Welcome back to Chester's news wrap, supporting black owned
businesses has been at the forefront for many of us
throughout the past several years, but one organization is
stepping up to play a part in uplifting it's community
. That's right. Black restaurant Week LLC is striving
to revitalize black owned culinary businesses. It celebrates the
flavors of the black Dis Historia with a series of
regional cultural events that are making their way to the
big apple and joining us now is one of the
founders of Black Restaurant Week, Warren Luckett and Warren
Black restaurant week is in its seventh year of service
. How has it impacted communities nationwide? Well,
first, this is given these restaurants an opportunity to
just garner more awareness. I think they do such
an amazing job filling our, our stomachs every day
with such an amazing a variety of foods from across
the diaspora. But for us, black restaurant week
is all about bringing awareness to the greater community,
showcasing these amazing restaurants and driving some some revenue going
into these hard times. We have some of these
dishes in front of us, they smell and look
amazing. Last year, your organization supported 1200 black-owned
culinary businesses across the country, even in Canada,
which led to 15% sales increase in those businesses.
What are your projections for this year? Well,
we're already moved over the 1500 mark this year,
so we're excited about the continued growth, but New
York has always been just an amazing market for us
. We've got over 75 participating restaurants, we're here
with some amazing participants like the neuro spot in location
today and we're just excited to showcase the whole diocese
. We've got african american restaurants, african restaurants,
Caribbean restaurants, we've got vegan restaurants, food trucks
, caterers, so we've really got something for everybody
now. Black restaurant Week has launched the more than
just a week campaign. Tell us more about that
for us. It's, it's awesome to have an
opportunity to showcase these amazing restaurants and all these different
markets during the, the Black Restaurant Week campaign.
But for us, it's about creating impact throughout the
year. And so whether it's our feed, the
Soul Foundation, awarding business grants and business consultation to
amazing businesses or even hosting catering and bartending competition for
us. The mission is really yearlong providing support for
these amazing, these amazing stories and amazing impacts the
community, like we mentioned before were accompanied by food
from one of these restaurants participating in this year's NYc
Black restaurant week. Tell us about this restaurant warren
and some of the other restaurants that will be participating
and while you do that, me and ken are
gonna start digging in. Well, you, you
tell me, what do you have right there in
front of you. I can't wait to see you
all take a bite. I think this is a
meatball of some sort. I have the chicken,
there's some delicious looking pasta with shrimp shrimp and then
we think we have a salmon here with asparagus.
Yes. Okay, well y'all y'all go ahead and
hop right. And I'll tell you guys more about
the week. So if you guys want to know
more about all the participating restaurants visit black restaurant weeks
dot com. You've got a full listing of all
the participating restaurants or website functions, much like a
directory. You have an opportunity to put in your
zip code, put in your dietary restrictions to figure
out what is going to be the best participating option
for you. Oh my gosh! So this meatball
was cauliflower by the way. This was salmon,
which was really good. So what are some ways
we can support black owned restaurants in the new york
city area outside of black restaurant week? Well for
us, it's about utilizing the website all year round
. You know, for us, whenever you get
that craving, you know, you want to go
to black owned restaurant, just visit our website.
Not only do we have an amazing listings and directories
, but we're also sharing the stories of amazing restaurants
all year round. So whether it's your favorite crawfish
spots and Houston to even your favorite wing spots in
Atlanta, we were providing a resource for, for
, for consumers throughout the year. So when you're
traveling, we want you to utilize us or even
when you're thinking about some amazing gifts this holiday season
, we're gonna be launching our marketplace or a la
carte marketplace, which is gonna be highlighting some spices
, seasoning sauces of some of the best black food
purveyors of the country. I believe we're eating jerk
chicken. This might be the best jerk chicken I've
ever had. I love jerk chicken. What are
some of the cultures highlighted in these restaurants? One
? Yeah, so for us it's about highlighting the
whole diaspora. So we have amazing Nigerian restaurants showcasing
Jolla uh, dishes. We have caribbean restaurants,
we have jamaican restaurants coming from the caribbean, uh
, in some of our markets, we even have
afro latino establishments showcasing just how diverse the diaspora truly
is. And that's what we love about the campaign
, whether in Los Angeles and we're showcasing some of
the vegan spots or in the south showcasing some of
the Cajun spots. It truly is a testament to
the diversity of food from across our diocese. This
food is delicious, it's like so good, we
can't stop eating it. Warren Luckett, one of
the founders of Black restaurant Week, LLC new york
city, Black restaurant Week kicks off tomorrow, june
17th and last until july 3rd. For more information
, you can visit black restaurant weeks dot com.
You do not want to miss out on this cuisine
. Thank you so much for joining every single dish
is incredible