Any discussion of Milwaukee’s favorite barbecue has to include Heaven’s Table in Washington Heights. But the road to culinary success was anything but smooth for owner Jason Alston. Fueled by the desire to give back and the need to set a good example for his two young sons, Alston created a set of tools to help others find their passions and pursue their goals.
Family And Food
Positive family role models were the ingredients for Alston’s culinary career. “My family would find any excuse to grill. If it had four legs and moved, Granddad put it on the grill,” Alston recalls. “The fried corn, black eye peas and greens [at Heaven’s Table] come from my grandparents and my uncle.”
His uncle inspired the restaurant’s corned beef. “When I was 13, I saw my uncle smearing a secret ingredient on corned beef. I can’t say what the ingredient is, but my uncle knew the original owners of Jake’s Deli and he got the secret from them,” Alston says.
One side dish is an Alston original. “The mac and cheese is pretty much me. It’s something my kids can brag about when they get older,” Alston explains.
Trouble At Home
Despite a supportive extended family, Alston had a difficult relationship with his stepfather. “My story starts out like many in my community — without my biological father in the home,” he says. “I bumped heads with my stepfather; it caused emotional damage and low self-esteem.”
Alston’s mother eventually divorced his stepfather. “I was almost 15,” he remembers. “We got kicked out of our house because my mother couldn’t afford it.”
Alston got into trouble two weeks before graduation from Bayview High School. “I was caught with marijuana in the bathroom. Because I had turned 18, I got kicked out of school,” he says.
Then Alston started selling drugs, which lead to two more arrests. “My excuse was I was doing it to help my mother, brother and sister — but in reality, I was doing what everybody else was doing instead of trying to figure out who I was,” he explains.
During his 18 months in prison, Alston completed his high school degree and did some soul-searching. “I had to think about what my passion was, which ended up being cooking,” Alston says. “I started figuring out what I wanted to do and ended up going to culinary school at MATC.”
Saved By The Grill
Alston took a job as a cold line cook at Jimmy’s Island Grill, which led to a valuable connection. “The executive chef had just finished the MATC program and pretty much taught me everything, so I was ahead of everybody else,” Alston says.
Alston now has a bachelor’s degree in business and he and his wife Karesha are the proud parents of sons Noah and Nehemiah. In 2021, Alston received a pardon from Governor Evers.
Alston’s desire to give back motivated him to create Chosen Generation in 2021, a program to help others avoid the mistakes he made.
“There’s nothing more influential than talking to somebody that’s been in your shoes,” Alston says. “Chosen Generation instills life skills to young adults and those who have been in trouble. It could be for men, women, young, old, anybody. The program helps you reposition your thought process; you think about the consequences before you engage.”
The program goes beyond mindset change. “Whether it’s culinary, technology or cosmetology, Chosen Generation is about giving people a trade. If it isn’t their passion, at least they’ll know how to make money,” Alston says.
He worked with educators and religious leaders to create the program. “I invested thousands of dollars; now it’s a nonprofit and I can take donations,” Alston adds.
A few local schools have brought Alston in to present Chosen Generation, and Alston plans to expand the program. “In two years, we hope to have a warehouse and a center where people can come to get advice, do volunteer work and have an impact on the city,” Alston explains. “Our plan is that every person that goes through this program gets accredited so they’re able to get into the workforce to get to whatever their passion is,” he adds.
With a successful business, a beautiful family and a second Heaven’s Table location in the works in West Allis, Alston is an example for young people, especially those in similar communities.
“Every decision and choice you make is like a seed planted in the ground. It’s either going to yield good fruit or bad fruit,” he says. “I believe if 17-year-old Jason had something like this program, he would have gone to college right out of high school and understood that cooking was his passion. And maybe we’d be talking about my fourth restaurant.”
A Chosen Generation website is in the works and people can donate by emailing Alston at Heaven’s Table heavenstablebbq@gmail.com. MKE