So
the man is telling my mom of the truck is
be seventeen thousand, one hundred and thirty eight dollars, And
my mom looks at me and I said I want it,
and my mom's like, babe, that's a lot of money.
(10:54):
I lift up my shirt. I had twenty thousand dollars.
My mother didn't know I had that kind of money.
She knew I was doing some hustling, but she didn't
know I had that kind of money. So my mother,
my mother was more street than my father. My mother
told me, give me a thousand dollars, and she gave
a man a thousand dollars to hold his truck. And
on the way home, she must smoke ten cigarettes. And
(11:15):
she didn't talk to me one bit, you know. And
where in the world did you. I get home and
my mother and father room was upstairs and I could
hear him talking. And then my dad, my dad was military,
very strict, good dude, became my best friend when I
became a man. And he called me up there and
(11:36):
he was like, man, I ain't know you was you
had that kind of money in the house, you know.
And I said, yeah, well, you know, y'all took me
the kmark. I bought me a safe, you know, And
he said, yeah, I thought that was because she was
watching TV, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
And he asked me how much money I had. I
told him.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
He say in the safe too, and I said, yep,
in the safe too, and he was like, you can't
live here. That was the first thing he said to me.
And it was like wow, It was crushing, but I
understood it. He had two other sons to race, and
he didn't I was a bad influence. And he didn't
know I was a bad influence because I was raised
yes sir, no, sir, yes, ma'am. All my mom friends
(12:17):
wanted me to be their son.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
So you being bad in the streets but respectful.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
All at home.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Definitely, I mean that was the way it was then.
You know you you was and you respected the people
in the street too.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
It wasn't being bad.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I just sold drugs, which I didn't know what was
a bad thing, you know, And.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
It was amazing.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
But I moved to a place called West Bloomfield while
in high school in the twelfth grade. My mother went
and got the condo in her name, and my mother
was my maid. She I gave her a job. She
came and cleaned up my apartment. She came and fixed
my food every day. I still went to school every day,
(12:58):
went to football practice every day. I just had multiple cars.
And all my friends were drug dealers, older guys who
have been taking care of me since Little league. You know,
it starts in little league. You're the guy who's scoring
touchdowns and the drug dealers over.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
There, and he's.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
A he adopts you, you know, and before you know it,
he gives you two three hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
And I get to high.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
School, I got a play uncle Who's Mercedes is available
to me whenever I wanted, and his Cadillac is available
just because I was at a decent athlete.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
But you got a taste of the life. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
And even with a good family, that sucked you in.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Even with the great family, it sucked me in because
those guys became my family. Those were the guys I
spent more time with than my family. I didn't sit
at the house. I was at football games, basketball games,
you know. And during that time, the drug dealer didn't
(13:58):
have the rapport not he wasn't such a vicious person.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
He was. He looked out for the neighborhood. You know.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
If you need a few dollars, you want your neighborhood
drug deal and got it. You paid it back, Miss
Thomas gas Bill du you came, she came and got
it from you. She bought it back when she had it.
You had enough to share, so you shared it was
it was a community that raised you then. And even
though my community knew I sold drugs, they knew me
as missus Well's son.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Still, but you got caught. I got caught.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Yeah, Yeah, probably the best thing ever happened to me
if I wouldn't be sitting there to life. Definitely saved
my life. Definitely saved my life without questioning one day
when we get to it, how I got caught. But uh,
on my way to getting caught, I had a ball.
I had a great time. I made a lot of
(14:49):
great friends, and some of those friends are still friends today.
A lot of them are dead now. Maybe I got
a couple still in prison doing life, and I stay
in touch with him, maybe not as much as I should,
but I don't miss the life at all. You know,
it's a whole different life when you find God. I
(15:12):
used to didn't understand. I was about seventeen years old
and I seen mister Brady, who wasn't a pastor but
he was a regular church guy. I seen him get
robbed at gunpoint, and I seen him look down the
gun with no fear at all, no fear on his mind, nothing,
And I couldn't never understand that because all my life
(15:34):
I've been taught to fear the pistol, you fear that
gun in your face. But when I found God for real,
I understood what mister Brady was. He was comfortable, he
didn't have no fear. He had made his peace with God.
He was doing no wrong. He knew where he was going.
Without questioning you on it that later on, once I
(15:54):
seen it, you know, later on, once I reflected on it,
and at that time, no, I didn't want that.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
You know, at that time I thought he was crazy.
Like man, this man must have been crazy. Should have
saved him, you know, he didn't care.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
See, my mother was a woman who she carried her
bible everywhere she went, but she also carried a pistol.
And uh, you know, that's how I was raised. But
cooking became an art in the penitentiary because we made
things from nothing. I remember frying food in a garbage can,
a rubber made garbage can. I remember taking the back
(16:28):
of her arm, taking it apart, putting a putting the
plug back on the arm, putting it in the grease,
plugging it up, and that heated the grease to the
temperature we needed to fry raw food.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
And that's how we cooked.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
And it got to the point where when you ain't
a bad person, you cook it in your counselor say
you got two hours to cook today, you know, make
sure I get one on my on my test, on
my desk.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
And it became.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
An open door for all races. Mexicans come talk to me,
Blacks come talk, Whites come talk. Food was a international
language by itself, cause everybody'll come and.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Talk to you.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
So that experience changed you.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
That experience changed me a lot. Yeah, that experience changed
me a lot, and it made me be able to communicate. First,
I started reading a lot of books, and I started
learning to first seek to understand m take yourself out
your shoes and put yourself in theirs. See what they
point is. They might have a valid point. And then
I learned to step back in my shoes and make
(17:30):
my own point. A lot of times people don't wanna
listen to the other person. Yeah, they just wanna want
you to listen. You know, nobody wants to be talk down. No,
you get people come to your door with attitudes, yeah,
right off the back. You know, it's terrible the energy.
