Detroit Black Restaurant Week Is Back, With Food Truck Rallies and a Longer Lineup

Detroit Black Restaurant Week, a toast to the city’s Black-owned eateries, returns Friday, with a new food truck rally and additional restaurants participating.

East Eats owners Kwaku Osei-Bonsu (front) and Lloyd Talley, (foreground) founded Detroit Black Restaurant Week in 2017. They are shown here with restaurant co-owner Nigel Fyvie. Photo courtesy of East Eats

From Friday, Aug. 20 until Sunday, Aug. 29, foodies can enjoy specialized menus from new restaurants and crowd favorites at special prices. More than 50 restaurants, pop-ups, and food trucks are signed up to offer specials during this year’s dining event, which coincides with National Black Business Month. Some of the newcomers to the expanded roster include Joe Louis Southern Kitchen and Baobab Fare in Midtown, food truck Fork in Nigeria, East English Village’s Good Vibes Lounge, and stuffed-pepper eatery Detroit Pepper Co., which opened in July 2020. Outside of Detroit, the event includes fine-dining and casual restaurants in Sterling Heights, Warren, Southfield, and Farmington, with East African, Caribbean, Mexican, Nigerian, and U.S. Southern cuisines among those represented.

This year, food trucks get in on the fun, with three Detroit rallies: Monday, Aug. 23, at Detroit Association of Women’s Clubs; Thursday, Aug. 26 at Marygrove Conservancy; and Saturday, Aug. 28 at the East Eats outdoor restaurant.

Black Restaurant Week was launched by East Eats founders Kwaku Osei-Bonsu and Lloyd M. Talley in 2017, as a way to shine a light on black-owned restaurants in Metro Detroit, helping ensure their place in the local restaurant boom. Osei-Bonsu came up with the idea after returning home in 2015 from Howard University. He noticed a lack in equity surrounding Black-owned restaurants, both new or established.

Many of the restaurants are offering curbside pickup along with indoor dining. A full list of participating restaurants is on the website.

View the original article written by Monica Williams.