Sylvia, Queen Of Soul Food, Dies
Sylvia Woods, the woman behind Sylvia’s, the Harlem restaurant that’s practically synonymous with soul food in New York, died yesterday at the age of 86. According to the Times, her family released a statement, but cited no specific cause of death, though Woods had been battling Alzheimer’s disease. The restaurant originally opened in 1962 and, as Gael Greene discovered in her 1979 New York Magazine story “Harlem on My Mind,” went on to become a destination for all New Yorkers. The Times calls it “a culinary anchor and the de facto social center of Harlem” — an apt description of a restaurant that so clearly transcended its food.
