The one celebrity that caused some trouble was the noted civil rights activist, comic and vegetarian Dick Gregory. Jackson, Stokely Carmichael and Vernon Jordan. Celebrities and well-known figures that made a point to eat at the Grill included the band Earth, Wind and Fire, Jesse L. In a city that had a legacy of segregation, the Florida Avenue Grill served all comers. Howard University faculty and Cardozo High School students also made up large portions of the clientele. The restaurant drew a following from nearby Pepco offices as well as Garfield Freedman's and Children's hospitals. In addition to those highly respectable customers, the odd politician, lady of the evening and journalist can be found there. On any given day, the customers include hardhats, laborers, office workers, students, professionals, entertainers and diplomats. Perhaps that was another reason for its success. Wilson encouraged cabdrivers to patronize his establishment, and to recommend it to their customers. Huge vats, simmering for hours, yield treasures of chitterlings, cabbage and fatback, collards and fatback, and pigfeet. Patrons praise the eggs, grits, home-fried potatoes, hotcakes, salmon cakes, corned-beef hash, baked apples, fresh country biscuits, homemade cornbread, and a seemingly endless supply of beef, pork and chicken dishes. Perhaps the Grill's finest hour is breakfast - which seems to last all day. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The outside of the restaurant is modest, that over the years had signs advertising "home cooking" since 1944. The seating consists of plastic stools lining a long Formica counter and a half-dozen wooden booths. Over the years, neither the setting nor the menu has changed much. Lively and cheerful waitresses serve enormous quantities of food to customers of all ages and races. The Grill, at Florida Avenue and 11th Street NW, has always seemed packed with a hungry and cosmopolitan clientele.
Lacey Carl Wilson Sr., 76, the owner, founder and impresario of the Florida Avenue Grill, that legendary Washington institution that has been providing simple southern, country and soul food to a hungry city since the mid-1940s, died of congestive heart failure March 3 at Howard University Hospital.
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