Week-long event highlights the Black-owned restaurants in NOLa

By Fritz Esker
Contributing Writer

The third annual Black Restaurant Week took place from October 2-11, shining a light on a variety of local, Black-owned restaurants in New Orleans.

At BlackRestaurantWeeks.com, diners can find a directory of participating restaurants owned by African-American entrepreneurs. The New Orleans event highlighted a number of eateries ranging from Dooky Chase’s to Soule Cafe to Two Sisters N Da East to Carre Restaurant and Bar. Participating restaurants offered a wide variety of food options ranging from BBQ to vegan choices and sweets.

As part of the event, diners were also invited to participate in a bingo card game. As diners visited individual restaurants, they marked off the respective square, saved it, and uploaded it to MyBlackReceipt.com for chances to win a prize. There were also other audience-participation events like The Black Plate Awards (diners voted on their favorite participating restaurants) and the Power of Palate Competition (a virtual cocktail competition to determine which city has the best bartender).

Black Restaurant Week comes during a crisis for restaurants, as they have dealt with shutdowns and limited capacity since the COVID-19 pandemic reached the United States earlier this year.

“The restaurant industry as a whole has taken a hit. Many restaurants are closed and those that are open have mastered or are mastering the art of the pivot,” said Black Restaurant Week co-founder Derek Robinson. “With platforms like Black Restaurant Week, many establishments are able to keep their doors open for the community that loves them and their food so much.”

While exact data on COVID-19’s effect on African-American-owned restaurants is unknown, African-American-owned businesses in general have disproportionately suffered during the pandemic. An analysis by University of California, Santa Cruz economics professor Robert Fairlie stated the number of African-American business owners in the United States fell by 41 percent between February and April, compared to 17 percent for white business owners.

The Tasty Treat on N. Claiborne was one of the participating restaurants. Manager Tangela Green said the pandemic has been a challenge for them, but The Tasty Treat has been more fortunate than many restaurants. That said, they were hopeful for Black Restaurant Week to lead to a boost in business as it has in the past two years New Orleans hosted the event.

“It’s very important to us,” Green said. “It brings people in. It’s a great week.”

Founded by Warren Luckett, Falayn Ferrell and Derek Robinson, Black Restaurant Week started as a one-city event in Houston in 2016. The goal was to promote restaurants that often did not have the marketing dollars to promote themselves. Black Restaurant Week has since expanded to eleven markets with involvement from over 500 minority businesses. This year, they added Pepsi as their first-ever national title sponsor.

In addition to this year’s event, the founders of Black Restaurant Week also announced the launch of the Feed the Soul Foundation (FeedTheSoulFou.org), which will support marginalized culinary business owners. It will provide access to business development resources, support to foster sustainable business growth, and workforce training for employees. Robinson said the foundation’s work is necessary because marginalized entrepreneurs face an uneven playing field.

“Marginalized entrepreneurs face many barriers, but access to capital and investment is the leading cause of business failure. Black-owned businesses are three times as likely to be denied loans despite creditworthiness, and those that are approved often receive lower loan amounts and pay higher interest rates,” Robinson said.

More information about Black Restaurant Week, as well as a list of Black-owned restaurants, is available online at www.blackrestaurantweeks.com.

This article originally published in the October 12, 2020 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.