NYCGuide

11 New Black-Owned Restaurants In NYC

A ramen spot in Bowery Market, a donut shop in Brooklyn Heights, and more new Black-owned spots to check out.
11 New Black-Owned Restaurants In NYC image

photo credit: HAAM

If you’re looking for some new Black-owned restaurants, bars, and cafes to check out and support, here are a few exciting ones that opened over the past year. From a spot in East Harlem that’s perfect for casual dates, to the second location of one of NYC’s most unique pizzerias, these are the places you should know about.

THE SPOTS

photo credit: Will Hartman

Ramen

NOHO

$$$$Perfect For:LunchQuick EatsWalk-Ins
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Ramen by Ra, which opened in December, is a small counter in the glass-enclosed Bowery Market on the Lower East Side. It specializes in asa ramen, typically eaten as breakfast in Japan, with chef Rasheeda Purdie's riffs on New York breakfast classics. There's a BEC ramen with thick slabs of smoked bacon, a seasoned egg, and cheese foam, as well as ramen with a slice of nova and scallions. The broth is clean and savory, and makes for a great canvas for their toppings.

From a few of the people behind Daughter and The Fly, Che is an all-day cafe in Bed-Stuy that has taken over the Saturday morning scene on Malcolm X Boulevard. The tight, concrete-clad space has a killer coffee program, pastries, and great bites, like a breakfast sandwich with soft scrambled eggs, pimento cheese, pickled green tomato, and paprika aioli. When day starts turning into night, grab a glass of natural wine.

photo credit: Adrian Gaut

$$$$Perfect For:Big Groups
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Metropolis is an event. The FiDi restaurant from Marcus Samuelsson is located near the World Trade Center, on the first floor of a new half-billion-dollar performing arts center covered entirely in Portuguese marble. To get here, you have to walk up a grand flight of stairs and pass through a metal detector, at which point you’ll find yourself in a sprawling room with Tron-like light fixtures darting across the ceiling. It’s a flashy place, with an equally flashy menu that tackles everything from smoked hamachi tacos to a whole dover sole with ssamjang. Not every dish is a home run, but everything is, at the very least, memorably ambitious.

New York City is in the midst of a bakery boom right now, thanks in no small part to the folks behind Bread and Butter. They started as a pop-up called Back Alley Bread, which brought fluffy “angel donuts” to the city. At their permanent Bed-Stuy shop, you can now pick up a galactic-looking ube morning bun, or an olive oil-soaked, pecorino-shrouded cacio e pepe focaccia. Order a pastry and a coffee and spend your morning in the cafe, or order the entire pastry case, and take it home for a few days’ worth of breakfasts.

One of the best date spots in East Harlem, The Good Good serves Caribbean-inspired food, like codfish fritters, and jerk-glazed mushrooms. From the same people behind The Edge, this restaurant is a party—all sexy, lamp-lit, bright orange seating—where classic cocktails and wine flow along with the conversation. For catching up with a few friends, or cozying up in a booth with a situationship that’s becoming more ship than situation, The Good Good is the kind of weeknight hang that every neighborhood needs.

photo credit: Sonal Shah

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Radio Kwara

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From Dept. Of Culture—one of our favorite West African restaurants where storytelling and humor punctuate dinner—Radio Kwara is a marginally larger, but still tiny, spot in Clinton Hill. The food is inspired by Nigerian drinking parlors, chef Ayo Balogun’s childhood, and regional cuisines from his home country. The dishes are deeply layered with flavor and the goat pepper soup is a must-try dish. Radio Kwara is open Wednesday through Sunday for a la carte dining, and they do a 10-course tasting menu once every two weeks. You can also BYOB.

You probably already know and love Scarr’s, because it makes some of the best pizza in New York City. But in June it moved to a new, larger spot down the street, and like its original location on Orchard, it’s not just a slice shop—it’s a local hang bordering on a local scene. Make a reservation on a Saturday night and you’ll find music blasting through a packed dining room, full of people eating Hotboi pies (pepperoni, jalapenos, hot honey), and sipping negronis. Or just swing by for a quick slice, which is one of the best ways to spend $3.75 on the Lower East Side.

photo credit: Sushi Oku

$$$$Perfect For:Date Night

When Scarr’s announced their move, we spent sleepless nights wondering what would become of their original spot. Enter Sushi Oku. Scarr Pimental, the guy behind Scarr’s, teamed up with Taikun to open this eight-seat counter, where you can get a $165, 15-course omakase. The space hasn’t changed much, so it might be the only place in the city where you can eat uni in the presence of pizza parlor booths while listening to some very quiet rap. After you’re done, the new Scarr’s is right down the block in case you need a post-fish slice.

photo credit: Ignacio Orellana

$$$$Perfect For:VegansVegetarians

HAAM, short for “Healthy As A Motha” got their start as a ghost kitchen operation, before becoming an popular stall at Smorgasburg. Now, fans can get their Dominican and Trinidadian-inspired vegan food at HAAM’s brick-and-mortar in Williamsburg. Inside, you’ll find a casual sit-down restaurant with rattan light fixtures and a full bar. To get an idea of the playful fusion dishes they’ve got going on, order Yuh Motha’s Mofongo, topped with oyster mushroom “chicharrón,” BEC empanadas, and the Island Onigiri, filled with jerk chicken and plantains.

Sometimes, a business gets its name 100% correct. That’s the case for Cloudy Donut Co., a donut shop from Baltimore that has a location in Brooklyn Heights and another on the way in Soho. The vegan donuts are like cumulonimbus before a summer storm: tall, airy, and crackling with flavor. There are 40 or so highly-detailed rotating donuts, like piña colada with perfectly torched pineapple, or a blue and crumby cookie monster flavor. They sell out fast, so get here early.

photo credit: Brendan Edwards

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Cuts & Slices

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When the original Cuts And Slices opened in Bed-Stuy in 2018, they rocked the NYC pizza scene with their impressive slate of toppings, including oxtail (our favorite), black truffle alfredo shrimp, and jerk salmon. Their new location in Saint Albans, Queens, is a must on any pre-JFK Queens food crawl. With one of the largest, most interesting selections of slices in the city, there’s a little something for everyone.

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