But you also meet a lot of positive people. I
can't remember his name off him, but I had a
(17:52):
guy who wrote a book because of the experience me
and him had at my restaurant.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
HM.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
He was on his way to commit suicide. Wow, And
I told him, man, God got something for you. Take
your time, this ain't you. He bought his mother to
meet me, signed the book in front of me and everything.
It was a good experience. So I just think that
sometime we have to be not so fast to judge,
(18:18):
because we all don't want to be judged harshly. Yes,
but how can you want what you're doing to someone else?
Give a person a benefit of a doubt it don't hurt.
I got this thing where I give a lot of
food away and people may be thinking I got over
on it, but they didn't get over on me.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I gotta deal with God. You know.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Guys tell me all the time, man, I'm gonna get
you back. I'll be like, you can't get me back.
God gonna get me. I need that real one from God.
I got a guy named mister Larry. I've been knowing
mister Larry maybe six months now. Mister Larry has come
to my window and gave me a twenty dollar bill
for twenty five times. And mister Larry said man fee
(19:03):
somebody today for me. The other day, mister Larry came
and ordered some food and he was he reaching in
this he's always walking and he's reaching in his pocket
to pay for the food. And my hand in the
bag and say, hold on, mister Larry. I close thought.
Get out of here, mister Larry, you can't pay. He's like, no, no,
I got a pack. I said, missus Lar, you're blocking
my blessings. You always want to bless somebody, but you
(19:26):
won't let me get my blessings.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
And he laughed and he walked away. That's awesome. It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
So opening the Joyful Coney Island. What inspired you to
open Joyful Coney Island in Toledo and what is your
vision for the restaurant moving forward?
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Well, let me tell you how I got to Toledo.
When I got ready to parole my homeboys, was gonna
put a billboard up in Detroit saying, walcome home with
my nickname on it.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Okay, I wasn't that person. I didn't want to be
that person. Again.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I learned that if you hang around crooks, you're gonna
be a crook. I didn't want that. I didn't want
that so I called my sister who was in the
real estate and I told my sister sister, I ain't
trying to parole to Detroit.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
She couldn't believe it, but she was happy for me.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
She had a place in Port Clinton on the water,
and she said, bruh, you can have it.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
She say, just.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Hearing you say that you can have it, and I
was like, for real, she said yeah. So I go
to my case manager and my counselor, I changed my
address to Port Clinton and I get parole to the VOA.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Probably best place ever.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
I mean, I hear a lot of people talk down
on it, but you had guys like Mr Holmes not
I mention a bunch of people, but they had seen
all the slick stuff, but nothing you couldn't put.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Over on them.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
And I respected it a lot, you know, cause they
gave you a benefit of the doubt. They they wasn't
it a judge you. It was Volunteers of America. It
was amazing they they didn't judge me all. They gave
me all the tools I need to get started. I
had a lot of blessings when I came home, including
the building that I'm at right now. One of my
(21:12):
friends who I was in the penitentiary with. They're from Toledo,
owned those buildings and I told him I want to
open up a restaurant. And he gave me the keys
and said go look at it. And I went and
looked at it and needed a lot of work, and
I said, I said I can do it, and he
said take it for a year, then we'll talk about
the money. So he gave it to me for a year.
(21:34):
During that year we got it together built. It was
kind of slow at first, but it wasn't slower than
twelve cent an hour in the penitentiary.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yeah, you know, so cooking on an iron.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Yeah, is looking on.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Then eye cooking on your cooking on the desk, you know,
so making a grilled cheese. So before you know it,
I got the business up. We got it running. Then
maybe two years in food critic came. Didn't know he
was a food critic, didn't have no clue. This was
after the blade. Miss Mary, she was beautiful, all mismarried man.
(22:08):
She told me, she said, you're gonna make it. I
know it, she said. She told me, she said, you're
gonna make it. A couple of years later, I'm not
on no social media. I sell food like I sold dope.
Word them off, you know. I think if you put
a good product out there, people will talk about it.
Also say we're not selling food, We're selling our reputation,
you know. So before long we're cooking. I put a
(22:29):
window in so we could stay open late at night.
Some guys come one night, five or six of them,
long dress. I'm like, oh, I hope they ain't gonna
be a problem. They come, they order all kinds of food.
Then they take the food to the parking lot and
put it on top of their cars and start opening
it up.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
And I'm like, what is they doing?
Speaker 3 (22:48):
And all of a sudden, these lights come out, they
light the food up, and it's a guy called the
Hungry black Man. And I'm like, oh, I don't know
what's gonna happen from this. But he gave us a
full point eight out of five, and his social media,
I guess.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Is a million people. Oh yeah, And all of a sudden,
joyful took off.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
I mean, the next day the line was down the street,
wrapped around the corner.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
But it came from good service.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Good food me not. I had no clue who he was.
Never heard of him before and since then, our business
has took off. It's thriving. We're still trying to We're
still trying to stay in that medium area because I
watch a lot of food places get too big and
the food gets too thin, you know.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
And my daughter.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Would always say, Dad, we need more advertising, more advertising.
