Industrial Revolution Eatery & Grille Weekly Special, Shrimp & Grits: February 13th – February 19th

IR-Shrimp-and-GritsJoin us in the month of February to see who we are saluting for Black History Month!

Shrimp & Grits - $12.95
Cheesy grits with garlic, cherry tomatoes and bacon with five grilled shrimp. Served with garlic toast

Marjorie Joyner
(1896-1994)

Marjorie Joyner grew up in poverty in Monterey, Virginia and was the granddaughter of a slave and slave owner. At the age of 16 she moved to Chicago to pursue a career in cosmetology. In 1916, she became the first black woman to graduate from the A.B. Molar Beauty School. By 20 she married and started her own beauty salon soon thereafter. Marjorie was introduced to Madame Walker, the well-known black hair care products entrepreneur, and enrolled in Madame Walker's hair styling classes. She worked closely with Walker and became her national supervisor of over 200 Walker beauty schools across the country. Joyner was instrumental in the growth of Walkers Beauty Empire and after Walkers death, she became vice president of the company and helped write cosmetology laws. Joyner was a salon executive, activist, philanthropist, and community leader, but mostly known for being a notable inventor and being the first black woman to receive a patent in 1924. She invented a permanent wave machine, to either curl or straighten woman's hair. This invention was very successful and popular with woman of all races and said her idea started with making a pot roast; "It all came to me in the kitchen when I was making a pot roast one day, looking at these long, thin rods that held the pot roast together and heated it up from the inside. I figured you could use them like hair rollers, then heat them up to cook a permanent curl into the hair." Until her death at 98 years old, Joyner worked every day during the week and every Sunday at the Cosmopolitan Community Church which she helped found. The Chicago Tribune noted that she had "touched the lives of Millions of African Americans"...