Despite its name, Hayes’ Chicken Shack was not a “hole in the wall” restaurant. According to WWOZ’s A Closer Walk NOLA, it was billed as “New Orleans’ finest colored restaurant.”
Owned by Henry and Ethel Hayes, their Chicken Shack opened in the 1940s on Louisiana Avenue. In 1946, they moved the restaurant across the street and created a night spot where customers “dressed to the nines dined on linen-covered tables and enjoyed the popular bands of the day, like the Clyde Kerr Orchestra,” A Closer Walk NOLA states.
In 1949, the couple began to host talent shows. The shows became so popular that they were recorded and broadcast as the “Negro Talent Hour” on radio station WNOE, according to A Closer Walk NOLA. When he was 12 and named Fird Eaglin, guitarist Snooks Eaglin won $200 at a show.
“In keeping with its air of sophistication, Hayes’ emerged as a venue for modern jazz in the mid- to late-50s,” A Closer Walk NOLA states. It also hosted civil rights groups, Black social clubs, political rallies and fundraisers.
Hayes’ Chicken Shack morphed into Vernon’s after Henry Hayes leased the building to Vernon Williams in 1959. New Orleans great Dr. John described Vernon’s as “the jazz showcase room in New Orleans. It was really near to the heart and soul … of New Orleans music.”
John Coltrane and his band appeared at Vernon’s for two weeks in 1962. According to A Closer Walk NOLA, saxophonist Earl Turbinton told author Jason Berry that Coltrane’s performance “was like God was in town. The whole music community turned out.”
A year later, Hayes sued Williams for violating his lease and won. Hayes tried unsuccessfully to open a third spot, but it didn’t last. Eventually, the building was demolished and replaced with housing for nurses who worked at nearby Flint-Goodridge Hospital.
For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.
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