Describe The Sweet Pea restaurant. Use text evidence from Bud, Not Buddy.

Bud describes The Sweet Pea restaurant when the band members take him there after meeting Herman E. Calloway at band practice.  They pull up to “a little house” in chapter 13, but the major description is found in chapter 14 of Bud, Not Buddy.  The first part of the description is the first sentence of chapter 14:

When we got into the restaurant I could see that it was someone’s living room that they’d...

Bud describes The Sweet Pea restaurant when the band members take him there after meeting Herman E. Calloway at band practice.  They pull up to “a little house” in chapter 13, but the major description is found in chapter 14 of Bud, Not Buddy.  The first part of the description is the first sentence of chapter 14:

When we got into the restaurant I could see that it was someone’s living room that they’d set about ten card tables and some folding chairs in.

This quotation about The Sweet Pea restaurant shows us a bit about the setting of time:  the Great Depression.  People during that time did whatever they could to find a job, even if it is turning their living room into a restaurant using folding chairs and card tables.  Luckily for Bud and the band members, sometimes dives like this have the best food.  Bud notices this immediately because the smell of food was so wonderful Bud “could tell why folks were lining up to get in.”  In my opinion, it is Bud’s description of the olfactory image that is the most interesting:  a mixture of coffee and cider and pies and meat loaf.  Bud thinks it smells like heaven.  The next quotation describes some specifics about the atmosphere:

Every table but one was filled and there were five or six people standing in the doorway waiting to sit down.

Here is another quotation that reveals the popularity of The Sweet Pea restaurant as well as the importance of the band.  Even though there were people standing and waiting for a table, there is one table that remains unoccupied.  It has a sign on it that says “NBC.”  Steady Eddie tells bud that “NBC stands for ‘Nobody but Calloway.’”  This always allows the band a place to sit and eat food after practicing. 

In conclusion, it is important to note that it is within The Sweat Pea restaurant where Bud truly gets to know the members of Calloway’s band and begins to enjoy himself.  Sometimes the best parts of life can be found in unexpected places.