Ebonae Eaves is #MadeForKnoxville.

For Ebonae, entrepreneurship started as a means of survival. She followed love to Knoxville and launched her business as a chef, catering pop-up events around town; but a series of disruptions have left Ebonae and her wife still searching for a permanent home. 

Ever since losing her two jobs in 2013, Ebonae has been serving up plates with her home-cooked creations. She used social media to share her food and build her customer base while doing pop-up shops throughout Knoxville. Each time she opened a brick and mortar location–three times to be exact–she was faced with challenges that led to eventual closure. Through it all, Ebonae has never stopped cooking nor pursuing a stable location from which to sell her food. Until she finds a place to land, you can catch Ebonae and her wife hosting pop-up events in Knoxville and beyond. 

“I had to find a way to survive.”

In Their Own Words…

My journey with IDK FOODS CRAB SHACK & MORE began in 2013. I had lost both of my jobs and had to find a way to survive. I began posting images of food I created and began taking orders for plate sales via social media. In 2015, I met my beautiful wife and moved to Knoxville Tennessee where I began doing pop up shops at her job and surrounding businesses. From there, IDK FOODS took off and we obtained our first brick and mortar on MLK boulevard. That lasted for all of one month. In 2019, we were blessed with our second location on Chapman Highway. Due to KUB wanting us to have a $20,000 part installed, we then moved to Cumberland Avenue where we were yet again prosperous, but had to close our location due to an amplitude of racism and acts brought against not only us, but our customers by a neighboring business. As of now, IDK FOODS CRAB SHACK AND MORE remains a catering business and we continue our weekly pop up shops state to state until we find our next and hopefully final home. 

 

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