Fans of 'Mama Nip' to toast grand dame of Seventh Street

Oakland Tribune, Aug 6, 2005 by Cecily Burt, STAFF WRITER

OAKLAND -- Esther Brown Mabry was a mere slip of a girl when she followed her best friend from Texas to the West Coast. But it wasn't long before she found the job she loved, as a waitress at the famous Slim Jenkins Supper Club on Seventh Street in West Oakland.

Now 85, "Mama Nip," as she is lovingly called by legions of friends, is the grand dame of Seventh Street. Her Esther's Orbit Room bar and restaurant is the only business left from the days when Seventh Street was a bustling, 24-hour, commercial hub crowded cheek by jowl with jazz and blues clubs, restaurants, stores and rooming houses that served a thriving blue-collar clientele of railroad, shipyard and military workers.

This Sunday, Mabry's friends -- including several who first met her at Slim's and remain loyal to the Orbit Room -- will gather to celebrate the 55th anniversary of Esther's businesses. Those businesses began in May 1950 with Esther's popular soul food Breakfast Club across the street, where the U.S. Postal Service facility is today.

Esther saved her money, and in 1959 she and husband William Mabry bought the building. They got a liquor license in 1960

and a few years later they bought a union hall nearby and set about opening the Orbit Room, with cocktails and live music.

The club opened on Nov. 22, 1963, the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Mabry recalled this week.

"Everybody was so sad," she said.

Jay Payton and Big Daddy O Gibson were the first live music acts to play the Orbit Room, but the list goes on and on, from Al Green and T-Bone Walker to Big Joe Turner and Etta James.

Esther's clubs became favorite gathering spots for cab drivers and shift workers at the shipyards, railyards and the Alameda Naval Air Station, where William worked when he first wooed Esther. People came after work and, because the restaurant was open all night, during work.

"They all considered this home, because I've been on this street 63 years," Mabry said, as she recalled her first days in Oakland as a railroad ticket clerk for the Oakland Mole before she landed the job at Slim Jenkins and realized she could make more money on tips. "Raleigh George Minix (representative for the Seaman's union Local 10) would have meetings here. People would come here when they'd lose their jobs or get a job. They'd call this the anchor room."

They even followed her around on her days off.

Anthony Linton, 81, a retired cab driver first met Mabry when she waitressed at Slim Jenkins and remembers the "Blue Monday" parties at Esther's house on 30th Street, when the men "would bring the booze and the ladies would do the cooking." Esther would sometimes go to bed and they'd still be there dancing.

Linton recalled that the cabbies would pull up on both sides of the Seventh Street at 2 a.m. and head for Esther's Breakfast Club. "I've been here for many moons," he said. "That table over there was my office."

Esther's Orbit Room was forced to move across the street after the U.S. Post Office announced plans to build a central facility on Seventh Street in 1975.

"All the post office workers would come over here and have to go out the back door so they didn't get caught," Mabry laughed. "This is a hard place to get away from. On cold days, I'd have a big pot of hot soup on the stove and coffee and tea."

Through the years, after the Post Office and BART station ate up more of Seventh Street and West Oakland's blue collar industries ceased to exist, the clubs and businesses closed down and the street got run down and blighted.

Still, Esther and William hosted bus trips to 49ers and Giants games, worked hard to promote African-American businesses through California Package Store and Tavern Owners Association, which has sponsored $2 million in college scholarships and helped launch the careers of countless local musicians.

Ethel Kennedy even paid a personal visit to Esther's to thank them for all their support on her late husband Robert Kennedy's campaign.

They were inducted into the West Coast Hall of Fame and received too many accolades and proclamations to count. It's been a hard time for her since William died two years ago. She suffers from asthma and heart problems -- she collapsed at the club last fall and was rushed to the hospital.

"They took me out of here for dead, they didn't think I'd be back," she said.

But back she is, every day, putting in nearly as many hours as she always did. Is she ready for the flowery accolades this Sunday?

You bet.

"I'm always ready for that," she said. "I know so many people and so many people know me.... We put a lot of life in West Oakland."

The free festivities begin inside and outside at 2 p.m., with performances by the Bay Area Blues Society, followed by tributes to Esther Mabry, and free soul-food dinner featuring Esther's favorite chittlins and other secret recipes at 4 p.m. Esther's Orbit Room is located at 1724 Seventh St.