Sweet Y Cafe and Catering is an independent BBQ restaurant in Denton.

It has a long history which is detailed on their website.

The Sweet Y began in the 1940's when Denton, Texas was primarily racially segregated between black and white. It began as a pastry cafe where Mr. Pledge Williams baked pies and cakes for sale in the south east side of Denton.   Sweet Y was one of blacks' few options in Denton to eat pastries or patronize businesses, so blacks’ learned from segregation of how to work together to survive. But today, few can remember pies and cakes being sold here or the sacrifices individuals made back then.

Today, many can remember when my Grandfather Chester Chambers and my Grandmother Helen Chambers took over the Sweet Y in the late 1960's where they sold SOUL FOOD, and hamburgers. Also, students from the segregated Fred Moore High School, and residents from the neighborhood can remember easing down Wye, Crosstimbers, and Robertson streets to the Sweet Y for a burger or just to eat the fries for a $1.00.   Sometimes even the trains would stop on the tracks in front of the Sweet Y and they would walk inside to eat my Grandparents cooking.  The Sweet Y and many other black owed businesses within south east Denton served as an example of entrepreneurship and social networking in the black community.The nearby Fred Moore High School was educating black minds for the future they needed to be prepared for, and Sweet Y gave the community a taste of what being together can accomplish.  

The early 1980's Chester began to get ill, so he retired from cooking around 1984, and passed away in 1987. My grandmother was also a pastry cook at UNT's Bruce Hall for many years.  She was could not handle the Sweet Y by herself and work at UNT.  The Sweet Y closed in the late 1980's.   My grandmother then handed the business over to her kids Charles Redmon, Edna Redmon, and my father Billy Redmon.  During this time Sweet Y was continually being marketed as a business that could serve the Southeast Denton community and Denton surrounding areas....

Comments

2011-02-11 15:46:09   this was delicious and cheap, and the guy working was super nice. —97.94.208.253