TASTE OF THE TREASURE COAST
whose family owned a grocery store, would step in the door
and take her apple.
“Charles Russ had a store full of apples, but he would take
mine,” she says with a smile.
Not soon after the two graduated from LPA, they were
married and began working together at a little grocery store
Charles opened at 901 Avenue D in 1965.
The Russes grocery store served a community service then.
It was a place where the neighborhood kids could come
and get some spiced meat, bread and juice to eat while their
parents were out working in the orange groves. They kept an
eye out for the neighborhood children, many of whom Hassie
still refers to as “my kids.” They donated the sports drinks
for the Pop Warner football league, and Hassie would dress
the young students who were modeling prom outfits at Fort
Pierce Central High School from the mens clothing shop she
operated next door.
DREAM COMES TRUE
But she harbored a dream of opening a restaurant, and she
finally opened Granny’s Kitchen — named for her mother —
in 1975 after finally convincing her husband it was a worthwhile
68
venture.
While Charles was reluctant at first, it seemed a natural
fit for Hassie, who used the family recipes her mother had
handed down to her.
“Everything I cooked, I learned from my mother,” she says.
Except for one dish. The popular oxtails were Hassie’s own
recipe. Beef for the beef stew had gotten too expensive, and
customers were requesting oxtails.
Granny’s Kitchen was
part of a renaissance of
Avenue D, the main street
of the African-American
>> community in Fort Pierce.
SEE MORE
To view an Indian River Magazine video presentation
on Hassie Russ and Granny’s Kitchen and to read
previous stories on Russ and Zora Neale Hurston
visit the home page of indianrivermag.com
/www.indianrivermag.com
/www.indianriverlagoonandswamplandboattours.com
/indianrivermag.com