Sylvia Woods, founder of the famed Harlem soul food restaurant that carries her name and is a must-stop for locals, tourists and politicians, has died. She was 86.
Woods died Thursday afternoon at her home in Mount Vernon, N.Y., said her granddaughter Tren’ness Woods-Black. She had been dealing with Alzheimer’s disease for the past few years.
Woods and her husband Herbert, natives of South Carolina who met as children, started Sylvia’s Restaurant in 1962. The restaurant is a Harlem fixture, with tourists and locals coming there for cornbread, ribs, collard greens, fried chicken and other staples of Southern cooking, and politicians making frequent visits while on the campaign trail.