‘Since we opened, I’ve approached (the dealers) as human beings. I’ve given them nourishing food.’

Since 2017, West Garfield Park native Joe Black and his wife, Tonya, have owned LiFE Restaurant on West Madison Street. Tonya cooks up a menu from recipes she created. No pork, no red meat, nothing fried. Joe takes orders, a process that almost always seems to involve greeting customers by name and starting a conversation that often turns into a motivational speech.

Joe Black, 38

Owner, LiFE Restaurant, 3858 W. Madison

We opened LiFE here very intentionally. We wanted to offer people something that wasn’t barbecue or fried food because this is a food desert. We wanted to offer people jobs.

People come in, and yeah, I talk. And I listen. I just had a woman come in, just had a baby, and she tells me she’s got postpartum depression and is really struggling. What am I supposed to say? ‘Here’s your food, next order’? Sister needed some help.

I grew up in West Garfield Park. My family has been here for six generations. My grandmother lives right down the street.

My mother and I, when she was struggling with addiction, actually lived in the apartment upstairs. This used to be a bar then. A bad one.

On the day I signed the lease, I called my mom and told her, and she said, ‘I’m 30 years sober today.’ We were living in that apartment when she had a vision and God touched her.

The guys out on Madison (selling drugs) don’t help business. The elders try to stay off Madison because they make it too dangerous. They aren’t afraid of (the dealers), but they are afraid of the activity that goes on around them, that someone might come by shooting.

Since we opened, I’ve approached (the dealers) as human beings. I’ve given them nourishing food. They don’t hang in front of my spot anymore.

I’ve offered some of them jobs. That’s all they want. Most of them don’t want to be doing what they’re doing.

Over Labor Day weekend, a car crashed through the front of the restaurant after the driver was shot.

Owner Joe Black and his wife, Tonya, survey the damage after a vehicle crashed through the front window of their restaurant, LiFE at 3854 W. Madison St., after the driver was shot by a pedestrian in West Garfield Park, Saturday. | Andy Grimm/Sun-Times

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Owner Joe Black and his wife, Tonya, survey the damage after a vehicle crashed through the front window of their restaurant, LiFE at 3854 W. Madison St., after the driver was shot by a pedestrian in West Garfield Park. | Andy Grimm/Sun-Times

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Owner Joe Black stands at the counter after a vehicle crashed through the front window of his restaurant, LiFE at 3854 W. Madison St., after the driver was shot by a pedestrian in West Garfield Park, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023. | Andy Grimm/Sun-Times | Andy Grimm/Sun-Times

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Owner Joe Black surveys the damage after a vehicle crashed through the front window of their restaurant, LiFE at 3854 W. Madison St., after the driver was shot by a pedestrian in West Garfield Park, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023. | Andy Grimm/Sun-Times | Andy Grimm/Sun-Times

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Owner Joe Black and his wife, Tonya, talk to Chicago police officials after a vehicle crashed through the front window of their restaurant, LiFE at 3854 W. Madison St., after the driver was shot by a pedestrian in West Garfield Park. | Andy Grimm/Sun-Times

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I actually knew the guy who got killed. He was my cousin. I don’t know the other guy who shot him. I’m sure people know but don’t want to tell me.

He was in here all the time. I had talked to him earlier in the week about a job. He had a job but it was on a grant and the grant ran out.

He’s not trying to go back to what he did a long time ago. He’s a man; he’s got bills to pay, He wants to be a man. Next thing I know he was out playing dice, and that’s how I heard (the chase and the crash) all started. ...

If people wasn’t so pressurized, maybe they wouldn’t pop like that. I think a lot of people, what they have, it’s probably temporary insanity or they black out. It’s all just too much.