Weaver D’s Delicious Fine Foods
1016 E. Broad St.
Athens, GA 30601
(706) 353-7797
My mother taught me to cook, and then my step-dad, Robert Lee, he cooked a lot too. And I guess just being around in there and watching and taking note of cooking different things—I’m not saying back then I [was] the cook that I am now, but I grew to perfection. – Dexter Weaver
Born in Athens, Georgia, in 1954, Dexter Weaver grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, where he tended an urban garden at his family home and began catering from his mother’s kitchen. When Dexter moved back to Athens in the early 1980s, he brought his culinary talents and entrepreneurial spirit with him, cooking for events and selling dinners from his home on the weekends. In 1986 he opened Weaver D’s Delicious Fine Foods, naming the place after his childhood memories of being at the end of his teacher’s roll call. Weaver D’s quickly gained a reputation for freshly prepared soul food, as well as the unique personality of its owner. Dexter Weaver has a way with words, and his trademark saying, “Automatic for the People,” pushed him into the limelight when the Athens-based band R.E.M. used the phrase as the title for their 1992 album. In the intervening years, Dexter has made television appearances and authored a cookbook, but his singular style and soulful cooking are still best experienced in person at his namesake eatery.
VIDEO: Visit the New Georgia Encyclopedia’s Foodways section online to view video clips of Dexter Weaver, talking about soul food, deep fat fried foods, and cooking collards. Follow this link and then click on one of the video links in the right margin.
What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.
Subject: Dexter Weaver
Date: November 20, 2006
Location: Weaver D’s Delicious Fine Foods – Athens, GA
Interviewer: Amy C. Evans
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Amy C. Evans: This is Amy Evans for the Southern Foodways Alliance on Monday, November 20, 2006 in Athens, Georgia, with Dexter Weaver at Weaver D’s Delicious Fine Foods. And Mr. Weaver D., would you please state your name and also your birth date for the record, if you don’t mind?
Dexter Weaver: Dexter Weaver, November 28, 1954.
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You were born in Athens, is that correct, and grew up in Baltimore?
Yes, I was born in Athens and left here at six years old and moved to Baltimore and stayed there seventeen years, moved back to Athens in December of [nineteen] ’78.
Can you tell me a little bit about growing up in Baltimore? I understand [you had a job] shining shoes in Baltimore.
Okay. Baltimore was a great adventure. You know, leaving from a small city like Athens and going into a big city. I would get lost coming from school some days [Laughs], you know, not knowing my way around and a different language that they speak up there—we speak down here. They would call this [Athens, GA] country. That’s more northern. And I started out my entrepreneurship. I started out with gardens, growing gardens and, you know, even the vegetables. And I also sold Cheerful House Cards; I sold corsages and roses—buds for Mothers Day, sold newspapers, Gospel News Journal, Seven-Year Light Bulbs; I made candles that I learned how to make in the sixth grade and sold them up and down in our neighborhood. And then in the ‘60s during the Martin Luther King riots and segregation and all, my dad made me a shoe shine box, and I began shining shoes all over Baltimore in the areas in the nightclubs were—at 35-cents a shine and went on from there.
How old were you when you got the shoe shine kit?
I think I might have been about twelve. All these things I did when I wasn’t old enough to get a workers permit, but I guess that drive and the zeal was already implanted in me, you know. [Laughs] And then when I got my workers permit, I think my first job was McDonald’s, like all of ours were. [Laughs]
Now when you say you had a drive and a zeal, was it something that was just a personal thing, or did your parents help instill that in you also?
I think my parents helped instill in me. My mother always worked, and she was a nurse and she went to school, and I cooked for her, and I think just going from there. And then I wanted to have my own money, so that’s one thing, too, when a child is growing up—when you want to earn your own money honestly, uh-hmm.
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So it was just you and your mother in Baltimore, then?
Yes, me and my mother [Carrie Bradley Jackson] in Baltimore, and then she had a boyfriend who made the shoe shine box. And a lot of people in his family was entrepreneurs so that’s sort of strange, too, you know [Laughs]—I sort of picked up some of his genes. [Laughs]
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Now you mentioned a garden; was that something that you had at home, or was that more of like a community garden?
