Meaux on Southern Heaux: The Department of Motor Vehicles probably wouldn't approve 'heaux' for a personalized license tag, spokesman tells Maumelle Monitor[ed].
Restaurant founder, whose great-grandmother taught her to cook, says 'heaux' stands for: 'Helping to Evolve Aspiring and Undeniable Xenas.'
‘A plate represents the state of Arkansas,’ said Scott Hardin, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. The Office of Motor Vehicles probably wouldn’t approve ‘heaux’ for a license tag. ‘It should be family friendly.’
Akira Crenshaw, the founder of the Southern Heaux food truck and restaurant, learned how to steal the hard-shelled output from her great-grandmother’s hens without running afowl of the birds, and she learned to stir up pancakes in her great-grandmother’s kitchen.
“My great grandmother showed us how to cook — everything homemade,” says Akira, who moved to Sparkman, Arkansas, from California when she was five. “She showed us everything from getting eggs out of the chicken coop to preserving pears.”
Akira’s first job was at Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen on West Markham in Little Rock, when it was known as Popeye’s Chicken and Biscuits. She was 15. That job, combined with all she had learned from her great-grandmother, inspired her. “I dreamed,” she says, “of having a breakfast restaurant.”
She opened her Southern Heaux food truck in Little Rock in August 2022. She plans to open the Maumelle restaurant at the Maumelle Corners shopping center by the end of April.
Her menu is Southern with some Cajun mixed in: Salmon croquets. Shrimp and grits. Pound cake French toast. Peach cobbler toppings. “The breakfast dishes we serve give you more of a southern feel,” she says.
Akira looked for a place in Little Rock to open her storefront, but ultimately picked Maumelle, where the rent is a bit less expensive. Maumelle’s plans to create what she called a “new downtown” appealed to her. “I was trying to find a space in an area that doesn’t really offer we have to offer,” she says, “a place where we could flourish.”
The name of her restaurant follows a trend of branding restaurants with off-color names in other parts of the country, she says. “It’s mainly marketing. One of my business idols, a few, have these really fun names of businesses.”
She mentioned Bacon B~(spelled out), where employees, according to the website, greet you “with the iconic ‘Hey B~!’ … The Main B~es will greet you at your table.” There’s Biscuit B~., and Akira also mentioned Slutty Vegan, founded in Atlanta by a former television producer. The headline over a New York Times story about SV read: “A naughty name, a virtuous menu, and a line down the block.”
Akira chose the Cajun spelling of Heaux. “We get a lot of people who don’t know how to pronounce it. A lot of people don’t know the meaning behind the way we spell ‘heaux,’ ” she says. “The way we spelled it is, ‘Helping to Evolve Aspiring and Undeniable Xenas.’ A Xena is a confident, strong woman.
“Some people don’t really care for the name,” she says. “They may or may not visit. Not every business is for everybody.”
I told her I am one of those who doesn’t care for the name. I don’t understand the need for off~color humor ~ I understand the appeal for an easy laugh ~ in speeches, titles, or the name of a restaurant.
To her point, some people ~ me for instance ~ won’t patronize her restaurant because of the name. In choosing that name, she automatically eliminates a percentage of diners. But I’ll bet no one would stay away if she had named it, say, The Purloined Eggs, in honor of all the eggs she snatched from her grandmother’s chicken coop. Some probably would come because of the name.
Many people aren’t as sensitive as I about profanity and vulgarity. My parents raised my two sisters and me without ever cursing. Not even once. I didn’t curse in my home; my daughters never heard me curse. Therefore, when profanity rises on the wind, especially in public, I notice. I have asked a tableful of men at a restaurant in Little Rock to calm down; my 17-year-old daughter and I were lunching at the next table.
You can be clever, clean, and make money. In the 1990s, Deborah Ford, a high school volleyball coach in Alabama, founded GRITS — Girls Raised in the South. It’s southern, it says what she wants to say about strong women, and it’s perfectly acceptable (unless, I suppose, you are from the Great Lakes).
To check my instincts, I called the Office of Motor Vehicles. “Would you allow the word ‘heaux’ on a personalized license plate?” I asked.
Scott Hardin, speaking for the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, said the DMV probably wouldn’t approve the word for a car tag. “We don’t anticipate ‘heaux’ would be allowed if an application was received,’ ” he said.
'“Our Motor Vehicle team has multiple people review each application for a personalized plate to ensure we don’t let anything slip by us,” Mr. Hardin said. The team keeps an urban dictionary handy. “We also have a list of thousands of banned plates that are automatically rejected. These applications do not make it past step one.
