Biscuit Boy’s food spot at the Albuquerque Rail Yards market brings in the crowds with a dash of Southernness.
This week on the blog, NMBLC spotlights a local, Black owned business, Biscuit Boy. The profile “Commitment to Community” first appeared in the July 2023 edition of NMBLC’s monthly newspaper, the UpLift Chronicles.
For more great articles about the people, places, and happenings of Albuquerque’s Black communities, subscribe to the UpLift Chronicles.
The following piece was written by Sean Cardinalli.
Commitment to Community — Biscuit Boy’s owner brings people together for the city’s greater good
Deonte “Dee” Halsey is all about community; he’s a “people person.” He’s taught grade school for 23 years and loves his students; he’s gotten mad notoriety for his burgeoning food spot called Biscuit Boy; he’s president of the Rail Yards Board of Directors; and he’s a member of the South Valley Economic Development Center. Things are going this brother’s way.
When we interviewed, Dee had just come from his fifth-grade students’ promotion ceremony at A. Montoya School in the East Mountains. He loves attending because it means so much to the parents and students.
Dee’s kindly demeanor and big, easy grin have served him well; he’s approachable and invested. He’s lived in Albuquerque since 2015 but he’s seen a lot of the States. He was born in Tennessee and raised in Inglewood outside Los Angeles; then he graduated from Tennessee State and assisted in the National Youth Sports Program. Dee got his master’s in physics from Loyola University in Maryland, veered back to teaching, and—after stints in Atlanta, Baltimore, and Houston—arrived in Albuquerque.
Back when, Dee realized he was “a pretty good cook,” and wanted to run a bed and breakfast some day; something like Cecilia’s Café on Sixth. So, he started simple with a mobile food service and soon held Biscuit Boy’s spot down at the Rail Yards. He practiced a lot to get his buttermilk biscuit recipe just right; he dashed in some Southernness, added a bit of science, and was sure to use local flour, flavors, and, of course, green chile.
During the pandemic, Dee switched to a delivery-based model and landed in local coffee shops and high-profile places like Tamaya Resort and Los Poblanos. He has a commercial kitchen in the South Valley but is frank about the food biz’s challenges: the profit margins are slim and the work is very labor-intensive.
To get his buttermilk biscuit recipe just right, he dashed in some Southernness, added a bit of science, and was sure to use local flour, flavors, and, of course, green chile.
The kinds of hurdles Dee faces with his Biscuit Boy crew are the kinds he knows a lot of entrepreneurs face. Which is why he took the Rail Yards Board chair after a second thought. “I was thinking, why [do they want me?] And then I was like, oh, I know exactly why. Because I like the community. I like the Rail Yards. I like Barelas.” The board specifically keeps a “low barrier of entry fees” compared to places like Expo New Mexico or Balloon Fiesta Park and it’s helpful in getting smaller businesses, artisans, growers, and restaurateurs established. Dee believes the Rail Yards will continue to “help our economy grow in lots of different ways.”
Eventually, he sees the community space expanding—not only with the New Mexico Media Academy—but with the Wheels Museum and multi-use, multifamily housing leading to Avenida Cesar Chavez. It’s a plan he hopes benefits everyone in Albuquerque; a site that attracts families and tourists like Union Market in D.C. and Pike Place Market in Seattle. “When we’re doing things for the Rail Yards, we’re doing it more for the people in the city, not just for us.”
Visit Biscuit Boy at https://www.biscuitboynm.com/.
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Shannon Moreau is the Editor of the NMBLC EQ Blog