Okay, I had a garden at home. I planted carrots, turnip greens, beets, squash—all kinds of stuff like that. I think some of the country-ness from being down South, you know, was still in me when I went up North, and I was, you know, busy planting there and seeing my grandmother plant different vegetables yearly.
Your grandmother was down here, though, [in Athens] and she taught you those things?
Uh-huh, Francis Weaver, my dad’s mother, she did planting every year and you know, we got our fresh collards out of the yard.
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And you said you would cook for your mother. Did your mother cook at all? Did she teach you to cook, or that would have been your grandmother, or you did it on your own?
Yeah, she taught me to cook and then my step-dad, Robert Lee, he cooked, you know, a lot too. And I guess just being around in there and watching and taking note of cooking different things, and I’m not saying, you know, back then I’m the cook that I am now, but I grew to perfection.
How do you think Baltimore influenced or did it influence your cooking?
Okay, Baltimore was just such a wide appeal. And I’m not saying that people I played with cooked or did those things. Most of the time I think I was the ring leader in a lot of that, and then one time we went out and bought a lot of pets, such as hamsters, white mice, rabbits, and stuff that they sold at the pet store, and we had a pet show in the neighborhood and let all the children come in and see the pets. And then we sold popcorn and hotdogs and stuff like that. So I guess all that was just the beginning of what it is now. And I went to Baltimore one time, and I was knocking on someone’s door and someone called me that was sitting on the steps you know, Baltimore is known for the marble steps, and said, “Dexter.” And I looked up, and I’m like, “Earline.” And you know we went up and started talking, and she still remembered. It was in her yard where we had the pet show. And she said, “You remember we had that pet show when we was little?” And I’m like, “Yeah,” you know, so it just went on from then and just growed. And I was always doing different things, having different parties in the neighborhood, you know, like blue lights in the basement. And then we had the waste-line parties—whatever your waste line and then the weight parties—whatever your weight is—is how much you paid to come in, so just—. I heard a cousin of mine, he said, ‘You have always been sort of like a leader in starting different things, so I guess there are three kinds of people—those that watch things that happen, make things happen, and those that wonder what happened.” So I made things happen in my neighborhood and in my community.
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Well let’s talk about when you came back to Athens. Did you know immediately you wanted to get in the restaurant business?
Well when I first came back to Athens, I managed Kentucky Fried Chicken, and then I managed Krystal [Hamburgers] in Atlanta, and then I went back to Baltimore for a year—’83 to ’84—and I managed Wendy’s on Liberty Road, so—. And being in fast-food management, I never thought that I would own my own place. It was just that, you know, when different equipment breaks down, as the manager you learn how to fix it, and I did that. And I didn’t know one day I would apply [that knowledge] to my own business, so it all worked out—that learning that and the long hours and controlling paper calls, controlling labor calls, cleanliness, you know. At Kentucky Fried Chicken we had such thing as QSC—Quality Service Cleanliness. And we have different anonymous people that come around, and you have to always greet them. You would always have to have your name tag on; the store would always have to be ready; your parking lot had to always be clean, your bathroom, and just different things like that because you never know who they are when they come in. And then if you get good scores you can get a prize, your store can win money—just different incentives that employees could get and managers.
So was the fast-food thing, was that something that because you were interested in food that it was something that you had an interest in or was it just a job—a stepping stone to something else?
Okay, I went to CCB [Community College of Baltimore] in Baltimore, and my main goal really was to be a Registered Dietician, but I never did make it. But I took a lot of classes like in principles of management, principles of supervision, introduction of food administration, sanitation and equipment, you know; so a lot of different courses that would apply to being a manager. And then I went for an interview with Kentucky Fried Chicken in Marietta [Georgia] and got on right here because the corporate office was up there in Marietta. So I got on right here in Athens, so that was a blessing. I have led the way, you know, in food service.
So do you remember the moment when the light bulb went off and you said, “I want to have my own place”?