I always say, we can't handle more business and keep
the food that's good. I don't want to get to
the place where mashed potatoes used to be the fire
in our mashed potatoes are water. Yeah, you know, I've
seen those places and it's not the place faught. It's
just that they got more business than they can stand.
(24:00):
A lot of times I may tell people that, hey,
we're a little busy. If you can call back in
thirty minutes, I'll get your order took care of. But
right now I got five people I'm taking care of.
And when you cleaning my restaurant, I don't believe in
big you little me. I try to treat everybody that same.
That's you know, And our business is took off, and
my next step in our business is here in Toledo
(24:22):
going twenty four hours. Oh well, we open three am
Monday through Friday. We catch so much of the plant business,
nobody's open at night, so they've supported us tremendously.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
So it seems like you may be big in community
and engagements both in Toledo and Detroit or just Toledo.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Stay connected right now basically Toledo. I don't travel to
Detroit as much as I used to. I have a
lot of old memories and old friends in Detroit, and
some of them. Insanity is doing the same thing looking
for different results, you know, and guilty by association.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
It's real.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Yeah, you know, with my with my record, my jacket,
my history. If I'm in Detroit with a drug that
I'm selling drugs what they say.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
In the movie, I keep trying to get out, but
they keep pulling me back in.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
But you got to get out. When you out, you out.
You can't straddle defense, just like with God. You can't
straddle defense.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
You know, either your either your on this side or
you're on this Either you on this side or you're
on that side. Don't play the middle, because play in
the middle gonna catch up with you.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Well, that same person you're talking about that God says
that that that kind of makes him sick. Rather you
be hot or cold in or out. It's not healthy.
It's not healthy. Uh, you have to make a choice,
kind of stick with it. And sounds like you made
your choice and you stuck with it so far. Sounds
like success to me.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Man, God is so good. You have to be patient.
It's hard to believe in some you can't see, some
you can't touch. But when you get that faith and
when and when you start seeing the blessings, you can
feel God run it through your veins. You don't have
to see it, you don't have to touch it. It's
a feeling like I got this saying. I work out
(26:11):
and I do burpies, and then when you're doing burpees
it's a high tensiony and cardio.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Everybody in prison do burpees.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
But when your heart is feeling like it's gonna jump
out your chest and you get through, I tell people
I never feel more closer to God than right then.
And it's the endorphins just released in your body to
feel good.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Yeah. I think that's what God is.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
All the time, to feel good, no matter what happens,
bad or good. I accept it and I thank the
Lord for it because I may not can't see it,
but I know he sees thousands of years ahead of me,
and everything happens for a reason. So I take the
good with the bad and let it roll off the
milk spill. We gonna clean it up, pour some more.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Yeah, you know, it's good attitude to have, good attitude
to have. So your life lessons have sent you to
a place of peace, it sounds like and prosperity.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
And prosperity. Prosperity definitely is coming. You know, I didn't
know you wasn't gonna get rich in the food business.
I really thought I was gonna get rich. I'm comfortable.
The Lord is my rich, my wealth.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
So owning and running your restaurant and being incarcerated and released,
I know there's some demands, and I know we're coming
to a close. It almost sounds like we need to
have a part two for you. What are some of
the most important lessons that you've learned as a business
owner and someone that's actually formerly incarcerated, coming out and
transitioning into a life where you have freedom but you
(27:44):
are making good decisions.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
I trust God a lot. I trust God more than
I trust anybody in the world. I think you, I don't.
I don't have a I want to say, not a
supporting cast, because all my life I've been a leader,
so it's like I'm everybody else's supporting cast. So I
(28:08):
just lean on God. I trust God, but I do right.
I do my best not to do wrong. I try
my best to always do right. When you want to
come out and do something, stick with it. I got
a lot of friends that come out the gate like
a bullet, but when they get to the midway point,
(28:29):
they give it up and say, I'm gonna start something else.
They're great starters, but you got to be a great finisher.
Put your mind to it and put your heart into it,
and ask people. I try to the people that work
for me. I ask them to give me what I
give them.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
If the toilet need.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Cleaning, I go in there and cleaning. So I'm hoping
that that guy sees man he cleaning.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
He the owner.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Leading by example.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Lead by example. Talk is cheap. Nobody wants to hear
you talk it and you're not walking it. People want
to see people see what they believe. Yes, that's just
what it is. And you know, they say, what is it?
Believe little of what you're hear, a little bit less
of what you see and I don't know how to
(29:15):
explain it. I think I'm just blessed. But I put
my mind to something and I go at it, and
I think it's like I tell people this same principal,
different product. I'm just I'm selling hot dogs now, I'm
selling soulful now, and I do it just like I
did it when I sold drugs.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
And you don't have to worry about any prison.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
Oh, I don't look over my shoulder the officers come eat.
I feel great. The day before yesterday, I seen the
rave van with the tank and they pulled right up
inside by the side of the cone is and I'm
talking to Brother Michael King, and were sitting there and
he wants me to come to their their church to
do up on a Thursday Bible study. And were sitting
(29:58):
there having a conversation and we didn't fly, and I said, man,
you remember the time we took them.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
You know that that felt great because I'm not on
that side at all.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
It's gotta be a good feeling, no medium, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's a great feeling. Last, but not least, what do
you think people will remember you for? What is your
legacy now? And what would you like for it?
Speaker 2 (30:21):
To be.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
I think my legacy now in the community is that
you're never going to be hungry as long as I'm there.
