Overview: Gram’s Barbecue, a restaurant in Riverside, California, has been a staple in the community for over three decades. The restaurant was started by Benita Bratton’s father, who turned his life around after serving time in prison. He wanted to create a space for second chances and give back to the community. Today, Benita operates the restaurant and sees it as a testament to her father’s transformation. The restaurant is not only a place to eat but a place where people can look back on life and memories during return visits. Benita has seen employees start their careers at the restaurant and go on to build their own families.
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When Benita Bratton thinks about operating Gram’s Barbecue, the restaurant started by her late father, community is at the front of her mind.
Whether it is a meeting place for those who no longer live in town, or a space where young customers gradually become adults or even a place where soul food can take a more health-conscious flair, it all goes back to community.
The origins of Gram’s BBQ begin with a man determined to outgrow his past. Bratton’s father, Robert Palmer Bratton, she recalled, “lived a very, very fast life” and made choices in the community he later regretted, including serving time in prison. When he was released, Bratton said he was determined to change, and opening Gram’s BBQ went hand-in-hand with that decision.
“He also knew that this was a space for second chances,” Bratton said about her father. “His thing was always, as a Black man, we don’t get a second chance—sometimes we don’t get any chances…that’s something that just always stuck in my head, because people need second chances.”
In 1987, he staked his second chance on a small barbecue spot across from the Mission Inn Hotel & Spa. For 10 years, while the landmark hotel was under renovation, Gram’s stood as a community staple. The restaurant was named after Bratton’s paternal grandmother, who she once called Grandmama, and eventually shortened to Gram.
When the city moved the restaurant away from that coveted corner after the renovation, Bratton said the new location felt like a setback. Business was hard for her father, but he refused to leave. He “stood the test of time and stayed here no matter what,” she explained, and the space that once felt like a banishment has become “basically the sweet spot.”
Bratton’s transition into leading the business came later. On paper, she accomplished what many parents hope for their children: a solid corporate career in telecommunications. However, she did not feel a deep passion for it. She prayed for direction – for her “thing,” her purpose – and the answer repeatedly pointed her home.
“He kept saying to go to the restaurant,” she said. “I kept saying, ‘I don’t want to do that, Lord, that’s a lot of work.’”
Finally, Bratton surrendered. With her father ill, she officially returned to the restaurant to take the lead.
Today, owning and operating Gram’s BBQ means living with both strain and satisfaction. Bratton shared that the work is not easy and often requires her to wear many hats to keep a long-standing restaurant going. She reflected that the work is gratifying, but she doesn’t walk around thinking she’s doing anything “special.”
In her mind, she’s “just trying to do it” by putting one foot in front of the other – one batch of collard greens after another. But showing up each day over the years has made Gram’s BBQ a staple. Its three-plus decades in downtown Riverside aren’t the product of a single dramatic moment, but of a thousand quiet decisions not to quit.
Bratton views Gram’s as both a business and a testament to her father’s transformation. Customers still come in and say they remember her father, she said.
“I love making my dad proud,” she reflected, but also “to be proud of something that he did.”
Bratton recalled how her father turned his life around, in large part by putting his energy into his community and business.
“He changed his whole life around, and he made a business. And, you know, we still have it,” she said.
Bratton expressed gratitude for where her father, their family business and her prayers led her.
“I love being in downtown Riverside, because I was born and raised down in Riverside,” she said. “I was born right down the street at Community Hospital, so it means a lot to me.”
Bratton continues to watch her father’s wishes and legacy come full circle as the restaurant stands as more than a place to eat, but a place where people can look back on life and memories during return visits. She recalled her realization that this was always the point – even if it took her time to see it. Bratton remembered her father, the founder, insisting that the restaurant’s purpose wasn’t purely financial.
“He said, it’s about the community… and now I look and Dad was right. It’s really about the community and bringing the community together,” Bratton explained.
On any given day, the experience of bringing community together can show up in the form of small, but joyful interactions, such as someone visiting town and running into an old classmate from high school.
The restaurant is also a starting point for youth in Riverside. Bratton remembered hiring teenagers for their first jobs, then welcoming them back as customers years later with families of their own.
“You see them start here for the first job, first level, and you see them later on [when] they come back and say, ‘Miss B, this is my wife. This is my baby…I started here at Gram’s,’” Bratton shared.
Other updates are simple, but monumental — like a new set of car keys.
“They started catching the bus… and getting rides and Ubers. And now it’s like, ‘Miss B, I got a car’” Bratton said. “That gives me chills because that’s really what it’s about: helping people… seeing people thrive, seeing people make changes… and build their lives.”
For Bratton, the work is inseparable from the realities of Black life in Riverside. Her father showed her firsthand how the restaurant could also be an engine for redemption and connection.
“I love it. I love the challenge. I love the challenge of people saying that you can’t do it. I love making a change in the universe,” she said.