Now heading into its 5^th year, Memphis Black Restaurant Week is a time for Memphis, Tennessee-based black-owned restaurants to showcase their culinary creations. This year, a total of 12 restaurants will participate in the event taking place March 8-14.

The week is designed to promote economic diversity while celebrating some of Memphis’ best food fare. “We are so excited about the buzz around this celebration of our city’s diversity. This is another way to show how proud we are of our city and all it has to offer while truly making a difference for these businesses,” says Cynthia Daniels, creator of Memphis Black Restaurant Week.

“Over the past four years, a total of 44 restaurants were featured, bringing in a total of $1,025,000 in during the weekly sales and created 190 jobs. The City of Memphis – Office of Business Diversity & Compliance serves as the Title Sponsor of MBRW and will be working with restaurateurs to provide employment resources and training as we prepare for our largest week to date,” she adds. 

Participating restaurants this year include Sage, Curry N Jerk, Bluff City Crab, The Office @ Uptown, Chef Tam’s Underground Café, The Waffle Iron, The Four Way, Robusto by Havana Mix, Flava House, Ballhoggerz BBQ, Phillip Ashley Chocolates & Café, and A&R BBQ.

According to the National Restaurant Association, the number of black-owned eating and drinking establishments increased by nearly 50 percent between 2007 and 2012. The grassroots movement in Memphis to promote black-owned restaurants has highlighted almost 50 restaurants in the area in its first four years, providing minority owned restaurants with marketing opportunities that are otherwise cost restrictive with a goal promoting food tourism and multi-cultural engagement.