“Good seeing you!” Marquis White of Dixon-White Restaurant Group pauses and makes sure to acknowledge the presence of a frequent customer during the interview. Alicia Dixon shows gratitude to another customer.

These Southern hospitable acts, though seemingly small, adds to the sense of community and connectedness that Groovy Gratitude has built since opening in June.

Located at 605 N. Second St. in Malone Park Commons, the wellness micro-eatery, owned by Dixon-White, serves up fresh juices, smoothies, salads and delectable bites in the quaint, walkable neighborhood in Uptown.

One can feel the warmth and consideration of the restaurant liken to visiting a familiar friend while eclectic musical playlists fill the background. 

As we highlight the More for Memphis initiative, a plan whose goal is to uplevel the quality of life for all Memphians regardless of socioeconomic status, the plan is currently positioned at its implementation phase. It has secured $8.5 million in investments to activate these goals. Ultimately, the ambitious plan desires to address inequities and disparities that exist around Memphis. 

According to the More for Memphis plan, over 140,000 Shelby County residents were classified as food insecure in 2022 and many neighborhoods lack access to fresh foods, ultimately being relegated to food deserts. Race and zip code also play big factors. 

It is also notable that the plan found that Black and Brown businesses can substantially be uplifted. More for Memphis concludes there is a need to provide residential investments and training to develop missing neighborhood businesses. 

In efforts to highlight people and businesses already doing the work, Groovy Gratitude stands as an example of the major focus areas the plan amplifies around economic development, health, and well-being.

High Ground News spoke with Alicia Dixon and Marquis White of Dixon-White Restaurant Group about their efforts to blend community, mindfulness, and music in the center of Uptown. 

The outside of Groovy Gratitude. (Photo taken by Danica Wilks)High Ground News: The More for Memphis plan centers around economic development, access, and wellness. Why was an investment in this community important to you? How does it align with community revitalization? 

Marquis White: “To me, the reason why investment was so important is because I’m of this community. I grew up in North Memphis and Hurts Village, both my maternal and paternal sides. This area means a lot to me, and I see what’s going on. We were introduced to a Black developer named Andre Jones and we saw what he was trying to bring to the neighborhood. So it was easy for us to double down on our investment into the area.” 

Alicia Dixon: “I’m from a small town in Arkansas of less than 6,000 people. I grew up in an area where we didn’t have access to fresh foods, vegetables, and nice grocery stores. A lot of things were missing. I’ve been in healthcare for over 20 years now. My background is in health education and I’ve always been passionate about making sure the community had access. Marquis and I do whiteboard sessions all the time. We came together and asked how can we make this happen. How do we really close the gap in healthcare disparities, not just keep highlighting it, but [really] address it.”   

HGN: Tell us more about your background. 

Alicia Dixon: “In my experience of healthcare I’ve always been over operations, helping patients gain access to life-sustaining medications. So understanding the patient and product journey, really made me passionate about how I can utilize those skills and bring it to the community. I’ve been helping people gain access for so long. I thought about how I can make it tangible, and translate these skills so I decided to make the jump.”

Marquis White: “My background is sales and marketing. I’ve worked in sales development roles. That’s my strong suit. I’ve been in sales development roles for 12 years, working in areas like the automotive industry to healthcare. Sales and marketing is all about how we can make Groovy Gratitude and eating fruits and vegetables fun and exciting. The number 1 thing Alicia and I wanted to do when we set out to create Groovy Gratitude was [think about] how can we bring luxury to the hood. People that are often overlooked in the areas we grew up and live deserve the best as well. So how can we bring it all together and tie it in, but also make it inclusive to everyone, [while making] it of us and also built for people that look like us?”

Alicia Dixon: “And we really wanted to make it multigenerational. We were like how can we create a community that’s for everybody no matter what age, and make sure everyone enjoys this space? And that was really important to us so it’s a rewarding feeling to see people of all ages truly enjoying it.”

HGN: Tell us more about Groovy Gratitude. What should people know? 

Alicia Dixon: “We are mindfulness and music. We want to show multiple ways that mindfulness can happen in people’s lives, from how you eat, to sound bowls, meditation, yoga, and pilates, all these access channels of which we can look at holistically. [We elevate] how we can look at it as a lifestyle brand, not just about food. [We promote] helping people understand the journey of food from seed to harvest,  from the time it goes into the ground until you get that smoothie, really telling the journey of it. We are still in the early stages but we definitely want to do that storytelling as well and talk about the whole journey to where everyone can contribute and play a part.”

