Every year, Phil Minkin tries to ensure good luck for himself and his friends by having a New Year’s Day meal of black-eyed peas, cole slaw, herring and grapes. Minkin has played host to the meal since 1986.

Minkin, who is a cook for the Children’s Community Center/Head Start, typically can be spotted walking in Lawrence’s downtown area or at a movie theater.

Q: Why did you move to Lawrence?

A: I had been in the restaurant business in Kansas City and had decided to get out of the restaurant business. Most of my friends there kept asking me when I was going back to work and since Lawrence — at that time — was nothing but students and hippies, no one ever asked that question. So, it was a comfortable place to live and I had some friends up here. We were going to try to start a commune that never quite happened. But those were the plans and the minute I got here, it felt like home.

Q: I understand you work as a cook now at the Children’s Community Center/Head Start. How did you get into doing that job?

A: I quit the restaurant business because I had been working six or seven days a week, 12 hours a day and I thought I was entitled to a little time off. But it kind of just stretched out into three years and, essentially, I just ran out of money. So, I had to get a job and had been offered the job as sous chef at the Eldridge (Hotel) at that time. But that was back to working six days a week, 12 hours a day. And I saw an ad for a cook for the Head Start program — at that time there were two of them in Lawrence — and I went and applied. As it turned out, the teachers all had to take turns cooking and they all hated it. So, I was welcomed with open arms. Later, the two programs combined over at Plymouth (Congregational) Church.

Q: Do you come up with the menus?

A: Yes. I come up with the menus, order the food, cook it, clean up afterwards.

Q: Well, what’s your experience in restaurant management?

Phil Minkin, a longtime resident of Lawrence, eats a bowl of black-eyed peas, one of the good-luck charms that he serves at a New Year's Day party for friends. Part of Minkin's salt and pepper shaker collection is pictured behind him.

A: I have a degree in restaurant management from Michigan State University. When I finished school, I went to work for a large chain — the Fred Harvey Organization — and thought the reason that I was not happy there was because it was a large chain. So, I then went to a family-owned restaurant in Kansas City and it was owned by a man that I had known all my life and I realized I could be unhappy at a small restaurant as easily as I could be at a big one. So, I decided to quit and find something else to do.

Q: I understand you have a black-eyed pea feed on New Year’s Day?

A: Yeah. I found out that on New Year’s Day it’s traditional good luck to eat black-eyed peas. I wanted to have good luck and I wanted my friends to have good luck.

Q: How long have you been having it?

A: Since 1986.

Q: That’s quite a run. What do you make with black-eyed peas?

A: Well, basically, the tradition is to make Hoppin’ John. Basically, I do a vegetarian one and a more traditional kind with ham. It’s got ham, green peppers and seasonings and you cook them until they’re done. I serve it with brown rice. I think traditional Hoppin’ John mixes in the rice, but I don’t do that. But over the years I’ve found out that in the Scandinavian culture on New Year’s Day it’s good luck to eat herring, so I also have it available. And if you eat cabbage on New Year’s Day, it’s suppose to bring you money throughout the year so I serve cole slaw. There’s also an Italian tradition of eating 12 grapes for good luck on New Year’s Day so I also have grapes. I want to take no chances.

Q: How did you find out about all these traditions? Was it just from reading?

A: I had heard about the black-eyed pea thing and went to the library and did a little research. I found that Southern plantation owners in the slavery era thought it was good luck to eat what they fed their slaves once a year so they did that on New Year’s Day and ate black-eyed peas and I think hog jowl. It’s become a Southern tradition that had infiltrated the nation. The others, I just heard about over the course of time.

Q: I understand you have a collection of salt and pepper shakers?

A: Yes. I collect food-shaped salt and pepper shakers. I have a good friend who collects coins and autographs and records and lots of things, and I always thought he got a lot of pleasure out of collecting something. So, I tried a couple of things and nothing quite worked. Then, a friend gave me a pair of salt and pepper shakers. I realized if I just started collecting salt and pepper shakers, it was too wide of an area so I decided to just specialize in food.

Q: How many do you have?

A: Well, about 390 pairs. I was hoping by limiting it to food-shaped shakers that it wouldn’t get out of hand, but it has gotten out of hand.

Q: Do you have a favorite pair?

A: No. People over the years have given me pairs and so I associate my friendships with them with the salt and pepper shakers so that adds some value to them. There are some that are so ridiculously small that I like them and some that are so ridiculously large that you’d go broke trying to fill them with salt and pepper. So, there are lots of ears of corn out there and different vegetables, but I also have slices of pie or chocolate soda or ice cream cones. I have a set of banana salt and pepper shakers that say Pratt, Kansas. One doesn’t immediately think of bananas and Pratt together but for some reason that’s what they wanted to sell as souvenirs there.

Q: I heard you and a friend compete to find spare change downtown. Is that true?

A: It’s not a competition. This friend of mine ever since I’ve known him, he has had an eagle eye and finds money and it’s kind of infected me. Since I don’t have a car, I walk for transportation, exercise and fun. Now, I’m just looking down while I walk looking for change. I can’t come close to what he collects, but it makes walking more interesting.

Q: Have you ever had a car?

A: Yes. But, essentially, when I quit the restaurant businesses I had just had a car wreck and never managed to get another car, and I’ve managed to get along without it. Now, it’s become part of my persona.

Q: What do you do in your spare time?

A: I enjoy going to movies. I see 70 to 80 movies a year. I read. I play softball with the Lawrence Trout — another Lawrence tradition.

Q: What was the last movie you saw?

A: “The Aviator.” I thought it was terrific. I’ve kept a daily journal since 1972 and I list the movies and rate them and this one got an “A.”

— Staff writer Alicia Henrikson can be reached

at 832-6352.