In case you missed it, our guide to NYC’s Black-Owned Restaurants has 200+ spots you can support during Black History Month, and every other month for that matter. If you’re looking to try something new, we’ve also separated out 18 Black-owned restaurants, bars, and cafes that have managed to open during the pandemic on this guide. From a rum bar in Brooklyn and a Caribbean spot in Midtown to a delivery-only dinner series available across NYC, these are the new spots you should know about.
THE SPOTS
Adá Supper Club
Open for delivery
If, after eight months of quarantine, you still haven’t learned how to turn your apartment into a restaurant, it’s time to turn off the knife skills YouTube videos and order Adá Supper Club’s A Night In instead. This rotating dinner series features three-course meals from Black female chefs focusing on foods of the African diaspora. We loved Chef Kia Damon’s Southern creole menu in 2020, which came with rosemary lemonade, a pickle platter with pimento cheese, a comforting chicken creole with cured egg yolks, and calas (sweet rice fritters served with chicory powder and caramel sauce). You can check out what’s available right now by visiting their website.
Open for takeout and delivery
Not only is Roc-N-Ramen the first ramen restaurant to open in The Bronx’s Little Italy neighborhood, it’s one of just a handful of Black-owned restaurants in the area. All the Japanese food here is influenced by Caribbean ingredients and flavors, like oxtail buns, jerk chicken ramen or a BBQ rib noodle bowl with a mix of tonkatsu and BBQ broth. Roc-N-Ramen already has a location in New Rochelle, but their 187th Street location marks their first NYC-based restaurant.
Open for takeout, delivery, and outdoor dining
The Bun Hut is the most exciting restaurant making West Indian and Bahamian food below 14th Street, which is partly why you should shout about it to everyone you know who lives in lower Manhattan. They opened in Spring of 2020, serving steamed bao and roti wraps stuffed with various Caribbean fillings, like juicy jerk chicken, braised oxtail, and coconut shrimp. Try the lightly fried crab cake bao and the chicken curry roti that’s creamy, subtly spicy, and filled with carrots and sweet plantains.
Dre's Desserts
Open for delivery
From red velvet ice cream infused with whiskey to spiced pumpkin pie, Dre’s Desserts specializes in sweets you won’t find anywhere else. It’s also a great place to order some excellent chocolate chip cookies that’ll far outshine the store-bought cookie dough cubes in your freezer. Every Monday, the restaurant posts a new menu on Instagram and starts taking pre-orders, which will all be delivered across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens the following weekend. Be sure to DM them your order or add a few things to your cart on their website before 12pm on Thursday, which is when weekly pre-orders officially close.
Open for takeout, delivery, and outdoor dining
If you’re looking for great Haitian food, you’re bound to end up somewhere in Brooklyn. But if you want great Haitian food with a live DJ and outdoor heat lamps, head straight to Zanmi. This Prospect Lefferts Gardens spot serves dishes like goat tassot, codfish, and pork griot that will make you want to become a loyal supporter.
Open for takeout and delivery
After operating two locations in Brooklyn, Peppa’s Jerk Chicken officially opened a third spot on the Lower East Side in early 2021. It’s just as exciting to eat a platter of charred jerk chicken and festivals from here as it as at their other restaurants. The chicken is just the right amount of smokey, and we highly recommend adding even more jerk sauce to your plate so that it coats every corner of caramelized plantains, and rice and peas.
Open for takeout and limited outdoor dining
Aunts et Uncles is a vegan cafe and shop in Flatbush that has the soothing pastel color scheme one might expect from an upscale yarn studio. They sell everything from veggie burgers and mofongo to books and magazines, so if you’re looking for a gift to send to your cousin who is trying to become someone in LA, stop by their store on Nostrand Avenue between 10am and 10pm.
Open for takeout, delivery, and heated outdoor dining
On paper, Kokomo is a Caribbean spot in Williamsburg where you can get pastas, flatbreads, and more topped with things like jerk chicken and oxtail. All of that is true - but it’s also important to know that going to this place is just like attending a party. They run a KokoHour from 4-7pm with discounted drinks and often have live DJs on weekends. Whenever the weather is warm and you’re looking for an outdoor spot to get an exciting brunch, think of Kokomo.
