Every day, 76-year-old Cynthia Owens-Green wakes up around 4:30 a.m. to start her job at , her business that has served Baton Rouge since 1938.
In Louisiana’s Capital city, Owens Market & Deli first opened as a grocery store and deli after the start of World War II. Now, it’s a breakfast and lunch restaurant serving scratch-made plates Tuesday through Saturday. People stop by for the soul-filled fare, but many use the opportunity to catch up with Owens-Green and her family-filled staff, whom customers have grown with over the decades.
Echo Ratcliff, center, serves herself a plate as regular Eleanora Wooders, left, chats with employee Sierra Boyd at Owens Grocery & Market on Wednesday, July 15, 2026. Staff photos by Javier Gallegos
Javier Gallegos
After Eleanora Wooders, 81, finished her lunch plate of turkey wings, rice and collard greens on a Wednesday afternoon, she was blowing kisses and poking her cane across the room at one of Owens-Green’s three daughters, Kristi Green, 54.
“They’re my family,” Wooders said. “Their children, my children, they all grew up together.”
Visiting Owens Market & Deli has become a routine for Wooders, who drives a short distance a few times every week (if the weather is good) to get a taste of Owens-Green’s food.
David and Emma Owens opened Owens Market & Grocery in 1938.
By Maddie Scott
Standing the test of time
For 88 years, Owens Market & Deli has stood between the same walls at 2444 Balis Drive, where Owens-Green’s parents, David and Emma Owens, started the business. A portrait of the couple hangs on the wall next to the front door, overlooking the restaurant they built from the ground up.
With a sixth grade education, David Owens had to learn his own trades, his daughter said.
“He had a mindset for math — to run anything, to rent houses,” said Owens-Green, after darting around the room to greet customers and shake hands with regulars.
In the late 1930s, the grocery store and deli was decked with two gas pumps, butcher services, produce, sliced meats and everyday essentials, a time before Interstate 10 split Balis Drive in half. Some of her earliest memories are running around the store as a little girl.
“They had these things called gondolas,” she said. “It’s a big shelf that they used to have in grocery stores that you could put flour, different items, in. I remember as thunderstorms came, I would hide in them.”
At 2444 Balis Dr. in Baton Rouge, Owens Market & Deli first opened in 1938, pictured here on July 7, 2026.
The area around Balis Drive had almost everything one could need: a barbershop, saloon, laundromat and church.
The family has owned several properties on the street for generations. Next door to the business is the house Owens-Green was born in — the youngest daughter of 11 children. Across the street is another family home that used to be a daycare. Many family members live just a short walk away.
Owens-Green eventually took over operations of Owens in 1979 at age 29. Her three daughters grew up at the store, helping out with chores and learning how to cook from their grandmother. One of Owens-Green’s daughters, Malissa Fowler, 45, remembers playing stand-up video game machines like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong in the 1980s.
Around 2005, the grocery store gradually shifted operations and started making the bulk of its money from scratch-made food.
Menu rundown
Shrimp po’ boy with onion rings and peach cobbler sit atop the sides and entrees of the daily hot lunch at Owens Grocery & Market on Wednesday, July 15, 2026. Staff photos by Javier Gallegos
Javier Gallegos
Each day, except Sunday and Monday, has a selection of rotating hot plates. There are dishes like baked chicken, smothered turkey necks, lasagna, fried fish, Salisbury steak and more. There’s also a menu of daily items of burgers, po-boys and sandwiches.
Thursdays and Fridays are “hot days,” Owens-Green said, when the biggest crowds shuffle through the front door. They come hungry for the most popular rotating dishes: baked turkey wings on Thursdays and crawfish étouffée or fried catfish on Fridays.
The business also has catering services for events and family meals.
A club sandwich from Owens Grocery & Market pictured on Wednesday, July 15, 2026. Staff photos by Javier Gallegos
Javier Gallegos
“They love our food because our food is homemade from scratch,” Owens-Green said. “It’s made with love.”
Desserts in the form of cakes, cupcakes, cookies and more are supplied by a home bakery owned by Owens-Green’s daughter Erica Matthews, 49. In 2021, Matthews opened the business in honor of her 20-year-old son with autism.
“Our plans are to open a facility to employ young adults like himself just to give them a work opportunity,” Matthews said. “That is what we plan to do in the near future.”
Longtime regulars
Regular Terrance Williams, right, warmly says bye to owner Cynthia Green after chatting with her at Owens Grocery & Market on Wednesday, July 15, 2026. Staff photos by Javier Gallegos
Javier Gallegos
When longtime Owens regular Terry Vessell was 7 years old, she’d visit the grocery store on her regular cookie runs, and both David and Emma Owens would separately sneak her extra butter cookies.
“He would say, ‘Now, I’m going to give you an extra cookie. Now don’t you tell anybody.’ That was Mr. Owens, and so Mrs. Emma would do the same thing,” Vessell said, laughing with the memory.
Decades later, the hunt for butter cookies has evolved into once-a-week visits, often for Vessell’s favorite plate: the baked catfish, a hearty dish covered in bell peppers and onions.
Sierra Boyd spoons broth over baked chicken and rice at Owens Grocery & Market on Wednesday, July 15, 2026. Staff photos by Javier Gallegos
Javier Gallegos
“When you give a smile, you’ll always get one back nine times out of 10, and that’s what she does,” Vessell said about Owens-Green. “She shows love and kindness, and love and kindness comes back to her.”
What keeps Vessell coming back to the business isn’t just the food, but also how the staff shows love to the community and gives back.
Legacy of giving back
For the past nine years, Owens Market & Deli has hosted an annual Back-to-School Giveaway for children in Valley Park and surrounding areas. This year’s giveaway will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 1.
A shrimp po’ boy from Owens Grocery & Market pictured on Wednesday, July 15, 2026. Staff photos by Javier Gallegos
Javier Gallegos
Matthews said her mother’s heart is in service, something she’s passed down from generation to generation. Owens-Green welcomes those who are hungry and want something to eat. A stack of crates in a corner in the dining room holds various toiletries, reserved for people experiencing homelessness.
“It’s a blessing that God has still allowed me to try to build my health and strength to instill in my children and to know what service of others is,” she said. “That’s my thing.”
Over eight decades, Owens Market & Deli has stood the test of time, and responsibilities have passed down to younger generations like her three daughters and her grandchildren, who work the kitchen from sunrise to sunset.
Employees Micalah Green, Sheronica Cable, Kaiden King and Sierra Boyd, left to right, work and chat among each other behind the counter at Owens Grocery & Market on Wednesday, July 15, 2026. Staff photos by Javier Gallegos
Javier Gallegos
“We are Black-owned,” Owens-Green said. “The thing about it is, sometimes it’s hard for Black owners to try to succeed and to stay in business. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort. There’s hard days.”
Despite challenges and a bad knee, Owens-Green returns to the store nearly every day, overseeing operations, greeting customers and catching up with regulars. She tries to help in the kitchen, but her family members lovingly tell her to sit down.
“I want people to know that this is what I live for,” Owens-Green said. “And that we’d love to serve you. Just come on by.”