This weekend, the ninth annual Black Restaurant Week returns to Los Angeles. From September 18 to 27, local restaurants will participate in the founding organization’s national initiative to highlight Black, African, and Caribbean foodways. As I wrote a few months back on Juneteenth, supporting local businesses is always the move beyond any holiday milestone; it’s especially important to keep that energy flowing around Black and Indigenous–owned businesses, which have continued to be challenged by Los Angeles’s current economic climate.
While it’s an official restaurant week, the event does not offer discounted meals like the semiannual Dine L.A. In 2016, Black Restaurant Week started in Houston to build awareness of Black food businesses that often cannot afford additional advertising, marketing, or public relations. As for me, I’ll be heading straight to Koreatown’s busy daytime brunch spot, Gritz N’ Wafflez, for chef Jurni Rayne’s incredible fried deviled eggs, collard greens dip, and pillowy waffles. The team might even talk me into a bottomless mimosa or Keke Palmer, Rayne’s take on the Arnold Palmer. View Black Restaurant Week Los Angeles’s full list, and get yourself to one of these stellar restaurants.
Two Hommés launches weekday dining
Inglewood’s charming Two Hommés, which places a California lens on West African food, launches weekday service this week. Head to the busy restaurant between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday, Thursday, or Friday.
Smorgasburg’s new Sunday lineup
Now is the time to get over to Smorgasburg in Downtown. The heat has finally broken and some new vendors feel worth getting to know. The virally popular Black Almond Barbecue and Dominican and Puerto Rican pop-up Casa De Lola are newcomers, as is Instagram sensation Knockout Crepes. A familiar bakery will also have an extended run serving its famous triple-berry cake to the weekly bazaar: Sweet Lady Jane.
A Los Angeles guide from Chappell Roan
Recording artist Chappell Roan has quite the fan club, which prepared a Los Angeles businesses guide to support Roan’s Midwest Princess Project. The list includes Fangirl Cafe, Micky’s, Tiago Coffee Bar, Hamburger Mary’s, and Echo Park’s charming Bar Flores, to name a few. Roan moved to Los Angeles from Missouri in 2018 and has chronicled her experiences in bars, shops, and restaurants in their music. Peek at the full list (which is incredible) on Instagram.
Dialog Cafe returns to a temporary home
Dining and Cooking