Every day, 76-year-old Cynthia Owens-Green wakes up around 4:30 a.m. to start her job at Owens Market & Deli, her business that has served Baton Rouge since 1938.
In Louisiana’s Capital city, Owens Market & Deli first opened as a grocery store and deli after the start of World War II. Now, it’s a breakfast and lunch restaurant serving scratch-made plates Tuesday through Saturday. People stop by for the soul-filled fare, but many use the opportunity to catch up with Owens-Green and her family-filled staff, whom customers have grown with over the decades.
After Eleanora Wooders, 81, finished her lunch plate of turkey wings, rice and collard greens on a Wednesday afternoon, she was blowing kisses and poking her cane across the room at one of Owens-Green’s three daughters, Kristi Green, 54.
“They’re my family,” Wooders said. “Their children, my children, they all grew up together.”…