I'm not turning nobody down for a plate, no matter
how slick they are. What come, get your plate? You
got that I made to actually to pick up the
stuff in the parking lot. I might give you a
broom until you come in and sweep the front room,
(30:43):
but I won't turn you away. I'm not gonna give
you my money to buy dope, but I'm gonna be
real with you. I don't care what people remember me
as as long as they remember I did right, not up.
I don't tolerate no bs. I don't want to hear
(31:03):
the or I grew up. I heard everything, just like
even in prison. You come to the compound, you like,
tell such such a come on out, I tell him,
he tell him. If you want to talk to me,
tell him come on and work out. In the morning
we can talk. I don't want to hear the story.
I've heard them all.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Well, we appreciate you coming out from I appreciate you
having and sharing your story. Thanks uh, and part of it,
because that's not all of it. I'm not by far
I think a book is in the works, no doubt.
I'm in agreement with your wife. But thank you so much,
brother Keenan well.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Carl for having me past the car. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Thank you for listening to the Voices of the Legacy.
This is your friend, Pastor Krol Mitchell the third, your
host of this program. We want you to go to
w GTE dot org slash legacy to like, share, subscribe,
and hear all of our past podcast and our future podcast.
Be a friend and join with us in the Voices
(32:15):
of Legacy, where you're writing your own legacy. Every day
that you live, have a blessed day.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
W GT E voices around us.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
W GT is supported in part by the American Rescue
Plan Act funds allocated by the City of Toledo and
the Lucas County Commissioners and administered by the Arts Commission
Good day, listeners, Welcome to another edition of the Voices
of Legacy. Today we have a special guest joining us.
This is your friend, Pastor Carl, someone who has roots
in Toledo but was raised in Detroit, Michigan. He's a
proud business owner making a significant impact on our community.
(00:45):
Please join me in welcoming mister Keenan Wells, the owner
of a popular restaurant, Joyful Coney Island here in Toledo, Ohio.
Mister Wells, Good morning, sir.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Good morning mister. How are you doing today?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Oh? I'm blessed with the joy of living.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
We have an interesting interview today because I think there's
a story past to be shared. And I spoke to
you previously, and I know you said that your wife
says that you need to write multiple books. Maybe this
is the beginning of that, along with your article in
the Toledo Blade as well your background, your experience, the
(01:24):
deep connection that you have to both Toledo and Detroit,
bringing a little bit of Detroit culture to Toledo, which
is really cool because he staid, back when I was
about your age, used to have to go up to
Detroit to get real Coney Islands. But We're thankful for
having you here the voices of a legacy today. Tell
us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
First, thanks for having me. Oh.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
My name is Keenan Wells. I am the owner of
Joy for Coney Island. I'm born in Toledo. I'm raised
in Detroit. Cooking became cooking because of my incarceration. I
went to prison for a conspiracy, a drug conspiracy. I
was the only person on my case not a police officer.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I did twenty years in the penitentiary. During that time,
I found God who had always had me, but I
didn't know he had me. One day, I'm walking down
the hallway and I'm going to stab a guy. M
And I've had multiple I've been involved in multiple stabmings.
(02:30):
Before this particular day, I had a voice say to me,
you've tried this your way for forty years.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I was thirty nine years old.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
And.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
My mother had always told me a fool forty as
a fool forever.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
So when I hear his voice, it says come to
church and listen to me. It was amazing. It was
like it was h like God was standing on my shoulder.
I waited a couple of days and I went to church.
When I went to church, a friend of mine from Sagona,
I haven't seen him in multiple years, named big Zeke
(03:09):
was up on the stage and he was talking. And
when I came in, guess what he was talking about?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Me? Wow?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
And the devil right away said to me, look at
him down here gospeling about you. But he was saying
all positive things. And God said to me, only me
and you knew you was coming today. You didn't tell
nobody you was coming. Sit down and listen. And what
he was telling guys is that if you need a
workout partner, if you're hungry, if you need some we
got a homeboy here.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Go ask him. He'll give it to you.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
He ain't coming outside to do no gospeling, but if
you need something, go to him. And it was amazing.
And from that day on, I just been listening to
God and I've been trusting God. Wow.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
And this was in prison.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
This was in prison. This was while in prison. So
little things start bothering me to become a man. M
I learned that it was a difference from a male
and a man. I could be sitting down and I
could drop a piece of paper on the floor, and
my conscience would say, that's not what a man does,
(04:13):
that's what a male does. Things started bothering me. I
started having consciousness conscious problems about not doing right all
the time. So I just started practicing doing right all
the time. And when I started practicing doing right all
the time, things just fell in line for me. It
was so easy. All of a sudden, my counselors loved me,
(04:34):
all of a sudden, the police officers loved me. All
of a sudden. White Arian brotherhoods would sit down and
discuss things with me. It wasn't about hate. It was
just about they beliefs. And I didn't judge people cause
I had been judged so harshly myself. So I sat
down and I listened and it It would be times
that uh guys would be sitting in my room talking
(04:57):
to me, and other guys kept coming to look in
the window, like man when he coming out.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
I need to talk to you, I need to talk
to you.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
So I went from becoming a youngster to a og
in prison during my twenty year in consperration. Oh were
you when you went in? I was twenty nine years old.
Oh well, yeah, I was twenty nine years old. I
went in with an attitude. I went in feeling the world
owed me something. And probably for those first ten years
(05:25):
I I I had planned on coming home being a
minute to society. I felt like, Oh, i'm'a get back.
