Joppa Restaurant Weathers Uncertain Economy, Rising Food Costs

From a location that by any measure is considered small, Herman Brown thinks he has a pretty good vantage point of the bigger picture.

“With the recent prices in food going up and things like that, business has been kind of slow.”

It’s something any business owner and cook, and Brown is both, notices.

He opened Tha Neighborhood Kitchen at the height of the pandemic. Two years later, he says his little soul food place in Joppa is facing a new challenge.

“The economy right now, gas prices and the feds going up on percentage of the dollar, people are not spending like they used to,” Brown said.

Brown says to stay open in an area with few restaurants, he works to keep costs low. Payroll is manageable because he and his business partner Katrina Cheney are the employees.

“The store prices are way up,” Brown said. “Our supply chain tries to work with us,” he says. But Brown adds his small business doesn’t have the purchasing power of larger buyers so he has limited leverage.

Numbers out Thursday reveal a contracting economy nationwide for the second consecutive three-month period.

Most economists say a reduction in the gross domestic product (GDP) alone doesn’t equate to a recession just yet but it’s close.

Back at the Tha Neighborhood Kitchen, customers like Mavis Polk say he’s noticing signs of a possible recession too but is dedicated, for his love of good food, to keep spending here.

“It’s a neighborhood business,” Polk said. “I like to keep the money into the neighborhood as well.”