Class of 1989

MICHAEL EBERSTADT brings a taste of the Big Easy to Harlem.

For most people, coffee and chicken wings is not a common combination—especially at 9 a.m.—but it suits playwright and social worker-turned-restaurateur Eberstadt. "Everyone loves fried chicken," Eberstadt says, explaining the inspiration behind Bayou, one of his two Harlem restaurants. This New Orleans-styled spot sits above Slice of Harlem, Eberstadt's pizza place. The restaurant business is a far cry from Eberstadt's imagined career path. An Eng lish major at Dartmouth, Eberstadt won the Frost Award for play writing and worked briefly in New York City theater after college. He later ran a Staten Island food pantry and soup kitchen and served as a caseworker for homeless people with AIDS. Eberstadt soon decided working with AIDS-related issues wasn't for him—and Slice of Harlem was born. "In a small way, I wanted to create jobs in Harlem," says Eberstadt, who now employs about 30 people at the two restaurants. "The best thing about the business is being in Harlem, which is a terrifically interesting neighborhood," he says. If you open a business in midtown or downtown, I don't think you'd feel like you'd become a part of the community."Eberstadt hopes to return to play writing someday. In the meantime, he plans to open another Southern restaurant on the Upper West Side, in collaboration with Charles Gabriel of Charles' Southern Style Kitchen.