People love wings, cheesesteaks at new Kansas City restaurant: ‘I believed in myself’

On a recent weekday, Sheldon Carson Jr. is doing everything himself in the kitchen of his new East Side restaurant, Black Wall Street — cooking, dishing up orders, working the register, even shutting down for a few minutes to make a nearby delivery.

It’s his second attempt at a restaurant in the spot, and he is already building a following. He’s determined to make it a success, not only for himself but for his immediate family.

“People love the Phillies — three different cheeses and my own sauce — the wings,” he said.

He started cooking as a youngster, the second oldest boy in a family of nine children growing up in Kansas City, Kansas. All the boys cooked, the sisters not so much, he said. One brother swears to make the best barbecue, and he concedes that’s true.

Carson, with a brother and sister, worked at the McDonald’s on Troost Avenue and then at a Raytown Burger King. He also worked at his mother’s restaurant in Kansas City, Kansas.

In 2016 he bought a building at 5908 Prospect Ave. and opened Black Wall Street, a reference to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Its thriving business district, dubbed Black Wall Street, was looted and burned.

“They always showed us the drug problems in school. I never knew we had a thriving community,” he said. “I sold everything — my TV, my furniture, canceled subscriptions like Netflix — so I could make payments on the building. I believed in myself.”

But he said he made a lot of mistakes as a new entrepreneur.

He tried to hire only family members, figuring they could eat the food they didn’t sell that day. But some extended family would not show up when needed. He worked 12 hour days and once fell asleep at the restaurant.

“I understood hard work. I understood business. I didn’t understand employees,” he said. “I asked one restaurant owner, ‘Why aren’t you open more hours?’ He said you have to get that rest.”

He became an over-the-road truck driver, traveling all over the country. It was his first time outside Kansas or Missouri. He leased the space to other restaurants, but he said one left owing thousands in back rent and other related expenses. He recommends background checks, references and deposits.

Now he’s back with Black Wall Street.

The menu includes burgers, Philly cheesesteaks, grilled and fried chicken, tacos, nachos and pork chops.

Wings come with a choice of sauces: mango herb, garlic Parmesan, barbecue, hot honey, honey mustard, cheese, ranch or hot.

His father, Sheldon Carson Sr., takes the bus in from Kansas City, Kansas, to help out. His 13-year-old daughter, Treazhur Carson, works in the kitchen after school on occasion.

He gives out at least one free meal a day.

“To an unsuspecting person,” he said. “One good deed a day, that’s what I say.”

This story was originally published November 18, 2022 at 10:50 AM.