photograph by michael donahue
Alcenia’s owner Betty Joyce “BJ” Chester-Tamayo.
Alcenia’s is now open after being closed for 390 days for renovation. Owner Betty Joyce “BJ” Chester-Tamayo bought the Downtown building on December 2, 2020. “Renovations began March 19, 2021,” she says. “From the roof down to the floor, it’s all brand-new.”
And, she adds, “Even the portrait of my mom is brand-new,” painted by Memphis artist Larry Walker. It’s an important part of the restaurant, because her mom is the late Alcenia Clark Chester, namesake of the establishment.
“Alcenia’s is a blessing from God,” says Chester-Tamayo. “I stand here in amazement. People ask me, ‘Do you have an interior decorator?’ Yes. Me and God.”
photograph by michael donahue
Part of the decor at the recently-reopened Alcenia’s is a portrait by Larry Walker of the restaurant’s namesake, Alcenia Clark Chester, holding her great-granddaughter, Alcenia Altovise Nia Tamayo.
In addition to all the other items, customers can order Chester-Tamayo’s signature fried chicken. “It’s a soul food restaurant,” she says. “You can’t have soul food without fried chicken.”
Asked where she got her recipe for this popular item, she says, “Mine came from my mama. And hers came from her mother.”
Chester-Tamayo didn’t cook growing up. She began when she was 19, after she got married and moved to Germany, where her ex-husband was stationed. She tried other things first. “I remember cooking a dish with rice and mayonnaise and it was terrible.” Her ex-husband asked her, “Where did this come from? “I said, ‘You like mayonnaise and you like rice.’” He responded: “Not together.”
“That recipe did not come from my mother,” she explains. “That came from the Betty Crocker cookbook.”
As for the fried chicken, Chester-Tamayo says, “My mom didn’t use anything but salt and pepper and that’s it. I don’t know how she could get food to taste the way it did with just salt and pepper. But what comes along with fried chicken is having the right temperature and not cooking it too fast. That’s what makes your fried chicken juicy.”
“Alcenia’s is a blessing from God. I stand here in amazement. People ask me, ‘Do you have an interior decorator?’ Yes. Me and God.” — BJ Chester-Tamayo
And, she says, “My mom used those cast-iron black skillets.” Her mother also had in her kitchen “nothing but the top-of-the-line” ingredients.
Frying the chicken was easy, but preparing it wasn’t, Chester-Tamayo recalls. “I never knew how to cut up a chicken, either. My mom never bought chicken pieces, but sliced up the whole chicken and cut it perfectly.”
After it’s cut, wash the chicken in clean water, she says. And then pat the chicken dry with paper towels.
Her mother added salt and pepper in the flour batter. “You can use plain [flour], but you have to put in baking soda. She used the plain. I like self-rising [flour].”
Chester-Tamayo uses “eight or nine different seasonings, but salt is one I really don’t use.” She won’t reveal all her seasonings, but she will admit she likes lemon pepper.
The author samples one of the drumsticks at Alcenia’s.
Her mother shook the chicken in a bag with the batter ingredients, but Chester-Tamayo instead prepares her chicken in a whole milk batter with eggs and adds seasonings. She then switches the chicken to another container with plain flour and seasonings. “I turn it over several times and make sure the chicken is coated.”
To see if it’s hot enough, she drips water on the skillet. If it sizzles, it’s ready. “You don’t want grease too hot, but you also don’t want grease smoking.”
Another family technique: Her mother never covered the the skillet with a lid because it makes the chicken soggy, Chester-Tamayo says, noting that it takes about 20 minutes to cook. “You want to cook it all the way through. You don’t want any of it raw. Once the grease gets hot, you cut it [the temperature] down.”
Chester-Tamayo prefers a deep fryer at the restaurant instead of a skillet. “It’s better cooking on the stove in a cast-iron skillet, but mine is good cooked in the deep fryer. You have too much chicken in a restaurant to try to cook it on the stove.”
As for sides, fried chicken “goes with everything — macaroni and cheese, greens, lima beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans.”
Chester-Tamayo does not believe fried chicken goes with French fries, though. Her mother never served it with French fries, and she doesn’t either, she says.
“Here’s another thing with fried chicken,” she says. “If I fry it at the restaurant and take it home, I won’t heat it in the microwave. That makes it soggy. If you put it in the oven, it will crisp back up like it was. Set the oven on 335 and just warm it up.”
Alcenia’s is at 317 North Main Street.
