More Than Just a Week: Atlanta’s Black Restaurant Week Kicks off its Eighth Year
Photo Credit: Martel Sharpe/The Atlanta Voice
Over 125 Black-owned restaurants across the metro Atlanta area are celebrating as Atlanta’s Black Restaurant Week presents its eighth annual campaign in the city from Aug. 4- Aug. 18. What began as a one-city stop in Houston has grown into a culinary showcase that aims to provide marketing opportunities to minority business owners and highlight the diversity of Black culinary cuisine across the country.
As a Morehouse College graduate, co-founder Warren Luckett understood just how entrenched and influential Black culture is in Atlanta. When people think of Southern cuisine, specifically Atlanta, it may dredge up thoughts of wings and soul food. However, Luckett knew that the city’s culinary offerings went way beyond that.
“What we find during Black Restaurant Week is that there’s so much more than that. You have stories of people who have come from all over the country, with Atlanta being such a transient city,” Luckett said. “We aren’t monolithic. We create the best food and really every different facet of all the different cuisines. When you talk about Caribbean, African and even Black American [cuisine], there are so many similarities, but they are so different.
“Our goal is to showcase the diversity across the diaspora.”
Black Restaurant Week was founded in 2016 by Luckett and managing partners Falayn Ferrell and Derek Robinson. Amid civil unrest after 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, he said they wanted to create a platform that could create conversations around navigating the tragedy and uplifting the Black community.
“Growing up, the dinner table was always a safe place for us where we could discuss politics, religion. And for us, we were hoping to use food as that medium to really bring the community together. And so, our goal for Black Restaurant Week is to drive awareness of these amazing businesses and to drive revenue to the small business owners.”
Now, the campaign is celebrating its biggest year yet, with restaurants from Downtown Atlanta to Decatur and College Park participating. They’ve curated a list of Black-owned businesses, including brick-and-mortar and food trucks, to support, making it easy for locals and visitors to find places moving the needle forward in the Atlanta dining scene.
One of those spots is College Park’s Nouveau Bar and Grill, owned by Ebony Austin. On Tuesday, samples of the restaurant’s staple shrimp and grits were plated for groups of lucky patrons who’d been bussed down to the lively restaurant thanks to a partnership with the ATL Airport District. This is the second year in a row that Austin has been involved with Atlanta’s Black Restaurant Week and as a restauranteur who is big on philanthropy herself, she said it’s something she’s proud to be a part of.
“Think about the regular Restaurant Week and all of the attention and the spotlight that comes from them. But now imagine what it looks like for us building our own community and food,” Austin said. “And I think that that’s the win for us as Black restaurant owners. To be able to go and see the signs that say Black Restaurant Week for restaurants that don’t have the money to pay for advertising … I think it’s definitely a help and it goes farther than [Black] Restaurant Week and actually begins to bring customers; they begin to be your repeat customers.”
While the restaurant industry regularly has its ebbs and flows, the past four years have been particularly hard due to the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the height of the pandemic, Luckett and his team made sure to provide restaurateurs with online marketing tools to help them pivot as the face-to-face model they knew was one they could no longer rely on. And pivot they have, with some of Luckett’s favorite success stories being those of businesses going from serving food out of a food truck to celebrating the grand opening of its first brick-and-mortar.
“We like to think that we’re just a small part. The real joy and the real celebration is the hard work that these operators do day in and day out. They’re really the unsung heroes, and we just want to shine a light on them.”
Luckett emphasized that Black Restaurant Week doesn’t have to be regulated to these few days out of the year. Outside of these two weeks, they also have Feed the Soul, a nonprofit foundation that provides business development opportunities, business grants and consulting for small business owners. He also encouraged people to use their online directory year-round as a resource for their Black dining experience.
For a full directory of the restaurants participating in Atlanta’s Black Restaurant Week, visit Blackrestaurantweeks.com