“A plate represents the state of Arkansas,” he said. “It should be family friendly. There shouldn’t ever be a situation in which a parent is embarrassed to answer a ‘what does that license plate mean’ question from a child.”
I checked with a husband and wife of our acquaintance who regularly take their son and daughter to the Maumelle branch of the library and to play at the splash pad. They didn’t like the name. “First time I’ve ever heard the term,” the Mister said. “After googling its use, definitely not a place I would go. Sounds like a brothel. My daughter would definitely ask what it means. Not a conversation I’m willing to carry at this point.”
Maumelle Monitor[ed] published a survey last week to learn what readers think of the name:
Are you comfortable with the name? A combined 71 percent answered no and “It's a terrible name for a restaurant in a family friendly town.” 29 percent were good with it.
To the question, “Would you take your family to a restaurant with that name?” A combined 63 percent said “no” and “Are you kidding me?” 37 percent said yes.
Seventy-five percent said they would have to explain the name to their children younger than 12; 25 percent said their kids already know that stuff.
Fourth question: How would you characterize the name? Crass.46 percent; vulgar: 29 percent; hilarious, 25 percent.
Seventy-five percent said they never have patronized this establishment, and 21 percent said they never have and never will; 4 percent said they either have or will.
A dozen readers left a comment. Here they are, unedited:
You’re right - names and words matter. Never heard of that restaurant, but I’d assume it was a bar/Hooters-type place. Definitely not interested and the name alone would probably hurt a lot financially. It’s hard enough for restaurants to be successful around here…
The amount of pearl-clutching in this town is really starting to make me regret moving here. Honestly, this is not now, nor has it ever been, Mayberry, and it's way past time to stop pretending it ever was.
not sure if individuals really know how to pronounce this "name" and or know the meaning....
Bad choice (for) a name.
What is wrong with the name? They have been using it for their food truck for a while. As a word merchant, you should realize it is a Cajun spelling play on words. Geaux Tigers for LSU, Westward Ho!!!, for Wagon Train and Southern Heaux for go South for Cajun cuisine. If someone wants to make it about "Nawlins Ladies", so to speak, that is on that person's shoulders, not the owners, in general.
I have been curious on the pronunciation of the restaurant name, I was not sure if it was a different spelling for a "loose woman" or hoax. I don't have kids so that question is not applicable. Looks like they have many good reviews so I might give them a try. I don't really like the name (or the idea of using terms so casually) but technically I suppose the owners can name the restaurant whatever they choose.
My objection with the name is not that it is a veiled reference to something I would not patronize but rather it is because the name in no way helps me understand what they serve. It is therefore, for me, a rather idiotic attempt to be cute when as far as I am concerned it falls on its face. I'm guessing it will be held in high esteem by those with a very limited vocabulary and even more limited standard of class. It's just low, LOW class...but I fear it reflects our modern society very aptly.
People can choose to participate and can choose not to participate.
It didn't bother me till I looked up the name. I thought it was French or a Cajun term. Now I know I REALLY don't like it.
I’m not offended by it, but I think it’s unnecessarily provocative. I hope the harrumphers don’t run them out of town with their boycott.
Typical low IQ branding. If someone called a woman that, all in good fun, the outcome would be uncertain at best. So, like the "N" word, it should only be uttered by low IQ cretins out of earshot of polite civilization.
The spelling begs for a French pronunciation (hoze), but it doesn't appear to be a French word (so hew)?!?
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This is Jay Grelen. I hope you remember me from my Sweet Tea column, which the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published for seven years on the front page of its Arkansas section on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. That was a while ago. The newspaper business has changed. Now I’m a newspaper refugee clutching his manual typewriter and trying to stay afloat. I worked in the newspaper racket for 35 years, including stints at the Denver Post, the Lexington Herald-Leader, the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, and the Mobile Register. My last stop was a 10-year stay at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. In 2017, Governor Asa Hutchinson hired me as his senior writer; after nearly six years with Governor Hutchinson, I became chief of staff to the mayor of Maumelle, who last year promoted me to Chief of Staff Emeritus. I have returned to writing, and I am participating in the much balleyhooed rebirth of local journalism. The basic stories are available to all subscribers on Maumelle Monitor[ed] . Paid subscribers will have access to a wider range of topics (nothing about Hizzoner or city hall) and writers on the soon~to~launch Birdsong County Whistler. Maumelle Monitor[ed]’s first mission is to chase the elected foxes away from the public henhouses, which belong to the constituents who voted them into office. Maumelle Monitor(ed) is named in honor of its late predecessor, the Maumelle Monitor. Thank you for reading and subscribing, however you choose to participate. ~ Jay Grelen, Storyteller in Chief.
"Southern Heart" would be far better in every way.