Only 8% of restaurants in the U.S. are owned by Black Americans, according to the National Restaurant Association.
Although Black Americans fill up 10% of the foodservice manager positions in U.S. restaurants, the rates for ownership are not as high. Last year, the National Restaurant Association started its “Pathways to Black Franchise Ownership” program to help more Black women and men succeed in the restaurant business, promising to add at least 100 more Black-led restaurants by late 2023.
Until more work is done to help open up more Black-owned restaurants, here is a list of some Black-owned restaurants that are currently open to support.
- Kibrom’s Ethiopian & Eritrean Restaurant (Idaho): Located in Boise, this restaurant was founded by husband-and-wife duo Kibrom Milash and Tirhas Hailu in 2016. The couple opened their own restaurant at a marketplace, the Boise International Market, in 2013 shortly after moving to the U.S. from a refugee camp in Ethiopia where they also had a restaurant. The couple moved to the location its currently at in 2016 after a fire at the marketplace halted their restaurant plans shortly after it opened. Kibrom’s Ethiopian & Eritrean Restaurant works to share Ethiopian culture by serving traditional Ethiopian dishes made from fresh food sources. The restaurant is vegan and vegetarian-friendly. Kibrom’s Ethiopian & Eritrean Restaurant is also gluten-free friendly as they make “Injera,” a bread made from the ancient East African grain teff.
- Bywater American Bistro (Louisiana): This bistro was made out of Nina Compton’s and her husband, Larry Miller’s, love of New Orleans. The restaurant was created as a place to celebrate the culture of the city and cultivate a sense of community. Using food from local farms, Bywater American Bistro serves many entrees, including half jerk chicken and pan-roasted gulf fish, alongside beers and wines. Compton received acclaim after finishing second place on season 11 of Top Chef. In 2018, she became the first Black woman to win the Best Chef award from the James Beard Foundation. Compton owns another restaurant in New Orleans called Compere Lapin where she also serves Caribbean-inspired dishes.
- Greedi Kitchen (New York): Located in Brooklyn, the company was born from Latisha Daring’s love for food. Daring, who had previously had a career in fashion for 26 years, decided to take a leap and open her own vegan restaurant after noticing a lack of diversity in the dishes the vegan restaurants around Brooklyn were serving. Expanding to two locations, Greedi Kitchen has been successful in challenging this and combining history and culture with food, serving vegan dishes inspired by traditional Caribbean, African and Southern dishes.
- The Four Way Restaurant (Memphis): Open since 1946, this restaurant was listed in “The Green Book” as a safe place and opened its doors to artists like B.B. King, Aretha Franklin and Rufus Thomas. The Four Way Restaurant also played an important role in the Civil Rights Movement. Civil rights activists like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Jesse Jackson would hold meetings at the restaurant to figure out their next steps in the movement. The restaurant offers a variety of Southern dishes such as peach cobbler and catfish.
- Dooky Chase’s Restaurant (Louisiana): Located in New Orleans, this restaurant has been open since 1941 when Emily and Dooky Chase Sr. first opened its doors. Throughout the years, the restaurant’s upstairs room has served as an important meeting place for civil rights activists like Thurgood Marshall, Oretha Castle Haley, Reverend A.L. Davis and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to plan strategies. Other visitors include James Baldwin, Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones and Ray Charles. The restaurant serves traditional New Orleans food and Creole dishes with recipes by chef Leah Chase, the “Queen of Creole Cuisine.” Chase passed away in 2019 after decades of ownership, but her work within the restaurant’s history remains as she helped introduce Creole dishes to Dooky Chase’s Restaurant when she married Edgar Dooky Chase, Jr. in 1946.