You know, you think fifty keys is something, Wait til
I come home. I'm'a get two hundred keys.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Wow. You know.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
So once I, once I found God, I my whole
attitude slowly but surely changed. I stopped wanna be involved
in any nonsense, anything that wasn't positive. I just didn't
wanna be part of it. So I had a what
they calling that, what they call in prison is keys
to the car. So that mean if you from Detroit
(06:00):
and you say you're at USP, Big Sandy, I was
there USP, Victorville. Those are some of the toughest places
to be in the world. USP at Water which is
a gang facility, and these are on prison. Those are
all prisons, federal prisons. And I had the keys to
the car no matter where I go, which means that
if one of my homeboys got into a trouble or
(06:23):
any issue, DC car would come and talk to me
about it. The GDS would come and talk to me
about it. The vice lords would come and talk to
me about it. These are groups in the prison.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Groups inside of the prison.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Because I had a calm and level mind, it wasn't
we didn't always have to go to violence or resort
to violence. Let's just do right. People s people make
it right and wrong. But when it's my homeboy, it's
a in between. It shouldn't be that. It should be
the right or wrong. If you can't tell your friend
he's wrong, then he's not your friend. You all sho
should be able to tell him he's right when he's right.
(06:59):
Those things helped me develop character in prison. So while
in prison, I had a captain named Captain Gordon. One
day asked me come to the kitchen. I need you
to go to the kitchen. And I said, Captain Gardon,
I don't do no kitchen work. If I had work,
I wouldn't be in prison. Yeah, So he said, come
to the kitchen. I need you down there. So you
weren't a cook beforehand, nope? Or I wasn't a cook beforehand.
(07:22):
So I go down there. I go to the kitchen
and I started working in the kitchen and I found
love in cooking. And guess what, before long I was
cooking for the whole compound, and it wasn't long after
that that I was working and what's called the officers mess,
which is cooking for the police officers and doing those things.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I could cook what I wanted to eat.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
I was allowed to make my own food, so that
became a hustle in jail, fixing food and serving food,
and I came up with my own recipes over time.
When I got out, I decided that I wanted to
open a restaurant, and it was a it's a small
story behind that. Also I went I went to a
restaurant that was supposed to be a Coney Island and
(08:08):
I wasn't happy with what they told me was a
Coney Island because I was like, it's not a Coney Island.
And I said, I turned to Joy and I said,
you know what, I'm opening up a Coney Island for listeners.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
This is a really good point, and it's on a site.
What is the difference. I know it, but I want
you to explain between a chili dog and a Coney
Island hot dog.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Well, one thing I do different than Detroit. I do
all beef hot dogs. I don't do the pork chicken
hot dog. There's usually a Coney Island hot dog, and
a Coney Island hot dog is grilled and it's chili,
onions and mustard. So I have a lot of people
call and say, what is on your Coney dog? You know,
a coney dog is all over the world is chili,
(08:53):
onions and mustard.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
I think I'm hungry already. Growing up in Toledo and Detrie,
which they're similar, but they're not exactly alike. Could you
share your upbringing in Toledo and Detroit and what shaped
your approach to running your business along with your incarceration,
because it sound was like you really started your business
(09:15):
before you ever got out.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
I did. I did well. I'm born here.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
When I was very young, maybe three, my mother and
father moved to Detroit, and in Detroit, I played high
school football, Little League pal football. I went to henry
Ford High School. I was a pretty good student. My
mother worked at christ and my father at General Motors.
I was the only bad apple. I have two other brothers,
(09:41):
siblings in that same household. When I was in the
twelfth grade, I was coming home from football practice and
I passed a place called Dexter Chevrolet, and I went
in Dexter Chevrolet and they had this green Blazer on
the floor S ten at that time. And I came
home and I told my mother and father. I said, man,
(10:03):
I want this truck. He said Dexter Chevrolet. And my
dad laughed at me, like, do we know what money is?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
You know?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Do we know what money is? And I'm like, yeah,
I know what money is. I want this truck. So,
because I was doing decent in school, I was pretty
much a decent football player. I made off City, I
wasn't an All American. My dad encouraged my mom to
take me the Dexter Chevrolet to look at the truck.
(10:33):
So when I get the decks to Chevrolet, I don't
know nothing about finance, and I don't know nothing except
for how much it costs I want to buy. So
the man is telling my mom of the truck is
be seventeen thousand, one hundred and thirty eight dollars, And
my mom looks at me and I said I want it,
and my mom's like, babe, that's a lot of money.
(10:54):
I lift up my shirt. I had twenty thousand dollars.
My mother didn't know I had that kind of money.
She knew I was doing some hustling, but she didn't
know I had that kind of money. So my mother,
my mother was more street than my father. My mother
told me, give me a thousand dollars, and she gave
a man a thousand dollars to hold his truck. And
on the way home, she must smoke ten cigarettes. And
(11:15):
she didn't talk to me one bit, you know. And
where in the world did you. I get home and
my mother and father room was upstairs and I could
hear him talking. And then my dad, my dad was military,
very strict, good dude, became my best friend when I
became a man. And he called me up there and
(11:36):
he was like, man, I ain't know you was you
had that kind of money in the house, you know.
And I said, yeah, well, you know, y'all took me
the kmark. I bought me a safe, you know, And
he said, yeah, I thought that was because she was
watching TV, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
And he asked me how much money I had. I
told him.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
He say in the safe too, and I said, yep,
in the safe too, and he was like, you can't
live here. That was the first thing he said to me.