Marquis White and Alicia Dixon outside of Groovy Gratitude. (Photo taken by Danica Wilks)
HGN: There is a sense of community when coming to Groovy Gratitude. How important is this for the vision of the company?

Marquis White: “That’s why we were created. Just being intentional about activation, and pulling different organizations, businesses and nonprofits together. Oftentimes, we don’t co-mingle as much as we should so we felt that we could lead the charge with that, by crossing barriers, bringing different businesses together and putting a twist on it that people often overlook or don’t think about. So it’s all about being intentional with the community and we are also fans of these businesses and organizations, too. I’ve been seeing them and watching them grow for over the years and just want to be a part of their world while bringing them into our world.”

Alicia Dixon: “And community is also creatives. I feel like it feels good that people can come in and have so many different skill sets. ‘This person is a writer! This person sings! This person plays music!’ And we all get to bring that together, like one band, one sound. That’s the joy for me is meeting new people, seeing the community leaders embrace it and support us, being there and seeing themselves [in it]. People see themselves in the brand. We did this to share it and love that people see themselves in what we are trying to do, and that’s community.” 

Marquis White: “And from being intentional, we’ve been going to community meetings, meeting with different organizations over 11 months before we even opened. We just wanted people to understand what our vision was before and what we were planning to do. Often times, when people come to neighborhoods, they tend to think they know what the neighborhood wants, but we wanted to change that.

Whether it’s reaching out to Jeff and Ms. Valerie, the former owners of the Office at Uptown, just seeing the things that the community likes and what  [the community] gave great feedback on, and also how to operate within this neighborhood. So we tried to be intentional, months in advance, building relationships. So therefore when we opened up, it was natural, where people wanted to support because they’re familiar with our faces.” 

HGN: Forecasting a year or two from now, what does Groovy Gratitude look like for this community or in other spaces? 

Alicia Dixon: “For me, it always is about community. We’re in a space that people wouldn’t expect typically but we want to be in a walkable community. We have a customer that comes in every day. Ms. Barbara, 76 years old. And she is proud to let us know that she walked here if she walked. And we want to have that same feeling anywhere we go.” 

Marquis White: “And also while we’re talking about Ms. Barbara. She’s trying new things. She’s 76 and she’s curious and she wants to expand her taste palette so she had yogurt parfait for the first time and she’s sharing with [her family about] the new smoothie shop she’s building community with. Those types of stories mean a lot. And you see these same familiar faces, you get to see what people do for a living, their names, their families, and that’s what it’s all about.

[I foresee being] still in the same walkable community. I can’t ever see a Groovy Gratitude in a shopping mall or strip. It’s all about being in the actual neighborhood with people who may not have access to a car and things of that nature. With Groovy Gratitude, we wanted to create a micro-eatery where we can have a small footprint but be able to make a big impact. We are 700 square feet but we want to make the best use of the space.” 

Alicia Dixon: “The other thing is, we’ve been [talking] about Groovy Gratitude, but Dixon-White Restaurant Group has a higher level mission around economic development. And so when [you] ask a year from now, it’s really about Dixon-White Restaurant Group. How can we expand in areas such as hydroponics? We’re really interested in growing our own leafy greens and working with different people in the community to get that done.

How do we expand our supply chain in this neighborhood and make sure we’re creating more jobs and making sure people have access to more than the smoothies and juices, but they also have access to the leafy greens and they can come find out how they can get additional produce. It’s things like that from an economic development standpoint, we really want to continue to contribute to the community and build.”

HGN: Is this area considered a food desert? Was that part of your decision to build here? 

Both: “Yes!” 

Alicia Dixon: “I did the research. I pulled up the District and Commissioner's report to look at what the data was and what are the top 5 healthcare disparities in this area and lack of access to food was one of them. This is one of the highest poverty areas. Even from our pricing, we really try to get creative and make sure it feels comfortable to people. If you come to {promote] access, they still have to be able to access it. So we're trying to get creative and find multiple ways to attack those healthcare disparities. And healthcare disparities are more than just food. It’s mental health.
That’s healthcare. That’s where we contribute with the meditation and the yoga because we want to help with your mental health as well as your physical health, to add to that balance.” 

HGN: Is there anything else that you want the community to know? 

Alicia Dixon: “We want them to be a part of what we’re doing. We want everybody to know that there is a change to be made and we all have to be a part of it. We can’t do it by ourselves. We need the community to be with us to make sure we’re continuing to make this a better place, make Memphis a better place, and hopefully, we can all do that together.” 

To learn more about Groovy Gratitude, visit: groovygratitude.com