Things We Love

More than a restaurant: Breakfast Klub reaches out to community, helps preservehistory

Breakfast Klub owner Marcus Davis with Majic 102's Nzinga Rideaux.
Photo by Tyler Rudick
Throughout Black History Month, Davis will be presenting a series of radiopieces on notable African-American Houstonians.
Photo by Tyler Rudick
Also this February, The Breakfast Klub is inviting its dedicated customers tocontribute to the restaurant's display of positive written messages for theHouston community.
Photo by Tyler Rudick

Everyday, the The Breakfast Klub opens its doors with a healthy dose of positivity, busily greeting its devoted customers with lively inspirational music and warm greetings as the sun starts to rise.

But Wednesday morning the restaurant was even more effervescent than usual, as Breakfast Klub owner Marcus Davis joined Majic 102.1 and radio personality Nzinga Rideaux for a special on-air event to kick off Black History Month.

Davis will narrate a month-long series of short vignettes for the adult R&B radio station that celebrate some of Houston's most important African-American leaders. More than 20 local trailblazers will be featured, including civil rights activist Barbara Jordan, renowned artist John Biggers, musician Archie Bell and tennis champion Zina Garrison.

"We celebrate Black History around here all year long because we never forget the achievements of those who have persevered before us," Davis said.

Davis and Majic 102.1 plan to make the biographical series an annual event to honor those in the black community who have helped to shape the city's dynamic history.

Breakfast Klub staffers are also inviting members of the local community to submit written prayers and empowering messages to be posted on a display at the beloved breakfast hangout.

"We wanted to celebrate in a way that would have an positive impact on the city," Davis told CultureMap during the Wednesday event.

"I'm a believer in power of positivity and feel that prayer, whether religious or not, helps people maintain a mindset that makes good things happen in the community."

“We celebrate Black History around here all year long because we never forget the achievements of those who have persevered before us, paving the way, not only for our success, but also for the success of our children,” Davis said.

“That’s why it’s so important to keep the legacy of these outstanding pioneers alive by reminding Houstonians about what they contributed to this great city and to our culture."

In addition to operating The Breakfast Klub and sister cafe The Reggae Hut, Marcus Davis is a fixture on Majic 102.1's community talk program Sunday Morning Live. It airs every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

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Love Your Mother-In-Law

Daughter-in-Law Diaries: New site gives you tools to deal with the other womanin your husband's life

Daughter-in-Law Diaries launched in late January.
Daughter-in-Law Diaries
Founder Ali Katz hopes that the website will help to bring families together.
Photo by © Michelle Watson/CatchLightGroup.com

Long the scourge of a healthy and happy marriage, a daughter-in-law's relationship with her mother-in-law often follows the same story: Daughter-in-law becomes frustrated with nagging and bragging, mother-in-law fails to see how her interference is burdensome, son plays both sides, no one wins.

As a new wife and a new mom, this cycle was a part of Houstonian Ali Katz's life, too. Discontented with the situation, and tired of venting to her husband, Katz took to writing a novel about the tribulations of dealing with a mother-in-law.

Katz noticed that she didn't like the main character — her — who was impatient with her well-meaning mother-in-law. So she decided to do something about it.

"It was really a cathartic experience," Katz tells CultureMap. "It made me take a big, hard look at myself."

Katz noticed that she didn't like the main character — her — who was impatient with her well-meaning mother-in-law. So she decided to do something about it.

In late January, Katz launched Daughter-in-Law Diaries, an interactive website designed to help herself and others improve upon the oft-contentious relationship.

Daughter-in-Law Diaries offers licensed therapists to council and answer tough questions, easy recipes and entertaining ideas to impress and plenty of forum space to vent to sympathetic users — other women who face similar woes.

As the website expands, expect to see Wedding Wisdom Profiles from event planners (Christine Hoffer from Belle of the Ball will be the first featured, and then Philadelphia-based Barbara-Jo Saler) and full menus from guest chefs (Spoiler alert! Ari Rosenson, the executive chef from CUT in Los Angeles, has already signed on, as has Skinny Ms.).

"I am so excited about this project, because even though there are so many wonderful recipes online, these full menus will really help pull the whole meal together and ease the stress of entertaining family and friends," Katz says.

The whole point, Katz explains, is to bring families together. Those daughters-in-law already using the website have responded with overwhelming positivity: Where before they felt isolated, they now have a place to connect and an outlet for anonymous release about the other woman in your man's life.

And as for her own mother-in-law? "We have a wonderful relationship," Katz says.

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