And it was like wow, It was crushing, but I
understood it. He had two other sons to race, and
he didn't I was a bad influence. And he didn't
know I was a bad influence because I was raised
yes sir, no, sir, yes, ma'am. All my mom friends
(12:17):
wanted me to be their son.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
So you being bad in the streets but respectful.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
All at home.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Definitely, I mean that was the way it was then.
You know you you was and you respected the people
in the street too.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
It wasn't being bad.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I just sold drugs, which I didn't know what was
a bad thing, you know, And.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
It was amazing.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
But I moved to a place called West Bloomfield while
in high school in the twelfth grade. My mother went
and got the condo in her name, and my mother
was my maid. She I gave her a job. She
came and cleaned up my apartment. She came and fixed
my food every day. I still went to school every day,
(12:58):
went to football practice every day. I just had multiple cars.
And all my friends were drug dealers, older guys who
have been taking care of me since Little league. You know,
it starts in little league. You're the guy who's scoring
touchdowns and the drug dealers over.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
There, and he's.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
A he adopts you, you know, and before you know it,
he gives you two three hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
And I get to high.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
School, I got a play uncle Who's Mercedes is available
to me whenever I wanted, and his Cadillac is available
just because I was at a decent athlete.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
But you got a taste of the life. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
And even with a good family, that sucked you in.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Even with the great family, it sucked me in because
those guys became my family. Those were the guys I
spent more time with than my family. I didn't sit
at the house. I was at football games, basketball games,
you know. And during that time, the drug dealer didn't
(13:58):
have the rapport not he wasn't such a vicious person.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
He was. He looked out for the neighborhood. You know.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
If you need a few dollars, you want your neighborhood
drug deal and got it. You paid it back, Miss
Thomas gas Bill du you came, she came and got
it from you. She bought it back when she had it.
You had enough to share, so you shared it was
it was a community that raised you then. And even
though my community knew I sold drugs, they knew me
as missus Well's son.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Still, but you got caught. I got caught.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Yeah, Yeah, probably the best thing ever happened to me
if I wouldn't be sitting there to life. Definitely saved
my life. Definitely saved my life without questioning one day
when we get to it, how I got caught. But uh,
on my way to getting caught, I had a ball.
I had a great time. I made a lot of
(14:49):
great friends, and some of those friends are still friends today.
A lot of them are dead now. Maybe I got
a couple still in prison doing life, and I stay
in touch with him, maybe not as much as I should,
but I don't miss the life at all. You know,
it's a whole different life when you find God. I
(15:12):
used to didn't understand. I was about seventeen years old
and I seen mister Brady, who wasn't a pastor but
he was a regular church guy. I seen him get
robbed at gunpoint, and I seen him look down the
gun with no fear at all, no fear on his mind, nothing,
And I couldn't never understand that because all my life
(15:34):
I've been taught to fear the pistol, you fear that
gun in your face. But when I found God for real,
I understood what mister Brady was. He was comfortable, he
didn't have no fear. He had made his peace with God.
He was doing no wrong. He knew where he was going.
Without questioning you on it that later on, once I
(15:54):
seen it, you know, later on, once I reflected on it,
and at that time, no, I didn't want that.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
You know, at that time I thought he was crazy.
Like man, this man must have been crazy. Should have
saved him, you know, he didn't care.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
See, my mother was a woman who she carried her
bible everywhere she went, but she also carried a pistol.
And uh, you know, that's how I was raised. But
cooking became an art in the penitentiary because we made
things from nothing. I remember frying food in a garbage can,
a rubber made garbage can. I remember taking the back
(16:28):
of her arm, taking it apart, putting a putting the
plug back on the arm, putting it in the grease,
plugging it up, and that heated the grease to the
temperature we needed to fry raw food.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
And that's how we cooked.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
And it got to the point where when you ain't
a bad person, you cook it in your counselor say
you got two hours to cook today, you know, make
sure I get one on my on my test, on
my desk.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
And it became.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
An open door for all races. Mexicans come talk to me,
Blacks come talk, Whites come talk. Food was a international
language by itself, cause everybody'll come and.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Talk to you.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
So that experience changed you.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
That experience changed me a lot. Yeah, that experience changed
me a lot, and it made me be able to communicate. First,
I started reading a lot of books, and I started
learning to first seek to understand m take yourself out
your shoes and put yourself in theirs. See what they
point is. They might have a valid point. And then
I learned to step back in my shoes and make
(17:30):
my own point. A lot of times people don't wanna
listen to the other person. Yeah, they just wanna want
you to listen. You know, nobody wants to be talk down. No,
you get people come to your door with attitudes, yeah,
right off the back. You know, it's terrible the energy.
But you also meet a lot of positive people. I
can't remember his name off him, but I had a
(17:52):
guy who wrote a book because of the experience me
and him had at my restaurant.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
HM.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
He was on his way to commit suicide. Wow, And
I told him, man, God got something for you. Take
your time, this ain't you. He bought his mother to
meet me, signed the book in front of me and everything.
It was a good experience. So I just think that
sometime we have to be not so fast to judge,
(18:18):
because we all don't want to be judged harshly. Yes,
but how can you want what you're doing to someone else?
Give a person a benefit of a doubt it don't hurt.
I got this thing where I give a lot of
food away and people may be thinking I got over
on it, but they didn't get over on me.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I gotta deal with God. You know.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Guys tell me all the time, man, I'm gonna get
you back. I'll be like, you can't get me back.
God gonna get me. I need that real one from God.
