The Gumbo Was Perfect. The Business Wasn’t. 

Where Were The Customers?

The gumbo was perfect. The étouffée, the jambalaya, all of it. Dr. Wakeena Dickens and her husband, better known as Chef Darius, had poured everything into Bon Mangé Cuisine, their New Orleans-inspired spot inside a Virginia food hall and event space alongside a dozen other eateries. The recipes were dialed in. The flavors were authentic.

So where were all the customers?

The food hall buzzed around her. Filipino food, Mexican, vegan, a full bar. Constant events driving attendance. It wasn’t a traffic problem. People streamed past Bon Mangé Cuisine on their way to another line. When they did stop, it was to ask for other southern dishes they didn’t serve. Wakeena watched it happen day after day, the lunch rushes that rushed right past her counter, the event nights where other vendors ran out of food while she had plenty left over.

Wakeena had quit her corporate career for this. She walked away from 20 years of steady paychecks, and bet it all on this restaurant. She wasn’t alone in her struggle.

Nearly 50% of new restaurants close within five years, and the number one reason isn’t bad food, it’s misreading the market. She could feel it happening. The food was excellent, but something else was wrong. And she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but the business wasn’t going to survive unless she figured it out.

Dr. Wakeena Dickens' Military Service

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Wakeena earned a three-year Army scholarship while studying biology pre-med at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore through their ROTC program. As a Second Lieutenant, she served at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, where she served as a battalion intelligence officer, transportation platoon leader, brigade human resources officer, and adjutant over four years. She deployed to the Philippines during Operation Enduring Freedom.

Her final assignment was as a movement control detachment commander for one of the Army’s most diverse Corps Support Groups, overseeing movement plans for more than 2,000 personnel and 900 pieces of equipment in direct support of the infantry division. She separated as a Captain in 2003.

Betting on Herself

After her service, Wakeena spent 20 years climbing the corporate healthcare ladder, earning a doctorate in organizational leadership and a PMP certification along the way. She managed teams of hundreds and built training programs for entire hospital systems. She married a chef, and always believed in his cooking and potential. Eventually, she realized she had acquired the project management, team building, budgeting, and operations skills to bring it to life.

In 2017, they launched Bon Mangé Cuisine together as a home-based catering business. By 2022, Wakeena had hit a wall with corporate America. She felt ready to bet on herself. She quit and went looking for entrepreneurship education with no formal plan beyond a gut feeling that she and her husband could do this full time for themselves. Bon Mangé Cuisine moved into an event space food hall in Dale City, Virginia.

IVMF and V-WISE Change Everything

Thanks to the advice of a sorority sister and fellow veteran, Wakeena discovered IVMF’s V-WISE program and joined the Nashville Cohort in March 2022. The three-day conference overwhelmed her in the best way, with breakout sessions on financing, pitching, nonprofit strategy, and connections with bankers and fellow women veterans in her exact situation.

But one concept from V-WISE lodged itself in her brain and wouldn’t let go: What problem is your business solving?

Back at the food hall, she started paying closer attention. She felt like she had to educate customers on New Orleans cuisine, which was fun for those looking to try something new. But for every culinary explorer, a dozen customers asked if they had fried chicken, mac and cheese, or collard greens.

Nobody was looking for gumbo, they were looking for soul food. And the closest soul food restaurant was 45 minutes to an hour away, somewhere in Maryland or DC. Wakeena had been sitting in the middle of a culinary desert the whole time, serving food considered exotic to a community in Virginia that didn’t have access to staples.

She wasn’t solving a problem. She was a nice-to-have. V-WISE gave her the framework to finally see it.

Within a year of completing V-WISE, Wakeena and her husband pivoted. They opened Down Home Comfort Cafe as a brick-and-mortar soul food restaurant in Woodbridge, Virginia in March 2023. The demand was immediate.

Pivoting Toward Success

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Their 21-seat cafe outgrew itself within six months. After-church weekends packed the house. Local Marine Corps groups, IT professionals, and veterans’ organizations started booking the entire space. It felt like her family, and her food, had found an enthusiastic community excited to support their business.

They tripled their catering jobs in 2025 alone. Their TikTok account has over 42-thousand followers. Business is booming.

The accolades are pouring in, too. Down Home Comfort Cafe was named second in the ‘Cuse 50, Syracuse University’s 50 Fastest Growing Alumni Businesses. They won the Emerging Business Award from the Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce, as well as an $8,000 marketing grant, and landed the cover of the Virginia Black Business Directory’s 5th edition. Football legend Doug Williams and news anchor Allison Seymour have both stopped in to eat.

Now Wakeena is scouting for a second, larger location to handle the demand her 21-seat cafe can’t quite keep up with.

Wakeena has also launched a business called Keys to Life LLC in April of 2026. There, she draws on her own 7-step “reflections of me” framework to help overthinkers get unstuck. She is currently accepting clients, and you can register by visiting her booking page and using the password rom1 to schedule a free 30-minute consultation.