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“font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;”>“When I used to sing with Dr. John, we used to have this song called right time, wrong place,” Sweetie Pie’s owner Robbie Montgomery said as she sat in her restaurant. “Well this is the right place.”
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Fresh on the heels of securing approval to open another restaurant in the heart of Grand Center, Montgomery and her son Timothy Norman are destined to be stars when the world is introduced to them thanks to a reality television show that will air on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) later this season.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Although Montgomery an accomplished background singer, Montgomery has the flair of a leading lady.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>In her pink chef’s jacket – as opposed to the standard white – she draws you in with her personality and fills you up much like her trademark macaroni and cheese.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Montgomery
left St.
Louis as a young person to become a star. In a case of the most
beautiful kind of irony, years after returning from California, the
fame she chased on stage would be found in her St. Louis
kitchen.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I never would have dreamed any of this,” Montgomery said. “When my mom made me go in the house to cook I was complaining, but now I’m paying the rent with it. I know she’s turning over saying ‘I told you so.’’
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Even Montgomery’s mother couldn’t have imagined that the family recipes that she cooked on a hotplate for the Ikettes during the days of segregation would make her a household name in St. Louis. And thanks to the show, she’s on the cusp of international stardom.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“This whole thing was his dream,” Montgomery said pointing her thumb at her son Tim Norman and his fiancée Janee Wallick.
“mso-spacerun: yes;”> a film crew and he just couldn’t get it together and I was like, ‘thank you, thank you, thank you.’ But when it came together I was like ‘maybe it was just meant to be.’”
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>And so it is. Just a couple of months after finding a production company (thanks to Daraisha Crosby) and shooting a pilot, Oprah’s people came calling.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>After seeing how they interact with each other, it was no surprise.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“You’ve heard of a stage mother, well I’m a stage son,” Norman said. She cut her eyes and threw her hands in the air with laughter while Wallick just shook her head and smiled.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>It was as if they were sitting in Montgomery’s kitchen and not a busy restaurant in the middle of the Mangrove.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Chances are this interaction is a taste of what the millions of OWN viewers will see when the show debuts.
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>“I hope we let it people know that we’ve got it going on in St. Louis and that people need to come visit us from all over the world,” Montgomery said. “And when they come, they need to come to Sweetie Pie’s.”
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“mso-spacerun: yes;”> see between them when they interact with each other and no matter how angry they get at each other, they still come back,” Wallick said. “It’s an employee, employer relationship, but at the end of the day he’s calling to see if mama made it home – and she’s asking questions about her baby. I want people to really see what a black family looks like.”
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“mso-spacerun: yes;”> said. ‘I want it to be good. We’re opening our lives to the camera and I don’t want to suck. We’re wondering, are we going to be funny? Are they going to like us? How long are we going to last?”
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>It’s the same jitters that she experienced when she opened up her first restaurant back in 1998.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>She had been around the world as a singer, but medical issues forced her to bow out of her first career.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>But thanks to a friendship sparked when she was working as a dialysis technician for Leon Strauss, she was able to breathe life into another personal passion. He provided initial financial support for the first Sweetie Pie’s, located on West Florissant in North County.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>At the time her beloved son was behind bars – which was part of her motivation to get the restaurant up and running.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“One of my reasons I worked so hard to open the restaurant was that I knew my some was going to come home one day and that society would be against him,” Montgomery said. “And that he would need somebody to give him an opportunity. Me being his mother, I was able to do that.”
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Norman didn’t know at the time that she was doing it for him. He just knew that as he sat in his cell, his mother was living her dream.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>And just like Montgomery remembered the recipes of her
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Now they’re a team at the restaurant and on television. And both hope through the show that by seeing Norman’s success that women and men will realize that not only is there is life after prison – but there is opportunity to pursue life-long passions.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I prayed for this. It’s here and I’m just enjoying it,” Montgomery said. “My thing is trying to set an example that if you have your dreams you can reach them, but then reach back. If they push me I can pull and we help somebody else. Your dream is your dream. Nobody sees your vision, nobody can sing your song and nobody can tell your story – so get out there and do it.”
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“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>Sweetie Pie’s restaurants are located at 4270 Manchester and 9841 W. Florissant. Sweetie Pie’s will debut on the Oprah Winfrey Network later this season. For more information on listings, visit www.oprah.com/own
