Majani Soulful Vegan Cuisine
“Authenticity”
by Jack Hallinan, @jackhallinan17
Chef Tsadakeeyah Emmanuel maintained a plant-based diet during his childhood. The 59-year-old was one of 16 children. His father, Gilbert Emmanuel Jones, cooked economical meals. Rice and beans were a staple. Emmanuel’s family was also Seventh-day Adventist, so they didn’t eat pork and rarely had other red meats, as Adventist diets have leaned towards vegetarianism.
“Food was always front and center for me and my siblings coming up,” Emmanuel said. “On weekends [my father] would make this whole wheat bread, like he was making [it] for a restaurant, and he would make this beef stew. Those are two things that stick in my mind when I think about food and my childhood.”
“Food was always front and center for me and my siblings coming up”
Emmanuel found inspiration in his father’s dedication to making food for his large family. Today, Emmanuel, known at his restaurant as “Chef T,” and his wife Nasya own and operate Majani Soulful Vegan Cuisine, a plant-based soul food restaurant in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood, just a few blocks from the shore of Lake Michigan. With Majani, the Emmanuels have introduced many southside residents to vegan cooking.
“I think that’s one of the thrills of being here,” Emmanuel said. “People that walk in, maybe got dragged in because of their husband or wife or sibling, and they’re like, ‘oh I’m just going to eat grass and lettuce.’ [Then] they are blown away by the taste, the presentation, the flavors.”
Emmanuel’s experience in the restaurant industry goes back much further than Majani’s founding in 2016. After graduating high school, he worked as a prep cook at a restaurant in Baltimore. He would leave Baltimore for Atlanta, where he started as a chef at a restaurant named Original Soul Vegetarian. Emmanuel took over the company’s Chicago location in 1991, and he’s been a Chicago resident ever since. In 2016, the Emmanuels decided they wanted to open a vegan restaurant of their own, but gaining investors was an uphill climb.
“Getting folks to believe in the neighborhood was a challenge, and nobody would, so we hustled,” Emmanuel said. “I drove for Uber, we catered and saved and did whatever we could to raise the money needed.”
Emmanuel and Nasya were determined to stay in the south side. The couple wanted to fill a gap they perceived in the area.
“It became frustrating for us, every time we wanted to sit down and have a meal, a healthy meal, we had to leave the neighborhood,” Emmanuel said. “And we just decided one day, we had left the neighborhood to go to another restaurant way on the Northside, and the food was not good. We were both just like ‘this is just not what veganism should be.’”
That experience flipped a switch for the couple.
“On the ride home, we were just like, ‘we just need to do it ourselves,’” Emmanuel said. “‘If we do it, we can hire folks in the neighborhood that look like us.’”
It took about 16 months and a lot of sweat equity to prepare the restaurant that would become Majani to open. To save on costs, Emmanuel made the tables by hand and remodeled the bathroom by himself, among other renovations.
“The community saw the kind of effort we put into this place and they respected that,” Emmanuel said. “I think because of that, that helped us to be a success early.”
Today, Majani partners with the city of Chicago on a number of initiatives. Emmanuel and Nasya helped create the Bronzeville Community Garden, an urban garden that has a cooking pavilion to make locally-sourced meals for community members. They have also worked with the South Merrill Community Garden and other Chicago-based urban farmers whose produce they use at the restaurant.
“There was a point in time where I kept saying to myself ‘why don’t they fix this, why don’t they fix that,’” Emmanuel said. “And one day, I was like ‘dude, there is no ‘they,’ you are the ‘they.’ I felt a sense of obligation as an elder of the community. I have to be part of the change I want to see.”
As more people have adopted plant-based diets, Emmanuel has seen veganism evolve from an alternative lifestyle to something more mainstream. According to a study by Ipsos Retail Performance, the number of vegans in the U.S. has grown to at least 9.7 million people, up from around 290,000 in 2004, opening up a market for corporations to take advantage of.
“I appreciate how it’s grown,” Emmanuel said, “but I’m at angst at how it’s grown in terms of the commercialization and things that would not have been acceptable back then. I’m not a fan of things like the Beyond Meat. I’d like to see the authenticity of veganism remain.”
That’s why patrons won’t find Beyond Meat on the menu at Majani. The burgers, for example, are made from black eye peas, not an artificial meat substitute. Other menu items include BBQ cauliflower “wings,” Jerk tofu Soul Bowls, mac & house-made soy cheese, collard greens and sweet potatoes.
The restaurant’s status as one of Chicago’s best vegan spots has attracted customers from all around Chicago and its suburbs. You can’t look at a list of vegan restaurants in Chicago on Eater or The Infatuation without finding Majani. Its status as a premier vegan restaurant and a community hub also makes it an attractive place to work. That was the case for Latreace Smith, who can be found taking orders at the counter.
“I’ve been vegan for five years now,” Smith said. “It definitely drew me to working in this environment because it supports my lifestyle as well.”
Smith also appreciates Majani’s place in the community.
“[Majani] gives you other options when it comes to eating healthier,” Smith said. “It supports that love and that integrity that comes along with being in a community. It says a lot about how you feel about the environment you’re in.”
Emmanuel says that he will look to expand his business and open locations across the U.S. He also deeply values his experience as an entrepreneur.
“Being an entrepreneur is definitely a lot of hard work,” Emmanuel said, “but being able to control your time, your value, your worth, is priceless.”
