African American Woman's 'American Dream' Turns To Nightmare

There is a shop in Bristol Township where the shelves are bare and the cash register is empty. It’s not closed. The "open" sign hangs low, but with pride. This is a shop where the owner said she is stuck in limbo, unable to leave or keep her business open.

Tenneh Doiraley immigrated to America 10 years ago from her home country of Liberia. With hard work, she said she scrounged up enough cash to grab a little piece of the American Dream -- a small restaurant to call her own.

But Doiraley's restaurant off Route 413 is void of tables and chairs for dining. Instead, large taped sheets of paper obscure the windows and a health department warning is pressed against the remaining portion of the unmasked glass. Open the door and step inside, the first apparent thing is the distinct smell of saffron and ginger root. The second obvious element is the desolate environment.

White shelving is jury-rigged on the walls, holding only a sparse few cans of tomato paste and soup for sale. A freestanding rack holds two or three pairs of traditional African dresses. An empty Pepsi cooler sits plugged into the corner. Its motor is one of two audible sounds in the store. Doiraley's thick, accented voice pleading over a cordless phone was the other.

This was not her American Dream she said.

"We wanted to start an African restaurant with a BBQ," Doiraley said. "There are no traditional African restaurants here (in Bristol)."

Doiraley's shop sign now reads "African groceries, movies and African clothing," but originally it was supposed to be a small restaurant with a tented fire pit outside. In traditional Liberian cuisine, food is slow-roasted over an open fire.

Doiraley said she first obtained a permit to operate with the fire-pit during the summer of 2010. She said things were going good until several months later when Bristol Township health inspectors came by and told her the permit was no longer valid. She said they told her if she wished to continue to operate, she would need to apply for a commercial kitchen.

"They tried to take us out of business," Doiraley said. 

As she explained the situation, her eyes welted up with tears. She said she went through the township's License and Inspections Office and contacted one of the licensed consulting firms that L&I provided, Accu-tech.

"(The township said) there were only two companies certified to do the work. I called and just for the blueprints to be done they wanted $12,000," Doiraley said. "We are a small business. How can we afford that?"

Doiraley now lies in limbo. Unable to run her restaurant, she instead converted it into a small shop.

"I used to run a large restaurant with my mother in Liberia. We were successful. Nobody is helping here, not the township, not the banks -- nobody is helping us," Doiraley said.

Other business owners said they know the expenses it takes to start up and operate in the township.

"Based on the size, you could easily pay anywhere between $25,000 to $50,000 on a commercial kitchen," said Tom Sherridan, owner of Shenanigans Irish Pub.

Craig Bowen, the president of the Bristol Township Business Coalition, said he has also had troubles with the L&I offices in the township.

"(The townships) License and Inspections office is terrible to work with," Bowen said.

The Bristol L&I offices were unavailable to comment on Doiraley's situation.

"I'm just waiting until the lease is out so I can leave and move on. Every month until April I'm paying rent on a store that I cannot afford," Doiraley said.