I got a guy named mister Larry. I've been knowing
mister Larry maybe six months now. Mister Larry has come
to my window and gave me a twenty dollar bill
for twenty five times. And mister Larry said man fee
(19:03):
somebody today for me. The other day, mister Larry came
and ordered some food and he was he reaching in
this he's always walking and he's reaching in his pocket
to pay for the food. And my hand in the
bag and say, hold on, mister Larry. I close thought.
Get out of here, mister Larry, you can't pay. He's like, no, no,
I got a pack. I said, missus Lar, you're blocking
my blessings. You always want to bless somebody, but you
(19:26):
won't let me get my blessings.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
And he laughed and he walked away. That's awesome. It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
So opening the Joyful Coney Island. What inspired you to
open Joyful Coney Island in Toledo and what is your
vision for the restaurant moving forward?
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Well, let me tell you how I got to Toledo.
When I got ready to parole my homeboys, was gonna
put a billboard up in Detroit saying, walcome home with
my nickname on it.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Okay, I wasn't that person. I didn't want to be
that person. Again.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I learned that if you hang around crooks, you're gonna
be a crook. I didn't want that. I didn't want
that so I called my sister who was in the
real estate and I told my sister sister, I ain't
trying to parole to Detroit.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
She couldn't believe it, but she was happy for me.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
She had a place in Port Clinton on the water,
and she said, bruh, you can have it.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
She say, just.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Hearing you say that you can have it, and I
was like, for real, she said yeah. So I go
to my case manager and my counselor, I changed my
address to Port Clinton and I get parole to the VOA.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Probably best place ever.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
I mean, I hear a lot of people talk down
on it, but you had guys like Mr Holmes not
I mention a bunch of people, but they had seen
all the slick stuff, but nothing you couldn't put.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Over on them.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
And I respected it a lot, you know, cause they
gave you a benefit of the doubt. They they wasn't
it a judge you. It was Volunteers of America. It
was amazing they they didn't judge me all. They gave
me all the tools I need to get started. I
had a lot of blessings when I came home, including
the building that I'm at right now. One of my
(21:12):
friends who I was in the penitentiary with. They're from Toledo,
owned those buildings and I told him I want to
open up a restaurant. And he gave me the keys
and said go look at it. And I went and
looked at it and needed a lot of work, and
I said, I said I can do it, and he
said take it for a year, then we'll talk about
the money. So he gave it to me for a year.
(21:34):
During that year we got it together built. It was
kind of slow at first, but it wasn't slower than
twelve cent an hour in the penitentiary.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yeah, you know, so cooking on an iron.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Yeah, is looking on.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Then eye cooking on your cooking on the desk, you know,
so making a grilled cheese. So before you know it,
I got the business up. We got it running. Then
maybe two years in food critic came. Didn't know he
was a food critic, didn't have no clue. This was
after the blade. Miss Mary, she was beautiful, all mismarried man.
(22:08):
She told me, she said, you're gonna make it. I
know it, she said. She told me, she said, you're
gonna make it. A couple of years later, I'm not
on no social media. I sell food like I sold dope.
Word them off, you know. I think if you put
a good product out there, people will talk about it.
Also say we're not selling food, We're selling our reputation,
you know. So before long we're cooking. I put a
(22:29):
window in so we could stay open late at night.
Some guys come one night, five or six of them,
long dress. I'm like, oh, I hope they ain't gonna
be a problem. They come, they order all kinds of food.
Then they take the food to the parking lot and
put it on top of their cars and start opening
it up.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
And I'm like, what is they doing?
Speaker 3 (22:48):
And all of a sudden, these lights come out, they
light the food up, and it's a guy called the
Hungry black Man. And I'm like, oh, I don't know
what's gonna happen from this. But he gave us a
full point eight out of five, and his social media,
I guess.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Is a million people. Oh yeah, And all of a sudden,
joyful took off.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
I mean, the next day the line was down the street,
wrapped around the corner.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
But it came from good service.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Good food me not. I had no clue who he was.
Never heard of him before and since then, our business
has took off. It's thriving. We're still trying to We're
still trying to stay in that medium area because I
watch a lot of food places get too big and
the food gets too thin, you know.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
And my daughter.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Would always say, Dad, we need more advertising, more advertising.
I always say, we can't handle more business and keep
the food that's good. I don't want to get to
the place where mashed potatoes used to be the fire
in our mashed potatoes are water. Yeah, you know, I've
seen those places and it's not the place faught. It's
just that they got more business than they can stand.
(24:00):
A lot of times I may tell people that, hey,
we're a little busy. If you can call back in
thirty minutes, I'll get your order took care of. But
right now I got five people I'm taking care of.
And when you cleaning my restaurant, I don't believe in
big you little me. I try to treat everybody that same.
That's you know, And our business is took off, and
my next step in our business is here in Toledo
(24:22):
going twenty four hours. Oh well, we open three am
Monday through Friday. We catch so much of the plant business,
nobody's open at night, so they've supported us tremendously.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
So it seems like you may be big in community
and engagements both in Toledo and Detroit or just Toledo.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Stay connected right now basically Toledo. I don't travel to
Detroit as much as I used to. I have a
lot of old memories and old friends in Detroit, and
some of them. Insanity is doing the same thing looking
for different results, you know, and guilty by association.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
It's real.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Yeah, you know, with my with my record, my jacket,
my history. If I'm in Detroit with a drug that
I'm selling drugs what they say.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
In the movie, I keep trying to get out, but
they keep pulling me back in.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
But you got to get out. When you out, you out.
