For most of their lives, brothers Shawn and Khari Parker had little in common when it came to restaurants. Shawn was a self-described "simple eater," preferring burgers, fries, and pizza, while Khari sought out more adventurous dishes. Because of this, although they enjoyed each other's company, the two had trouble finding places in Baltimore to eat together.
"There wasn't any food that both of us liked," Shawn recalls. "So as we were driving around, one of us—and I'm going to say it was me, even though I think Khari probably thinks otherwise—said we should just open our own restaurant. And oftentimes, when one person has an idea, the other person will insert a bit of doubt—'But, maybe later, I don't know if this is the best time, are you sure?' This time, we both agreed. ... Khari and I wanted to try something different. We wanted to make our mark on the city."
Today, Shawn and Khari are the proud co-owners of Connie's, formerly known as Connie's Chicken and Waffles. The business currently has two food stalls in downtown Baltimore—one at Lexington Market, the other at Charles Plaza—and will soon open a third location in Johns Hopkins University's new Bloomberg Student Center on the Homewood campus.
With Connie's set to open on JHU's campus in early October, the Parker brothers sat down with the Hub to discuss family businesses, the nature of food halls, and what they'll be bringing to the Hopkins community.
Where did the name Connie's come from?
Shawn: Khari and I named the company after our mom as a tribute to her, for her hard work and dedication, 40-plus years working at the utility company, and just doing everything she could to keep our family together. We wanted to use an opportunity to honor her.
What's it like working so closely with your brother every day?
Shawn: Horrible. No, I'm joking. It's good. ...
We've talked to a lot of folks over the years and they're like, "I don't know if I can be in business with my sibling," and it's not as bad as anyone would ever imagine. I actually think it's good. I think it would be difficult having someone that's not my sibling be a business partner because we're working very close together. There are a lot of life-changing decisions that we have to make, even more so than just looking at the bottom line.
[With a] non-family business partner, I feel like there's certain things that are off-limits. ... Whereas with us, we still have that level of respect for each other, but we are able to talk a little more direct. And then when it's done, we get back to being brothers. It's like, "Hey, I know we had that crazy conversation about Connie's, but let's go get tacos now and just kind of forget about everything that we just talked about." So I think it's very beneficial. We know each other's pain points as well as strengths and weaknesses.
Khari: Everything Shawn said, plus I think one good part is we're kind of anchored by our mom and a common goal. ... Everything we do, we do with the perspective of, "Are we making the customers happy? Are we doing honor to our mom's name with the business that we named after her?"
Does your mom enjoy having the business named after her?
Khari: She's honored.
Shawn: Yes, very much honored. She enjoys it. She loves interacting with customers. Whenever she gets the chance to, she'll stop by and try to say hi to customers and just enjoy the customer moments, speak to customers and engage with customers.
With your new location at the Bloomberg Student Center, you've rebranded from Connie's Chicken and Waffles to just Connie's. What inspired this change, and what does it mean for the menu?
Khari: We started with chicken and waffles. At the time I had no idea how far things would grow. ... We'll always have a variety of chicken, a variety of waffles, but really just over the years we've noticed that we've developed into a lot more offerings. Fish, shrimp, rice bowls, chicken sandwiches, fish sandwiches—there's so many other items that we've started to move beyond just our core base of chicken and waffles.
We'll have more items at BSC versus our existing location. In some ways we're going to use BSC as a test kitchen with all the equipment that we have there. We're going to start to test out different items, get feedback from the students to see exactly what they're looking for, and then trickle those items back into our existing locations.
This will be your third food stall. What draws you to food halls over traditional restaurant venues?
Shawn: It's the community and collaborative nature. ... If you go down to Main Street, Anywhere USA, you have different distinct businesses that are typically competitive because they're trying their best to pull the person walking down the street into their storefront. In [food courts], folks come in in droves and then decide what they want for that day. And the idea is that, even myself, I find a place, but then I spread the love, right? I'm sure there's an item on every single menu that I would like. It feels good just to know that we're contributing and also helping out the local ecosystem, in a sense.
Do you have any advice for Hopkins students who want to explore the Baltimore food scene?
Shawn: I would recommend going to all the food halls. They'll get a really good variety. For the most part, all the food halls have local owners.
Khari: I can double down on what Shawn said. A lot of times folks will come to town and they'll go to this place or that place, but I think using a food hall as a starting point gives folks a sense of the culture of Baltimore.
Posted in University News, Community
Tagged community, food, q+a, student center
