GADSDEN COUNTY, FL (WTXL) — A Tallahassee café owner who lost her business after a foreclosure changed ownership of her building has reopened in a new city — and a new chapter.
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Latasha "Tootie" Reed-Hopkins was preparing to leave her small Northwest Tallahassee café two months ago after the foreclosure. She lost thousands of dollars and, for a moment, questioned whether to keep going.
"When all of this happened, I wanted to give up. I wanted to just crawl on a rock and just say, hey, you know what, don't worry about it. Never give up on your dreams. Keep going," Reed-Hopkins said.
Keeping going brought her about 20 miles north to Havana, where she now owns and operates a full-service restaurant in a building that holds personal meaning.
"I remember coming to this space when I was growing up in high school. That was like a chicken joint back then, so now, you know, is like unbelievable. Now I am the owner of this space, so I'm hoping to make this home for a long time," Reed-Hopkins said.
The restaurant is now drawing families, neighbors and local workers. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the 32333 ZIP code, which includes Havana, has about 206 business establishments employing more than 1,300 people. Reed-Hopkins hopes her restaurant can add to that economic activity.
Neighbor Shamar Edmond hopes the new restaurant signals something bigger for the community.
"Not only will this give the members of the community a place to have somewhere to eat. It'll bring new faces to the community. I feel like it'll bring money to Havana. Hopefully, we can have other businesses and that she can be the, I wanna say the starter, the start of building up Havana," Edmond said.
Reed-Hopkins said she is pursuing legal action against the former owner of the building where her old café once stood. ABC27 reached out to the former owner for comment but had not received a response as of this report.
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