Okay, how it was—I had lost a job at one time, and I was working out of my home selling dinners on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. And a group of people came over from the Recreation Department and told me that Riverside Café had went out of business and that was the name of this restaurant, Riverside Café. So after I got through serving everybody—that Friday—I began to come down here and knock on doors, you know, to find out who owned the building. And when I approached the landlord, you know, he didn’t know anything about me. I told him, you know, I do a lot of catering around town. I let him know those were my peanuts in Golden Pantry Stores. And so he left that day, and I guess he asked around who I was, and I knew his lawyer, you know, who took care of his leases and stuff. So when he asked him about it he said, “He is a good man.” So the next day he met with me, and he said, “Here are your keys right now.” So Weaver D’s was born, and we began to remodel this building and went under construction for about a month. And then we opened up with commercials on the radio, newspaper ads, and we just had lines out the door. We couldn’t hardly, you know, handle all the people, but we managed some kind of way. So that was in ’78 and then we’ve you know—I was already known for the Fraternity circuit, catering for them on a daily basis, doing parent days and tailgating.
And you were doing all that out of your house?
I did. I started there, and it just grew. So when I opened up this building, I had a customer base already [Laughs] because people were saying, “Why don’t you do it on Sundays?” And, “Why don’t you do it all the time?” You know. But you just didn’t want everybody at your house, you know. So we went on from then, and when I opened up here, I already had a customer base, uh-hmm.
So were you making and serving and selling the same things back then, when you were working from your house, as you are now?
I did. I sold lobster tails. I sold fried chicken, baked chicken. I did collard greens—stuff like that all the time, uh-hmm.
Where did your recipes come from?
Oh, they came from like family, you know, knowing how mother cooked her chicken and what she put in her flour and how she made her cornbread. And then I was always picking up little tips because I was in a choir in Baltimore—the Holiness Church—and every choir member had to bring a covered dish and the organist told, “Whoever do the potato salad, please do not wait until those potatoes are ice-cold before you put the mayonnaise on them.” So you know, you’re always just picking up little tips, and everybody loves my potato salad, and I took that tip and ran with it. So I usually boil my potatoes and let them cool for a little while and then add my seasoning—begin adding everything together and let them cool for about fifteen minutes. They’ll be still warm and that way the mayonnaise can do its thing.
When you were cooking out of your house, was there kind of a learning curve to cooking in a big quantity for all these catering gigs and what not?
Yes. Yes, that was my only job really back then, and I would just get up in the morning and just start cooking. I really used to cook for like sixty boys a day, Monday through Thursday. And a boy next door, when he got out of school, he would come over and load my van and unload it, and they would serve with regular plastic plates over there, and we’d wash the dishes and, you know, got ready for the next day. And I did banana puddings and all kinds of little stuff that I could do out of the house.
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So tell me about Automatic [for the People].
Okay, my Automatic slogan—at first I didn’t have it copyrighted. It was just “Automatic for the People.” And then it was such a catchy phrase, everybody in town loved it, and I thought I needed to copyright it, you know, before you know—just it would be taken out of my hands. And then in ’92 [the rock band] REM approached me. They came down here to the restaurant and wanted to name it their next album title, and I’m like, “Oh.” When they came I really didn’t know who they were, and I thought they might have just been some salesmen, you know, coming to see me. And then when they identified their selves on who they was, and I’m like uh—. And then my attitude wasn’t you know—I wasn’t really just shining and bubbling over like I usually do because they had, you know, been burglarizing the place every night. As fast as we could put the food in, they was coming in and taking it out. [Laughs] I even had to cater out of a plant for Christmas; they came in and took all my hams [Laughs]. So it was just like, “Oh.” And then after they told me who they was and what they wanted, you know, it began to make my day. I began to smile and—and it went on from there. Then we went to the Grammy’s in ’94, which was another adventure. And then tours from all around the world came visiting me. And the Rolling Stone Magazine has said that they had got their album title from a soul food restaurant. It didn’t reveal the name; it just said a soul food restaurant, and it just went on from there.
So when the guys from REM came in asked you about it, how did they explain that they wanted to use it for their album title?
