Croaker’s Spot

Tastemakers

Croaker’s Spot is one of the new hustlers and bustlers in Jackson Ward. Kevin Anderson opened the seafood restaurant on the corner of Leigh and Second streets in April. Neverett A. “Sugarfoot” Eggleston III manages the place. He’s the grandson of Neverett A. Eggleston Sr., one-time king of Jackson Ward. Croaker’s stands right across the street from the old Eggleston Hotel.

Open for only a month, Croaker’s is still a fascinating sight to some passersby such as an old lady who stops to press her face up to one of the large plate-glass windows.

Croaker’s refers to the regional fish. But then there’s the old gentleman, Mr. Croaker, who Anderson says used to travel up and down the Eastern Seaboard doing who-knows-what, other than making lots of friends and collecting lots of memorabilia. Mr. Croaker donated to the restaurant many items from his collection, like gloves worn by Joe Lewis, which now hang on the walls. Anderson says Croaker’s also refers to a well-known 1940s Harlem seafood restaurant.

Anderson has spent the last five years trying open his restaurant. He’s done a lot of work to the place, but kept pieces that provide memories like the neon sign from the days when the building housed the Liberty ice cream and sandwich shop. Future plans include an upstairs lounge and extension of the restaurant all the way to the Hippodrome Theater. “We’re basically trying to help re-create what Second Street once was,” Anderson says. 421-0560.

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