You can't straddle defense, just like with God. You can't
straddle defense.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
You know, either your either your on this side or
you're on this Either you on this side or you're
on that side. Don't play the middle, because play in
the middle gonna catch up with you.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Well, that same person you're talking about that God says
that that that kind of makes him sick. Rather you
be hot or cold in or out. It's not healthy.
It's not healthy. Uh, you have to make a choice,
kind of stick with it. And sounds like you made
your choice and you stuck with it so far. Sounds
like success to me.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Man, God is so good. You have to be patient.
It's hard to believe in some you can't see, some
you can't touch. But when you get that faith and
when and when you start seeing the blessings, you can
feel God run it through your veins. You don't have
to see it, you don't have to touch it. It's
a feeling like I got this saying. I work out
(26:11):
and I do burpies, and then when you're doing burpees
it's a high tensiony and cardio.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Everybody in prison do burpees.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
But when your heart is feeling like it's gonna jump
out your chest and you get through, I tell people
I never feel more closer to God than right then.
And it's the endorphins just released in your body to
feel good.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Yeah. I think that's what God is.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
All the time, to feel good, no matter what happens,
bad or good. I accept it and I thank the
Lord for it because I may not can't see it,
but I know he sees thousands of years ahead of me,
and everything happens for a reason. So I take the
good with the bad and let it roll off the
milk spill. We gonna clean it up, pour some more.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Yeah, you know, it's good attitude to have, good attitude
to have. So your life lessons have sent you to
a place of peace, it sounds like and prosperity.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
And prosperity. Prosperity definitely is coming. You know, I didn't
know you wasn't gonna get rich in the food business.
I really thought I was gonna get rich. I'm comfortable.
The Lord is my rich, my wealth.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
So owning and running your restaurant and being incarcerated and released,
I know there's some demands, and I know we're coming
to a close. It almost sounds like we need to
have a part two for you. What are some of
the most important lessons that you've learned as a business
owner and someone that's actually formerly incarcerated, coming out and
transitioning into a life where you have freedom but you
(27:44):
are making good decisions.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
I trust God a lot. I trust God more than
I trust anybody in the world. I think you, I don't.
I don't have a I want to say, not a
supporting cast, because all my life I've been a leader,
so it's like I'm everybody else's supporting cast. So I
(28:08):
just lean on God. I trust God, but I do right.
I do my best not to do wrong. I try
my best to always do right. When you want to
come out and do something, stick with it. I got
a lot of friends that come out the gate like
a bullet, but when they get to the midway point,
(28:29):
they give it up and say, I'm gonna start something else.
They're great starters, but you got to be a great finisher.
Put your mind to it and put your heart into it,
and ask people. I try to the people that work
for me. I ask them to give me what I
give them.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
If the toilet need.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Cleaning, I go in there and cleaning. So I'm hoping
that that guy sees man he cleaning.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
He the owner.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Leading by example.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Lead by example. Talk is cheap. Nobody wants to hear
you talk it and you're not walking it. People want
to see people see what they believe. Yes, that's just
what it is. And you know, they say, what is it?
Believe little of what you're hear, a little bit less
of what you see and I don't know how to
(29:15):
explain it. I think I'm just blessed. But I put
my mind to something and I go at it, and
I think it's like I tell people this same principal,
different product. I'm just I'm selling hot dogs now, I'm
selling soulful now, and I do it just like I
did it when I sold drugs.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
And you don't have to worry about any prison.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
Oh, I don't look over my shoulder the officers come eat.
I feel great. The day before yesterday, I seen the
rave van with the tank and they pulled right up
inside by the side of the cone is and I'm
talking to Brother Michael King, and were sitting there and
he wants me to come to their their church to
do up on a Thursday Bible study. And were sitting
(29:58):
there having a conversation and we didn't fly, and I said, man,
you remember the time we took them.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
You know that that felt great because I'm not on
that side at all.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
It's gotta be a good feeling, no medium, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's a great feeling. Last, but not least, what do
you think people will remember you for? What is your
legacy now? And what would you like for it?
Speaker 2 (30:21):
To be.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
I think my legacy now in the community is that
you're never going to be hungry as long as I'm there.
I'm not turning nobody down for a plate, no matter
how slick they are. What come, get your plate? You
got that I made to actually to pick up the
stuff in the parking lot. I might give you a
broom until you come in and sweep the front room,
(30:43):
but I won't turn you away. I'm not gonna give
you my money to buy dope, but I'm gonna be
real with you. I don't care what people remember me
as as long as they remember I did right, not up.
I don't tolerate no bs. I don't want to hear
(31:03):
the or I grew up. I heard everything, just like
even in prison. You come to the compound, you like,
tell such such a come on out, I tell him,
he tell him. If you want to talk to me,
tell him come on and work out. In the morning
we can talk. I don't want to hear the story.
I've heard them all.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Well, we appreciate you coming out from I appreciate you
having and sharing your story. Thanks uh, and part of it,
because that's not all of it. I'm not by far
I think a book is in the works, no doubt.
I'm in agreement with your wife. But thank you so much,
brother Keenan well.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Carl for having me past the car. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Thank you for listening to the Voices of the Legacy.
This is your friend, Pastor Krol Mitchell the third, your
host of this program. We want you to go to
w GTE dot org slash legacy to like, share, subscribe,
and hear all of our past podcast and our future podcast.
Be a friend and join with us in the Voices
(32:15):
of Legacy, where you're writing your own legacy. Every day
that you live, have a blessed day.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
W GT E voices around us.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
W GT is supported in part by the American Rescue
Plan Act funds allocated by the City of Toledo and
the Lucas County Commissioners and administered by the Arts Commission
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