Well I lived next door to a member of Driving and Crying, which was another group, and some kind of way I didn’t catch on. I had went next door; the lady that cleaned up for me also cleaned for the guy—for Driving and Crying—for him and his wife—Driving and Crying. And I said, “Is the lady going to clean up for me in the morning, you in the morning, me in the afternoon or what?” So she was telling me. So she said, “Have you seen REM lately?” And I’m like, “No,” you know I just—then the next day they came to see me, and I’m like, “What?” [Surprised] So when I went home that day I said, “Amy, I am so happy.” She said, “I know, REM came to see you.” I said, “How did you know?” And that’s when she told me a member of Driving and Crying and a member of REM was up in Atlanta in Buckhead—at a bar and said, “We want to name our album Automatic for the People, but we haven’t talked to Weaver yet.” And I’m like, “What?” [Surprised] You know, so she knew, you know, and I didn’t know. But she said, “Oops, let me be quiet before I the spill the beans,” you know, the first thing, so it was just so funny. And then when I went over, “I’m so happy and—.” And she said, “I know; REM came to see you.” I’m like, “How did you know?” [Laughs] So it went on like that. And it was the beginning of so much you know—the book deal, the customer flow. I heard Warner Brothers, they had a meeting explaining all about this restaurant and what all—you know, and then they had started answering the phone, “Automatic,” you know, at Warner Brothers New York and all around the world. And it was just really something, you know, the way—. And then people—tours and travelers—and I had to hire a publicist back in the back and we had a 1-800 number and it just went, you know, on and on and on and on.
Where did that phrase originate and how did you come up with Automatic for the People?
Okay, I used to sell leather goods on the streets here in Athens and when I was in Baltimore, and a guy said, “If you didn’t have a product one day you would have it the next,” and I combined Automatic—. Oh, and then I worked at a fast-food chain when the lady manager over me informed me that if hourly employees didn’t report for work, then we had to work a double shift, automatic. So I had combined automatic and having that product ready—if I didn’t have it one day, I’d have it the next—meaning ready, quick, and efficient. [Laughs] So I just combined those two, and then we went on and had it copyrighted, so I don’t have a registered trademark; that’s a mark of service. I have an SM—service mark—behind my Automatic for the People SM.
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I understand you have some other things that you say too like Come on out of that coma, talking to people who come into the restaurant here.
Okay, at—when we were doing the book they—they wanted to do Automatic Y’all and then they thought about Come Out of that Coma, but they thought Automatic Y’all would be more fitting to the slogan of Automatic for the People. And we have this other thing—“Communication” that we use at the register when they, you know, are not saying anything—“Communication!” you know—come on. [Laughs] Let’s communicate. And so many phrases—“How you going to carry it?” It was just a quote that they had used in Baltimore, like you know, if something happened, how you going to carry it? I mean and then my slogans and phrases are just created you know during situations, so I just happen to just come up with “Communication” one day in line, when somebody was just standing up there taking forever ordering. I’m like, “Hey come on,” you know—. So just little stuff like that. And I’m sure there’s more phrases to come and more quotes, so someone told me that I had a song or quote for everything, and life is a song worth singing. [Laughs] Am I right?
Is that something that just comes naturally as part of your personality or you try to come up with things to kind of mix it up a little bit?
I think it’s part of the personality. It is and they love it, you know, because they say you can always count on me to make you happy. I try to.
Well what is that part about what you do about working with the public and interacting with people every day that, in addition to making the food, but serving the public, what do you enjoy most about that?
I think of just, you know, putting smiles on faces, you know, after they eat, you know. You feel real good, like all of us do, especially if it’s good. And I guess just seeing expressions and how they’ll change from one part to another you know—different feel, I guess, when you are hungry and when you are full you know—more jolly and more happy, you know. You’re ready to go to sleep sometime. [Laughs] And then sometime you’re ready to go to work, you know—so just different things like that.
Now tell me about your food here. Now I know you’re well known for your three-cheese macaroni and the sweet potato soufflé, which I could just eat my weight in, I think, but your fried chicken and all that. Talk about what you have here.
