Sylvia Woods

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Sylvia Woods (February 2, 1926 – July 19, 2012) was an American restaurant owner who started Sylvia’s, a famous soul food restaurant in Harlem, New York City. She opened the restaurant in 1962 with her husband, Herbert Woods, on Lenox Avenue near the Apollo Theater. It became a popular place for locals and tourists.

Sylvia was born Sylvia Pressley in Hemingway, South Carolina. Her father died from war injuries when she was a few days old. She was raised by her grandmother, Sylvia Johnson, in Williamsburg County, and later moved to New York with her mother in 1930. She met her future husband, Herbert Woods, in a bean field when they were children, and they married in 1944. They had four children: Van, Bedelia, Kenneth, and Crizette.

Before opening the restaurant, Sylvia trained as a beautician and ran a beauty shop in both New York and South Carolina. She also worked as a waitress at Johnson’s Luncheonette in Harlem from 1954 to 1962. When the owner decided to sell, she bought the place for $20,000 and, with Herbert, transformed it into Sylvia’s. By the early 1990s the restaurant could seat about 450 people and added a catering service.

In 1992 Sylvia’s son Van started a line of Sylvia’s soul food products, sold nationwide. Sylvia published two cookbooks: Sylvia’s Soul Food Cookbook (1992) and Sylvia’s Family Soul Food Cookbook (1999).

The restaurant gained wide fame after a 1979 New York magazine article by Gael Greene called her “the queen of soul food.” Sylvia’s stayed in the family, and in 2011 they celebrated 50 years in Harlem. The restaurant has hosted many famous guests, including Quincy Jones, Diana Ross, Muhammad Ali, Bill Clinton, Robert F. Kennedy, and Barack Obama.

Sylvia stepped back from day-to-day duties around age 80. She died in 2012 in Mount Vernon, New York, after years with Alzheimer's disease. In 2014 a corner of Harlem was named Sylvia P. Woods Way in her honor. The restaurant remains owned by her children and grandchildren. Spike Lee used Sylvia’s as a location for Jungle Fever, and former President Clinton spoke at her memorial in 2012.