Eatonville Restaurant

Eatonville Restaurant is an Southern-inspired restaurant that opened in 2009 by Andy Shallal, the founder of the restaurant Busboys and Poets. It is located across the street from the Busboys and Poets restaurant in U Street Corridor, Washington, DC. Culture and history are an important part of the restaurant; it is named after and takes its concept from Eatonville, the hometown of Zora Neale Hurston, an American folklorist and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance.
Background
Shallal always wanted to use Hurston as an inspiration for the restaurant. In 2007, while talking about his plans for the restaurant, Shallal said: "I'd like to incorporate Zora Neale Hurston into the name. I like taking literary and using them as springboards." He chose her because had studied the Harlem Renaissance during college, and wanted to use someone who lived during that period and had a connection to Washington. Eatonville pays homage to Hurston through the murals, which were painted by a local artist. Shallal said she "was the life of the party, so I wanted the space to look lively and gregarious. And she wrote a lot about the porch at Eatonville where the townspeople tell stories, so we put in an area for people to have drinks."

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