- Hey, you wanna know how to make waffles?

Come on.

(indistinct conversation) You know, this is a episode of Cribs.

I'm Rashad Bailey, this is my house.

You know, it's where all the magic happens.

You know, the boom boom room.

(upbeat music) I've been a entrepreneur my whole life.

(upbeat music) So, this is Dinner and a Movie.

You know, from when I was in second, third grade, cutting hair, selling juices, anything, you know, to candy.

Dinner and a Movie is a reflection of Rashad Bailey.

I'm young, I'm hip, I'm bougie.

I'm all about taste.

When you get in here, it checks all the boxes.

It's fun, food is quick, it's easy.

It feels good, the music, the lights, it's very colorful.

We're always having a birthday party.

We are the black Chuck E. Cheese of Chicago for adults.

And you know, you're in bed by 12 (chuckling) 'cause we ain't staying open late.

(traffic streaming) It's a white residential neighborhood.

Million-dollar residential white neighborhood.

Look at how nice that house is, that new brick.

They own all that.

Talk about it.

I wanna do this with my family, live in a million dollar neighborhood and ride bikes.

So, maybe it won't happen for me, but it'll happen for my children.

What do they say, sacrificing for your last name?

And I talk about starting your family out, you know, I own a home outright, you know, two, three million.

That's pretty cool.

I was in college.

I know I was going to be earning a way on own.

When I switched over to economics, it was more so do you wanna work on Wall Street, or any of that type of stuff?

And I said, "Well, no, I wanna be a small business guy."

That slow grind, I'm about that.

(oil boiling) I'm a one man army.

So, you know, you gotta be successful in harsh environments, places where you're not wanted.

Not getting any support from the neighborhood.

They see the business, they see we're open.

They're not coming in.

They come by and say stuff, to me, mean things.

"They" meaning the white people of the neighborhood.

"Why don't you go home, why don't you go back where you came from"?

They'll call my voicemail, and you know, call us a bunch of savages, all types of stuff.

(tense music) Even having a response can essentially risk my freedom and the people I take care of.

So you just let it go.

They viewed this place as dangerous because it's Black people coming here.

And in a two month span, we had the police called 126 times.

Some of them will get out of the car, and say, "Hey, we got a call, but we don't see anything."

So, when they say it's a noise thing, I'm like, well, it's not a noise thing because the building is soundproof.

So, you're not gonna hear any music at its loudest outside.

Some of the people were just panicking.

I see five or six Black people walking to their cars and my $2 million home, I got a problem with it.

I don't know, I mean.

I'm not sure what they doing.

Right?

(traffic streaming) What, was, was is this, like a show of force?

(traffic streaming) Right, all these police officers.

- [Second Person] For what?

- Like, for what, for what?

You know, there's no, like, I guess, process to like stop a person from calling the police and they just show up 'cause, you know, every time you think it's legitimate.

We did have a shooting.

The day we had a shooting, we called the police and said, "Hey, we need some help."

That night, we had like four birthday parties in here.

We were telling everybody they gotta go.

They can't stay 'til two in the morning, we close at 12.

We're getting them out of here.

And outside people weren't really leaving.

(indistinct talking) I called the police, some time went by.

Within like 15 minutes, people started shooting.

Nobody got shot, and I felt like somebody was just shooting in the air, trying to be, you know, macho.

I thought it was crazy.

I was like, I'm under attack.

I called the police, they don't show up.

You know, then they show up late.

We probably got 40, 50 calls that night.

Rightfully so, you've had a shooting and you got a family upstairs or across the street.

A hundred percent, I, you know, I get it.

I got a family, too, I understand.

(sirens wailing) And when they showed up, they coulda just sent one car.

They showed up with 30, 30 minutes late.

(sirens wailing) You know, I was upset about that.

Then maybe a hour later, they came in and said, "Oh, we gotta close you 'cause you're a public nuisance and a safety risk" and whatnot.

And I said, "Well, to be a nuisance, there has to be some type of proof".

But that's not the case.

With this little law, they have it set now.

It's at the discretion of the commander to close the business once something happens.

Of course, we were closed.

(tense music) Then they broke into the business.

(tense music) Ah, here we go.

Yo, yo, yo, hey, hey, we not doing that.

That loud shit, come on, man.

- [Security] I got this.

- [Rashad] Yeah, no, yeah, that loud music, that ain't it.

To hold me accountable for what people do, I mean, I can't lock anybody up, and I can't stop people from speeding.

- Oh, okay.

- Yeah, and then they complain about the music outside.

- Okay.

- Yeah, they say I'm guilty.

- [Woman] Got you, say less.

Okay, baby.

- Yeah.

Yeah, we just wanna let everybody know, you know, hey, the next, you know, uh.

It's a way in which they can keep the city segregated because you can be prejudiced with the businesses that you close based off of anything happening.

(car engine revving) (upbeat music) We play Black people music, and we have Black customers, and that's the problem.

So, any time they see a Black person walking to their car, they're gonna say, "that's gotta be a customer from Dinner and a Movie".

(tense music) (indistinct conversation) (tense music) Things will happen, that's why you have police.

So, putting this all on the business owner, we had the town hall already coming.

Before the shooting, that was already gonna happen.

And then we had our situation with the police where they wanted to talk about what we were gonna do differently to open back up.

And that's when we gave them a security plan.

(indistinct conversation) That's why now we have surveillance.

And so we have a, we have a police officer at the door at all times.

Oh, I was coming right by you.

(customers talking) (upbeat music) So, we opened back up July the eighth.

It was a 60-day probation.

I gotta be out of here by 12 o'clock.

So, I've got to get all the customers they food, and get us outta here, or it's gonna be a problem.

The probation doesn't allow me to open before 4:30, ever.

And I can't be open past 12, ever.

They give you all these constraints, things that you can't do.

Doesn't matter.

We gonna make it happen, I ain't got no other choice.

(laughing) You know, when that's like, that's a tough constraint to put on a business, you know?

'Cause I mean, I might have all type of creative ideas and I might wanna be open for lunch, whatever.

I'm not even given that option.

One up.

(upbeat music) Hey, that was the last order, so, it's all right.

Let everybody know they got about 10 minutes.

But we're officially closed.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm gonna get, he bring y'all some boxes right now.

Yeah.

(laughing) Segregation in Chicago is a manner in which owners of property don't allow representation of different groups to have businesses.

All right, everybody, thank y'all for coming out.

We're closed.

(indistinct talking) It starts with the landlords.

There is always gonna be some person on the other end that I have to say, "Will you accept me as a, as a tenant"?

Pick and choose?

I have people telling me no, for no reason, just said no, I'm okay.

You know, they don't like my look once they met me.

So that discrimination, I can't go everywhere regardless of how successful the business may be.

And they don't like a young Black man, a young Black man is dangerous.

If we own more things, we'll have more Black products and services out there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, okay.

We got, uh, it's 11:55.

Keep working hard and just keep your head down.

It might work out.

Ah, work got me over here, how the f (blanked out) did I get to Lincoln Park?

(laughing) That doesn't even make sense.

I just wanna save business.

(equipment clattering) Nothing can stop me 'cause I'm, I'm, I'm hungry.

And I believe in what I'm doing.

Everyone wants to work a job, save their money, go on vacation, have a family.

Those are, that's us, that's the American dream.

That's not a Black dream, that's the American dream.

Oh man, man, hey, you grab a garbage bag from outta there?

For my children, my family, I want them to look at Chicago and see endless opportunities.

(gentle music)