You may keep an eye out for your city’s Restaurant Week every year, but have you heard of Black Restaurant Week? Founded in 2016 by Warren Luckett, Falayn Ferrell, and Derek Robinson, Black Restaurant Week is dedicated to celebrating African-American, African, and Caribbean cuisine through culinary events and promotional campaigns. This year, their calendar is full with events scheduled in Houston, New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto, and more.
In this interview, the three founders discuss the importance and impact of Black Restaurant Week as well their plans for the future.
What was the inspiration behind founding Black Restaurant Week (BRW)?
Ferrell: We were inspired to create Black Restaurant Week because we noticed the lack of representation of Black-owned culinary businesses from our community in the local major food and wine festivals and restaurant weeks. Most of the businesses in our community didn’t fit the business model to participate in a traditional restaurant week. They are fast-casual business concepts, not fine dining restaurants serving two-course and three-course meals. We designed an all-inclusive platform to promote Black-owned culinary businesses in our community—restaurants, food trucks, bakeries, and caterers.
How specifically does BRW help Black-owned restaurants?
Ferrell: The foundation of Black Restaurant Week is a marketing campaign for Black-owned culinary businesses. We use a cooperative economics model of showcasing everyone as a whole to the community, with the support of our corporate and community partners. The majority of small culinary businesses don’t have the cash flow to host a city-wide marketing campaign on their own or the expertise. Black Restaurant Week provides a platform to promote participants to the greater community so that they can see an increase in sales and new customers.
What do you think makes BRW so important or valuable?
Ferrell: Black Restaurant Week is so valuable because we are answering a problem in our community. We have created an affordable platform for culinary businesses to create awareness about their business to the community. Our entry-level participation is free, and we don’t take any portion of the sales earned by the restaurants during the campaign. This allows businesses to see an increase in revenue from the campaign and enables them to invest back in their business by hiring more employees or expanding to new locations.
Aside from the pandemic, what challenges have you faced growing this organization?
Robinson: With expansions come the challenges of continuing to market and get the word out about supporting these amazing Black culinary communities. Another challenge is there is not enough time in the calendar to balance all of the cities that house amazing culinary businesses.
What impact has BRW had on participating restaurants and communities?
Robinson: BRW is a marketing and awareness campaign. This past year has been amazing as the whole country has their eyes on the Black culinary space, which allows participating culinary businesses to gain more web and foot traffic. Participating restaurants have seen an average increase of approximately 30% in sales, which converts to our overarching theme of creating economic sustainability within the Black community. Over the years, culinary businesses have been to expand their opportunities with additional locations or new concepts post-BRW participation.
BRW engages the local communities during each campaign. The community is not supporting their favorite establishments; they are also gaining new spots to try with their friends, family, and professional relationships—essentially creating a cornerstone within the community. We also encourage the community to support small business owners with a variety of fun-filled events, such as participating in our scavenger hunt experience, casting their votes during our Black Plate Awards, or attending one of our signature events.
What has the process been like expanding to new markets since your founding?
Luckett: It’s been an enlightening experience learning the landscape of each new city that we go to. We love working with community organizations and leaders to create a grassroots approach to our campaigns. Social media has also helped drive awareness directly to the businesses, and they have seen their social media followers increase and revenue boosted during Black Restaurant Week. We let each market dictate its own local culture of cuisines and version of their week. We’ve noticed a lot of vegan and vegetarian spots out West, amazing ambiance and decor in Atlanta, and the diversity of Caribbean and African participation in all of our markets.
How has BRW had to adjust given the pandemic?
Luckett: Last year, we shifted to a Covid-conscious model, encouraging the participating restaurants to offer delivery and takeout options, and we made sure to adhere to CDC guidelines throughout the year. Because restaurants were deemed essential businesses we knew they would remain open. The hardest challenges for the business owners were often financial. Between staffing and lack of access to PPP loans, it was more imperative than ever that we drive traffic to these businesses.
We also pivoted some of our events and activations online hosting a digital “Aroma Culinary Conference” part of our business development series, which featured a keynote by Master P, and Power of the Palate, our national bartending competition in partnership with Maker’s Mark.
What does the future look like for BRW?
Luckett: We’re excited to continue our expansion of Black Restaurant Week across the United States this year. We’re excited to be adding new cities in new regions that will incorporate the majority of the country. We’re also excited to be including our friends and family in Canada with our upcoming Toronto campaign.
We have also just announced our first cohort of 25 grant recipients in our Feed the Soul Foundation business development program. They will each be receiving a $10k cash grant and a tailored six-month consultation program.
We are also excited to launch our HRVST marketplace, an online marketplace that will showcase the products that feature sauces, spices, and seasonings from Black producers.