RALEIGH - Twenty years ago, a country boy raised on biscuits and butter beans took his first chef's job in New Orleans, where he was introduced to chicken gizzards, rabbit stew and gumbo served with bones and crab shells floating in the bowl.

Today, Harvey Yancey holds court at the back of his own downtown restaurant: Yancy's, a jazz and Cajun spot hotter than Texas Pete. Limousines roll up to the Fayetteville Street curb, electric lights twinkle from the ceiling and flat-screen televisions play even in the restrooms. Yancey surveys all, chomping an unlit cigar and accepting free drinks and kisses on the cheek like Raleigh's gumbo don.

At 62, he brings a flavor to downtown Raleigh absent since the days of soda fountains and the Ambassador Theater.

If $10 million to reopen Fayetteville Street is Raleigh's bait, then Yancey and his partners are the catfish at the end of the line.

Anyone walking the once-empty street on a Saturday night will blink in surprise at the traffic, the valet, the wail of the jazz combo and the electric image of Yancey's face -- topped with fedora and sunglasses -- projected on the sidewalk.

"I've got a lot of faith in downtown Raleigh," Yancey says. "It's like a sleeper that's going to wake up."

Stop at the rear table marked "Yancey's Fancy Only," and the big man talks about his youth in Rocky Mount, learning to read by studying the Bible as a teenager and playing outfield on a Cincinnati Reds farm team in 1965 alongside future Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench.

Back then, he knew how to fry a bologna sandwich and scramble some eggs. But he discovered that his young legs wouldn't carry him to the big leagues. Culinary school in San Francisco offered new adventure -- not to mention fresh seafood that stocked his first gumbo.

"Wherever you go, accept the journey," he says, his wonder intact after 25 years. "Have you ever seen the fog roll in off San Francisco Bay? I lived in Haight-Ashbury in the hippie times, and you'd see [the band] Santana walking down the street."

Yancey plays his colorful role gladly. It is part of what he brings to the partnership, along with the recipes.

He owns more than 40 hats. Black fedoras. Brown felts. Panamas.

He chews a cigar daily -- never smoking it -- keeping two more stuffed in his shirt pocket. Chewing cigars, he says, recalls the tobacco chewing of his Rocky Mount days.

He keeps them jutting from his mouth as well-wishers file to his chair, buying him glasses of Jim Beam Black, patting his shoulder. He prides himself on once winning an award for the best jazz and blues jukebox in Wake County, packed with John Coltrane and Bobby "Blue" Bland.

Yancey is the closest thing Raleigh has to a downtown celebrity.

"I drove him in the parade when they opened Fayetteville Street, and it was like having Elvis in the car," said Mark Valentine, his partner who handles the public relations and deal-making end. "We had to stop the car 15 times to have pictures taken with him."

Yancey was among the first to commit to a new Fayetteville Street and, along with two neighboring restaurants, The Capital Room and The Big Easy, he draws the first wave of the comeback crowd.

"Yancey really adds the image of a good time and great music," said Mayor Charles Meeker, a patron. "He provides the tone of a colorful character, and between him and Mark, they're off to a very great start."

Placename-dropping

Yancey loves to describe exotic spots he floated through as his reputation as a chef grew. He prepared moose meat in Quebec as a chef in the Hilton International chain; he smoked brisket in an Arlington, Texas, barbecue joint, and he honed his gumbo among elderly Creoles in New Orleans.

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