1 of 5
2 of 5
3 of 5
4 of 5
5 of 5
When you open a butcher shop called “Obama Meat Market,” you’re gonna get The Question, so you’d better have a Ready Response.
The Question: “Did you name the shop after the President?”
The Ready Response: “No. I am Obama – I’m the president here.”
Obama Shalabi – that’s his real name. He comes to us by way of Jerusalem, and his undeniable Arabic accent makes the Ready Response that much more piquant.
His domain on East Grand Boulevard is, in the delightful oxymoron of his phrasing, a “mini-supermarket.” It is also a butcher shop, a carryout-only restaurant, a corner bodega, and a beauty supply store.
If you’re hungry now, Obama will sell you hot wings, kebobs, fried catfish, burgers and fries, nachos, tripe, gizzards, chicken-salad sandwiches, gyros, Philly cheesesteaks, ribs, and so on. If you’re laying in supplies, Obama will sell you deli meat, frozen meats, and bulk packages of assorted cuts of meat for families and institutions. The “Big Club Deal #1,” for instance, offers 100 pounds of beef, pork, chicken, hot dogs, ribs, catfish nuggets, etc. for $189.99.
Obama opened his place three years ago, he said, but it was only last June that he re-opened after a fire put a stop to business in October of 2011.
His customers eagerly welcomed back the entrepreneur, whose motto is “If you want something you don’t see, just ask and we will get it for you.” You see, to satisfy his customers, Obama had to learn about soul food. He had to learn about costume jewelry, hair beads and extensions, hair relaxers and activators, and fake eyelashes. Obama knows fake eyelashes. He has a whole wall of them, secure behind glass.
People in the vicinity, which is technically known as College Hill, asked Obama to carry these things, and true to his word, he obliged.
“I learned from people what they like,” he explained. “I take their suggestions seriously. They wanted $1 items. They wanted me to accept WIC vouchers so pregnant women can buy healthy food, and young mothers can buy milk. So I do these things. Now they want liquor and beer, so we will get a license for that.”
I asked Obama (left) what he can do that his namesake, the Prez, cannot. His response floored me.
“I can try to fix my community,” he said. “All the vacant buildings around here need to be full of people. I hate to see vacant houses. I would like to see the community built back. I am willing to help pay for these things, to help people, to put back into the community.”
If you think about it, he’s absolutely right. A small businessman who puts down roots in an economically depressed neighborhood can probably rejuvenate the area faster than just about any federal program. Money talks. And a bodega has a way of bringing people together, too.
Case in point: Obama carries a selection of hookahs (and the other Obama once would have used them with aplomb, apparently). One young lass entered his shop recently, asking how they worked. A small group of customers paused in their shopping to convene as one about her personage, offering helpful tips for the use of the shisha, hookah, water pipe, whatever you prefer to call it. After enduring a multidirectional assault from this ad-hoc group of enthusiastic smokers, the young woman looked to the cluster of faces.
“So,” she said to them, not quite getting it, “plain old water will get me high?”
Laughter from all parties ensued. (On a nearby poster, Barack Obama looked off into the horizon, unconcerned with novices.)
It was a happy accident that Obama shares the name of a U.S. president particularly beloved by the surrounding community; it was a happy aesthetic accident that his store is a stone’s throw from the disused 1871 Grand Avenue Water Tower, a massive,154-foot Corinthian column at the center of a traffic roundabout (below). It needs a paint job, but somehow its decay goes hand in hand with its antiquated look and purpose. It’s a majestic, grandfatherly thing, perpetually in its last throes, but now that it’s on the National Register of Historic Places, it will remain, its stately patina of age and quixotic stand against passing time with us for the foreseeable future, lending grandeur to surrounding tripe-and-gizzard shacks.
Speaking of things quixotic, Obama’s dream to do his part to conquer the blight in the city is, frankly, to some of us embittered observers, the kind of progress possible only in a pop song. But then again, he came to the United States 16 years ago by himself, and now he operates a busy storefront, full of quirky customers, where he offers American soul food, Arabic accents, and ready jokes in equal measure. And as the Presidential election draws closer, that old bugaboo, hope for the future, can seem infectious – how much more so, we imagine, if your name is Obama, and you’re feeling the St. Louis City love.
Obama Meat Market & Barbeque
2025 E. Grand
314-533-7261
http://northcity.fox2now.com/business-directory/food-dining/93951/obama-meat-market
