DENVER — Fathima Dickerson says she has few family memories that don’t involve the Welton Street Café.
“My parents have had this business for 34 years,” she said. “I’m 32 years old, so there’s no conversation about myself without this place.”
Twenty years ago, the family-run business that’s known for its fried catfish, chicken wings, jerk chicken and pâtés moved to its current location across from the light rail station on Welton Street. Since then, the Dickersons have watched other nearby businesses move out of the rapidly-changing Five Points neighborhood, and former regulars get priced out of what was once Denver’s most predominantly black community.
“This used to be a neighborhood business, but the people who frequent this spot don’t live here anymore,” said Flynn Dickerson, the retired owner of the Welton Street Café.
Now that Flynn Dickerson has stepped back, twins Fathima and Fathim Dickerson are in charge of day-to-day operations. The restaurant has gone from being open seven days a week to six, even though both are quick to say the Mondays when it’s closed are not by any means a day off.
“There are a lot of emotions with this place,” Fathima Dickerson said. “This is a full-blown marriage. When people say they’re married to work, I’m definitely married to work.”
Fathima Dickerson started working at the restaurant as a child – washing dishes – before becoming the assistant manager, where she handles the dining room while her brother manages the kitchen. She’s unique in that she spent 10 years working outside of the restaurant.
“I know I wasn’t supposed to do that,” she said. “That was for me to grow. I know at Welton Street Café, being black, working around black people, you get stuck in your ways. I needed to know what it’s like to work with everybody because I need to service everybody.”
The clientele has grown from people in the neighborhood to the millennials who have moved in that Flynn Dickerson said, “like the home cooking.” The soul food restaurant, which is known throughout the country, has also seen its share of celebrities.
Some of them are immortalized on the selfie boards near the front of the dining room, which show selfies customers have taken with Fathima Dickerson and the other people who have worked at the Welton Street Café for decades.
“The most memorable was David Banner, I almost proposed to him,” Fathima Dickerson said.
Regina King has also been in the restaurant, and Fathima Dickerson said she talked about her days waiting tables. Von Miller has also stopped by, but the board isn’t just full of celebrities; it shows the customers who frequent the Welton Street Café, and the staff – some of whom have been there longer than Fathima and Fathim Dickerson have been alive.
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“A lot of women, we have to take 10 selfies before we can use one,” Fathima Dickerson joked. Her brother is in the selfies but in the role of the photobomber.
“My concept on the pictures on the wall is ‘where’s Waldo?’” Fathim Dickerson said.
For its 20th anniversary, the Welton Street Café is holding a celebration in the Five Points Plaza between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Tuesday. It will feature live music and free food for the community members who stop by.
The Dickersons say they believe the restaurant will be open for another 20 years, even as the neighborhood continues to change.
“I’m looking forward to what this neighborhood has to bring,” Fathima Dickerson said, “but I’m also cautious about trying to hold that legacy, that I have what I need.”
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