WHAT’S FOR DINNER? HOW SHEBA’S RESTAURANT IN HOPE IS COMFORT FOOD HEAVEN WITH A SIDE OF CULTURAL CUISINE
You feel you’ve been in Sheba’s Family Restaurant in Hope even before the first time you walk in the place.
Because if you are from this area, many know Southern comfort food when they see it, smell it, and taste it.
Many have been raised at their grandmother’s apron strings, tagging along as a child in the kitchen where chicken fried anything, and gravy was the norm.
This imagery transfers perfectly into the picture you might have in your head when taking that first step inside Sheba’s. It’s what is expected because you know your grandmother’s standards.
Meet owner/operator/originator Sheba Smith and her husband Milko
“I was born in India, came to Hope in 1991 to visit a friend and I never went back,” she says in a tone that is warm as the syrup on a short stack of pancakes.
Many readers recognize him dashing from one place to another in town on various restaurant-related matters. You might be standing behind him at Super 1 grocery, which is located about 100 feet from the restaurant doors, holding a bundle of various produce and other items needed in a flash.
So how did these two become one couple?
“I came to Hope around 1996 after being transferred here from Magnolia,” he begins. “She came in the store one day and looked at me and we fell in love. It was like ‘love at first sight’,” he says glancing to Sheba, who is now rolling her eyes in humor.
But, sincerely, the two have been an official pair since 1998 and recently celebrated their 24th anniversary.
For a person with little previous “real” restaurant experience prior to arriving locally, Sheba proved she’s quick on the uptake.
“I’m a fast learner,” she said. “I’ve been cooking since I was a little girl. In India, you learn to do pretty much anything just after learning to walk.
“I remember cooking around three or four-years-old just to help my mama. I always loved it and I still do.”
Now, what about Milko’s experience he brought to the table?
“No restaurant experience whatsoever,” he says with a grin.
“I never dreamed of working in the restaurant industry, but it was one of her passions. She had talked about it for years,” as Sheba interjects that he tried occasionally to convince her otherwise.
But, as they say, “behind every good woman, there is a good man” or something close to that and Milko Smith is that good man.
“I tell everyone I was blessed with three of the of the best cooks,” he says. “That is my wife, my mama, and my grandmother.
“You give Sheba a recipe and she will just run with it. When I was working at Ivan Smith, we would sometimes find new recipes out of a magazine and someone would say, ‘take it to Sheba, I bet she can’t make it’ and that was all she needed to hear.”
Ok, let’s get down to the menu. Simply glancing at it is going to take a while.
From delicious breakfast items served anytime to classic daily specials, hamburgers, sandwiches and wraps. Then, terrific entrees of beef, chicken, steaks, seafood and pasta all coming with more than enough sides to fill out the plate.
If you feel like leaving the country, then take a scan of the Indian cuisine, where Sheba returns you to her roots.
“My kids always loved Indian food. Milko does too,” Sheba says.
“There’s a lot of spices and you must get used to it. It was one of those things where we wanted to add some of the Indian food that the kids like to the menu.”
And her customers literally eat it up.
“I’ve always been a picky eater,” Milko chimes in. “If you ask me how it tastes, I’m going to be honest with you,” he laughs. “Let’s just say I’ve put on a few pounds over the years, just by taking tastes.”
Many readers will remember that Sheba was a fixture in the background of a couple of key restaurants here locally, honing skills and planning for bigger things. The first establishment being Little B’s (now Dos Locos Gringos) and later at Amigo Juan’s.
“I worked at Little B’s for seven years and there was a cook there in the kitchen who was much like a mentor to me,” Sheba states. He got me in the kitchen to try more things. When management changed there, I moved over to Juan’s.
“Working with Juan was great. He was pickier though and didn’t want me in the kitchen, but I still went in there” she says with a laugh.
Couldn’t keep a cook from her kitchen.
Now, with both restaurants situated virtually across the street from each other, it’s a friendly competition.
“We have a great relationship,” Sheba comments. “It’s important because when it comes to catering locally, he sort of knows which catering jobs are mine and make sure to know which ones are his, so we work together. I helped his children with their homework when they were little, and I sort of became an extension of their family in a way.”
So what was it like opening the doors to her own establishment for the first time?
“I was terrified,” she states matter-of-factly. “When we opened, we took over the restaurant on my daughter’s birthday.
“The first two weeks, I was scared to death, constantly thinking ‘what if’, because Milko is a negative thinker by nature and I’m the type that will jump first before thinking about the negative saying ‘what did I just do’?
“It was right after the first weekend we opened, I was attending church with Milko at his church, and I could not sit there without crying,” she says in earnest. “I could not control my tears. I needed to go home and cry and to talk to God in my own way.
“But now I have full faith. I’m not worried anymore. It has really turned out to be a blessing since then.”
Besides the walk-in and many to-go orders produced each day, acquiring and keeping catering business customers from individuals to area businesses keep the pair always moving.
“We have established a good catering business over time. Since Hempstead Hall opened, they will always refer local restaurants. It always helps too when smaller catering customers recommend us to others.”
What about the COVID years? Restaurants nationwide were forced to make drastic changes to how business was done.
“Oh my gosh,” Sheba reflects.
“We worked pretty much all the way through it,” Milko adds.
“Before COVID, we never had our drive-thru open but looking back, we would have gotten run out of town during that time if we were to close it,” he said.
“Since COVID, there are folks that use the drive thru now all the time instead of sitting down inside.”
Now for the future of the restaurant. Any talk of retirement for the pair?
“He (Milko) has already retired,” Sheba says with sarcasm while he knows different.
“With two grandbabies now I want to retire, but I know I’m not going to do that,” as readers can now breathe easier.
“I’m not one who can just sit at home. I still have some things I need to teach my younger ones. I know one of my daughters will be involved in the restaurant.”
And a new generation of management will greet a new generation of customers.
“This restaurant has been amazing in that I always tried to hire high school students who needed work and trained them,” Sheba concludes.
“That was 15 years ago and now they come back through the restaurant with families and jobs of their own which makes me proud. We are all like one big family”
Be it breakfast, lunch or dinner, it’s on the menu at Sheba’s Family Restaurant and you are going to like it.
Your grandmother would be proud to run a close second.
Sheba’s is open six days a week. For more information about catering or to place that order you now can’t live without, give them a call at 870-777-6266.