{"id":32915,"date":"2023-01-28T08:22:02","date_gmt":"2023-01-28T16:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000029551"},"modified":"2023-01-28T12:42:14","modified_gmt":"2023-01-28T20:42:14","slug":"strongbeach-lemonade-deandre-parks-black-restaurant-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/food\/strongbeach-lemonade-deandre-parks-black-restaurant-week","title":{"rendered":"Meet DeAndre Parks, who went from rough streets to selling lemonade at the beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

DeAndre Parks grew up on the city\u2019s Eastside during the 1990s, a time and place when being in a gang \u201ccame natural,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After a winding path, the former Poly High School football star is now a successful business owner who opened StrongBeach Lemonade in 2020, selling seven flavors of the sour-sweet drink\u2014along with smash burgers\u2014from a stand at the beach.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a far cry from his childhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels good knowing where I came from to what I\u2019m doing now,\u201d said Parks, 40.<\/p>\n

\"\"
StrongBeach Lemonade owner DeAndre Parks with his lemonade during the Black Restaurant Week pop-up at The Cove Hotel on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. Photo by Stephen Carr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Parks was among 16 vendors who participated in the second annual Black Restaurant Week pop-ups at Trademark Brewing and The Cove Hotel, one of several events planned through Sunday to highlight Black restaurant owners.<\/p>\n

Known in the neighborhood as “Baby Dee”\u2014a nickname given to him by his mother\u2014Parks said he was always a stand-out as one of six kids, made popular due to his exceptional skills as a football player.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing up, it was sports and gang-banging for a lot of us,\u201d Parks said.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until after he hurt his shoulder his senior year that he began to foresee a different future, one less known without football.<\/p>\n

He enlisted in a gang prevention program where he started to become a positive influence on his peers. After, he worked odd jobs at a refinery in Wilmington, security gigs, and stints doing club and party promotion.<\/p>\n

But eventually, Parks said he began to feel he wasn\u2019t making enough money to get by and turned to selling weed full-time\u2014something he was well-versed in having smoked his first blunt at 12.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt came easy to me because I was popular and everybody was smoking so I figured why not sell it,\u201d Parks said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
StrongBeach Lemonade customers wait for their orders during the Long Beach Black Restaurant Week pop-up at The Cove Hotel, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. Photo by Stephen Carr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2008, everything changed: Parks had his son, DeAndre Jr., which pulled him away from the illegal activity and toward a new path with the aim of \u201cbreaking the cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was smart enough to watch a lot of my peers coming up and seeing how they were raised with their parents selling weed and I was like, \u2018Nope, I\u2019m not raising mine like that,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Parks began working as a pipe fitter out of state with his older brother for a couple of months, followed by a few months back at home in Long Beach.<\/p>\n

When the pandemic hit, Parks sat down with his brother and a friend, and together they brainstormed business ventures. His friend came up with the idea of opening a Long Beach lemonade stand on the beach similar to that on Huntington Beach.<\/p>\n

With Park’s life motto being \u201csink or swim,\u201d he excitedly jumped into the venture and came up with a business name, created 10 different flavors of lemonade and bought a tent and supplies. Along with serving what he calls \u201cthe OG Lemonade,\u201d Parks infuses some of his lemonade drinks with strawberry, mango, pineapple, blueberry, kiwi and watermelon flavors.<\/p>\n

With many restaurants closing in 2020 due to indoor dining restrictions, Parks and his business partners\u2019 idea to sell at Junipero Beach was a hit. They sold out by the end of the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople went crazy over it,\u201d Parks said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
StrongBeach Lemonade owner DeAndre Parks cooks up some onions for his smash burgers, Long Beach Black Restaurant Week pop-up, held at The Cove Hotel on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. Photo by Stephen Carr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Parks has since added a grill to offer burgers, with plans to add hot dogs, pastrami sandwiches, loaded fries, wings, and \u201call the best things that go with a fresh lemonade drink.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he\u2019s had a few snags in getting permits from the city, Parks is barreling forward with a positive attitude and a hope to one day open a brick-and-mortar cafe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis whole experience has been another rush,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Parks\u2019 StrongBeach Lemonade tent can be found at Junipero Beach from sun-up to sun-down anytime it\u2019s over 70 degrees.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Parks was among 16 vendors who participated in the second annual Black Restaurant Week pop-up, one of several events planned through Sunday to highlight Black restaurant owners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":304,"featured_media":72250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","pmpro_default_level":0,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","footnotes":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[32077],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32071],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32915"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/304"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32915"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=32915"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=32915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}