Open for takeout, delivery, and outdoor dining
If you’re looking for a new Black-owned restaurant to support near the Barclays Center, while simultaneously looking to support your unrelenting desire for guava-glazed wings, try Charm on Dean Street in Park Slope. This Caribbean restaurant opened in November 2020 with a menu of everything from pineapple and coconut fried rice to hibiscus sorbet. They’ve set up an outdoor dining area in front of their spot, and are also offering takeout.
Branch Patty
Open for delivery
This delivery-only Caribbean restaurant is making trips to the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn with a truck load of their Jamaican and Haitian patties. Each one is filled with things like curried butternut squash and chickpeas and if you check out their Instagram, you can find more information or place an order.
Open for takeout and outdoor dining
This Clinton Hill dumpling spot doubles as a neighborhood library where diners can stop in and borrow novels from the restaurant’s collection. The owner, Alicia Hines, is a former English teacher who also writes in her free time. In terms of food, Likkle Dumpling Shop specializes in dumplings filled with dishes like jerk pork and spicy crab, and they also have weekend brunch options like chicken and waffles.
Rogers Garden
Open for takeout and outdoor dining
We’re pretty sure you’ve heard of beer gardens - well, this is a rum garden on Rogers Avenue in Flatbush. And when we first visited this spot in July 2020, they served tropical drinks from a takeout window in their enclosed backyard. Now, Rogers Garden has cardamom honey and hibiscus hot toddies and other warm drinks available from 2-10pm, Tuesday through Sunday.
Open for takeout and delivery
This year, Harlem got a new Ethiopian restaurant on Frederick Douglass Boulevard just a couple of blocks from Central Park. Their menu has all of our favorite Ethiopian dishes, like crispy fried sambusa and gomen bisiga, whose leftovers only get better as the onions, collards, and beef sleep together in your fridge. If you want to order one thing, try Lalibela’s sampler platter or vegetable combo so you can try all of their different stews with a heap of injera.
Open for takeout and limited outdoor dining
Hibiscus Brew is a small, bright pink cafe on Flatbush Avenue in Prospect Lefferts Gardens where you can have breakfast, lunch, or weekend brunch - they’re open weekdays from 9:30am to 2:30pm and weekends from 9:30am till 4:30pm. You can sit outside at one of their pastel blue patio tables with a jerk chicken and spicy slaw tartine or take a chai latte and a vegan brownie to-go. It’s also right around the corner from Prospect Park, so if you’re looking for a place to get coffee before walking in the park, check them out.
Open for takeout, delivery, and outdoor dining
This seafood spot has two other Brooklyn locations that opened in 2019, but now they’ve expanded to Williamsburg too. The menu, of course, includes more lobster than a hypothetical lobster prom. There’s lobster mac and cheese, lobster rangoon, and something called the “Bed-Stuy Biggie,” which adapts the typical buttered Connecticut-style lobster roll by adding a lemon dressing. If you’re in the area, stop by for heated outdoor dining or order takeout here.
Open for takeout and delivery
This Harlem-based fast casual spot expanded to Long Island City and Rockefeller Center this year. Fieldtrip’s focus is freshly-milled rice, which you’ll find in the form of dishes like vegan joloff bowls and scallop-riddled gumbo. Remember Fieldtrip when you’re looking for a one-bowl meal that will eliminate your need to do dishes or find fulfillment elsewhere. They’re open for takeout and delivery, and you can order directly from their website.
Crabs In A Barrel
Open for takeout and outdoor dining
The next time you’re in the mood for steamed or fried seafood, know that Crabs in a Barrel serves crispy red snapper, lobster tails, and shrimp just one block from the southeastern entrance to Prospect Park. They’ve got a covered patio on Flatbush Avenue where you try a platter of all three, with sides like green plantains, french fries, and crab nuggets. But if it’s colder than 20 degrees out, you might also want to just place a takeout order from 12 to 10pm, Friday through Saturday and 12-8pm, Thursday through Sunday.
Open for takeout, delivery, and outdoor dining
When you’re in Midtown and an overwhelming desire to eat Jamaican escovitch fish comes over you, check out Jasmine’s on West 46th Street. Other than the fish, this new Caribbean restaurant specializes in rum drinks (which are all $15), empanadas, and coconut shrimp. They’re currently offering both outdoor dining and takeout service.