Okay, we have our squash casserole, which is a vegetarian. All right, and we got a broccoli casserole, a vegetarian item, sweet potato soufflé is a vegetarian item, and we now cook our green beans with butter, and we have the buttered potatoes and we have the rice—all those items. We get a lot of vegetarians in and we also—we just appeal to just a wide range of people—those that are diabetic. I’ve been a diabetic now for about two years, so I really try watching my fats in my foods and the salt and the seasonings, so it’s not what you will say greasy food or any of that. We’ll cook it more healthier because, as we get older, all of us, you know, are eating more healthy, and a lot of people emphasize on baked chicken—baked items. Sometimes I might do baked pork chops. Sometimes I might do baked fish. That’s just every now and then. And then a lot of food I cook for ourselves back there is baked.
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And how about this location? You’ve been here for a good long while now, but there are just a handful of tables in here. Have you considered expanding, or are you going to stay here for the long haul or move along?
I think one time in my thirties I really wanted a bigger place. I wanted a drive-thru and this, that, and the other. And then every now and then a wild idea will hit me like I need a bigger place, or I need another place, you know. But I have to really get—I have to come out of that coma then. [Laughs] Like how are you going to run two places, you know? So and then I thought about another place one time, and some other people that are in business who have had two locations—not restaurants—they might have had two pharmacists, but they feel as though that you can only run one real successful, you know, unless you’re the hands-on—on both, which you cannot be. So I’ve had a lot of different advice from people that have been in business before I opened up. Because when I first opened up, I was pacing the floor wondering where everybody was at. So some of the old restaurant owners uptown came to see me, and they told me it takes a year before everybody knows who you are, what you’re selling, and all like that. And really, after a year I saw a change, so that was some true stuff that they was telling me, uh-huh. After a year I saw it, you know, pick up a little.
So how has this place changed, if at all, since you opened it since the beginning days?
Okay, it have changed. The neighborhood have changed. We have the walking bridge out there now. It was a lawn mower shop next door; the City bought that property and made a little park out there. We have the bicycle trail going down the street; we have condominiums going up the street; we had apartments that were remodeled across the street and now they were sold, and now they’re being torn down and now some exclusive apartments and condos are supposed to go over there. So I’ve just been in the midst of all kinds of changes right here. And when I first opened, around the second or third year, they did a thing—East Athens on the verge of rapid growth, so I was a part of that and seeing the different trend changes and the new buildings and then—. Oh and then we had classes set up there because that hadn't always been up there and then the brand new newspaper building, you know. That hasn’t always been there. So it’s just a lot of changes. And then the apartment right there where the Farmers Hardware used to be, so it was just a lot of things and I’m right in the center of it.
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Tell me about your cookbook [Automatic Y'All: Weaver D's Guide to the Soul]. What was that experience like?
It sold over 5,000 copies the first quarter and I was nominated Georgia Author of the Year and I was in a category with President Carter and it was a great experience, you know just to have the book and then for it to sell so many copies, and then it was all around the world. So and then I made different appearances to Thames River, New Jersey; I went to Memphis in May; I went all around promoting the book and doing cooking demonstrations, so that was real nice. And I was on—and in the South Carolina Book Club; I was on the podium with many other famous authors from around the world, so that was a great experience, you know—just me coming from a single family home, self-entrepreneur, self-taught, so I think it went a long way.
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Your recipes, when you were doing the book, I wonder if a lot of what you make was that stuff you had written down or had written recipes or was it just by touch and feel?
See, I’m spiritual. And like I say, I go according to the spirit. So whichever way it leads…So that’s the deal there.
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We didn’t talk about how the restaurant got its name, since you’re Dexter Weaver and it’s Weaver D’s. Can you talk about that?
When I was in high school my last name was Weaver. We went by last name, first initial, and a number, so I was Weaver D 43 in high school in the tenth grade in gym and out of 43 solid, now it’s Weaver D 52 [Laughs]. So that’s how we arrived at the name…. I don’t think it would be, you know—Weaver D 43—but it was—used just the last name and the first initial and a number and we just dropped the 43. The 43 is silent now. [Laughs] What can I say?
Can I ask you just quickly what the future of Weaver D’s is?
Well I don’t really know about the future yet. I’ve been here twenty years; I’m getting a little tired. I do feel as though that the future is not to do as much catering, and I’m coming out of that because I want to just mainly concentrate myself to being at the restaurant. And we’re going to do catering by occasion. I was telling somebody one time this is going to be the only restaurant open by appointment.
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