Neto's Tucson: Better order your plate of love now

Love.

"I just love entertaining people," said Velda, an affable hostess with a smile as sweet as her North Carolina cooking.

For 14 years, the couple have dished up Southern home-style fare in their under-the-gastronomic-radar eatery on the northern edge of Downtown's Presidio neighborhood.

The food and company, talk and laughs have all been good, they said.

The good times, however, will stop at the end of June. The Fluellens will turn off the roasters and oven at Art's BBQ Restaurant and Vel's Catering. No more collard greens, buttermilk-coated fried chicken, Louisiana hot-link sandwiches and tangy ribs.

The Arizona Department of Transportation is selling the corner lot and building at North Main Avenue and West Sixth Street.. The state no longer needs the property for the extension of the Barraza-Aviation Parkway to Interstate 10.

The state tentatively will put up the lot for auction on June 25. The asking price is $258,000.

The couple will not make a bid, Art said. The price is too high and, beyond that, they said they have paid $110,000 to lease the building. And that doesn't include the cost of improvements for a building the city was set to destroy.

A bullying for-sale sign outside their eatery jars their emotions.

"It's kinda painful," Velda Fluellen said.

When they signed a lease with the state, they knew the city wanted to connect the parkway with Interstate 10. The Fluellens took the risk in leasing because they believed the extension would not be built.

It hasn't been built so far, but it's time to move on, they said.

The Fluellens talked to state and city officials about buying the property. But no love was extended their way, they said.

"It's like we don't exist," said Velda.

In a beaten-down former liquor store, the Fluellens envisioned planting their Southern roots.

Art Fluellen, 73, was born in Georgia, and Velda Fluellen, 67, was born in North Carolina.

He worked as an IBM industrial engineer, not an easy position for a black man when he was hired in 1968, Art said. She taught biochemistry at North Carolina Central University in Durham, where they also owned a small business.

They were not unhappy living in North Carolina. Nonetheless they decided to leave for another place. They wanted a different town and lifestyle.

Tucson sounded good to them, although they didn't know a soul. Before coming, however, Velda ran into a sorority sister who lived in Tucson. The woman gave her the name of Laura Banks, a longtime educator and community activist who, coincidently, once owned a barbecue joint in town.

Art and Velda soon realized they had made the right decision.

"We felt at home here," she said. "Tucson welcomed us with open arms."

Art continued working for IBM, and Velda found a job with Job Corps and the late Fred Acosta, another Tucson community activist. Later she joined her husband at IBM. By 1989 they were both retired and itching to do something.

Velda, who loved to cook and entertain, began cooking for friends, then strangers and groups. Word was out that a good Southern cook was in town.

Today the Fluellens feel a deep loss. The community — we're not talking about customers — also will feel the loss.

The community-grounded couple is involved in the effort to refurbish the nearby vacant Dunbar School, which Tucson's black students attended during an era of segregation. Velda is a founding member of the Tucson Black Chamber of Commerce, which will lose one of Tucson's few black-owned businesses.

Over the years, they did their part for the community by donating leftover food to the Salvation Army Hospitality House, Casa Maria soup kitchen, Primavera Men's Shelter and more.

"It's the right thing to do," said Velda.

When the rueful June day comes, the Fluellens said, they'll lock the door one last time with no regrets. They've enjoyed meeting people. They ran a professional business. They gave to their adopted town.

Velda summed up their life and business in a sentence:

"It's been very fulfilling to put out love and food and have people enjoy it."

DID YOU KNOW

The Tucson-Southern Arizona Black Chamber of Commerce was created in 1993. It now has 214 members, of whom 40 percent are black and wholly own their own businesses.