In the days approaching the 2026 Easter holiday, it could be said that Chef Greg Beard Sr. — owner of Chef Greg’s Soul “N” The Wall restaurant in Detroit — was living his best life, and spending less time at his restaurant.
That's because Beard’s son and namesake was holding down much of the cooking and customer service duties at the eatery, located at 10009 Curtis (off Wyoming), while the elder Beard took the restaurant’s bottled Boogaloo sauce — a tangy topping for Chef Greg’s Boogaloo Wonderland sandwich that also adds flavor to other food — on the road to area grocery stores.
“Around that time, Greg Jr. was spending a lot of time at the restaurant, and one day he just said: ‘OK Dad, you go to the markets and do the sauce and I’ll take care
of everything here,” said Beard Sr., whose restaurant sits at a space in the Bagley Community that was once occupied by Brother’s Barbecue, the creator of the original Boogaloo sandwich, which consisted of ground pork (or a blend of ground pork and beef), sautéed onions and melted American cheese packed in a grilled sub bun and covered by a special sauce.
Beard Sr. continued: “I was going out to three (metro Detroit) stores (Market Square, Market Fresh and Holiday Market) where we had done sauce tastings, and we were getting great responses from shoppers — some people were buying two and three bottles at a time.
"Then there was this lady in town from Seattle who wanted to take gifts back home from Detroit, and she ended up buying six bottles. So, that was the type of response we were getting for the sauce, and we were excited and focused on taking the business to a new plateau.”
However, just when Beard Sr. was thinking about reaching new heights as a Detroit entrepreneur, everything almost came crashing down.
He was standing behind his restaurant, preparing to drive home after cooking food well into the evening hours for a special occasion. And as Greg Jr. tells it: “The day before Easter of 2026, unfortunately my dad was accosted physically and shot in the lower part of the leg, just above the ankle and broke both bones down there.”
Fast-forward to the early afternoon of Oct. 12 and Greg Sr. could be found at his restaurant, standing tall without the help of a cane, which he said he hopes to permanently discard soon.
He also was strong enough to describe what was going through his mind on that nightmarish Saturday-before-Easter evening, around 10 p.m., after he was shot. He said he made three rapid-fire phone calls to his wife, son and 911. He then took a short ride through a few nearby blocks as he said he hoped to locate the shooter and the other men he had seen with him. That was followed by a conversation with a Detroit Police officer who spotted Beard in his car, not far from his restaurant.
Then there was the late night ride in an ambulance to the emergency room at nearby Sinai-Grace Hospital.
“When that (the shooting) happened, all I could think about at first was that I had catering orders to fill for Easter Sunday, the next day, so I was saying in mind: ‘I ain’t got time for this, I have food to put out.’ I didn’t even know that I had been shot. I thought the pain I was feeling was from banging my leg against my car door when all of that was happening until the police officer said: ‘Man, you’ve been shot,’ ” recalls the 65-year-old Beard, who during the week he spent in the hospital said he was able to help the Detroit Police Department identify the shooter and four other men that were with him.
“I was just in the moment at the time it was happening, and I did everything that I was supposed to do at that moment to be here today.”
Because Beard remains focused on living in the moment, the 1979 graduate of Detroit’s Henry Ford High School says he wants to do his part to help lift up the neighborhood where he has operated his business since 2006. And that will be the objective on Sunday, Oct. 18 when Beard will host the “Eyes on the Community” outdoor rally from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the parking lot next to his restaurant.
“The message that we want to send through the rally is community; it’s about people coming together to support a community that we share in this neighborhood,” explained Beard, who said he expects Detroit City Council member Angela Whitfield Calloway to be one of the speakers at an event where he says everyone will be regarded as a “valued” person. “At some point in time we have to start talking to each other and then start helping each other. So we invite our community to come out and hear what we all have to say.
“...We’re always talking about gun reform, but how can you reform something that doesn’t live? But we can reform people, and we can teach people not to use guns in ways that they shouldn’t be used. I’m not saying get rid of guns, but I am saying if you don’t have to use a gun, don’t use it. We’re not animals, we’re people. But we’re treating each other like we’re prey on the street at times.
“We need to change that mindset, that’s what we need to change.”
To help get community members in the mood to talk and think about creating positive “change,” Beard Sr. will provide refreshments during the free rally. And as the people that know him best can attest, Chef Greg never misses an opportunity to share his love for God and the Bible, so there will no doubt be a profoundly spiritual tone felt throughout the event as well.
And, there also is no denying that Beard still loves coming to his restaurant, even after the ordeal he experienced. Therefore, people attending the rally should not be surprised if Beard talks a little about future plans for his restaurant, as he did on the morning of Oct. 10, shortly after he shared how good it felt to walk without a cane.
“Most people know we have food here because they know us. But after all these years, there are still things that I need to do, like putting pictures in the window to let other people know what we have here because people eat with their eyes,” said Beard, a product of Henry Ford College’s Culinary Arts Program, whose restaurant menu includes a host of soul food and comfort food classics, along with four versions of Beard’s Boogaloo Wonderland sandwich.
“If I put a picture of a hamburger up there, and a picture of a pork chop, and a picture of a quesadilla, and a picture of a peach cobbler, people are going to see that we have some good stuff in there. And when they come inside, they also will find out what we proudly represent as members of this community.”
Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and a lifelong lover of Detroit culture in its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at stalley@freepress.com. Read more of Scott's stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/. Please help us grow great community-focused journalism by becoming a subscriber.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: After being a gunshot victim, this Detroit chef is rallying neighbors
