Atlanta’s Annual Black Restaurant Week Feeds Businesses and Hungry Customers

Therein lies the challenge: The breadth of options can often feel as overwhelming as a long menu written in a foreign language. And while it’s nice to be able to support local restaurants, there are always more restaurants to discover (and they don’t necessarily have to be newly opened).

That’s what founder Warren Luckett hopes to accomplish with Black Restaurant Week, in Atlanta and the 14 other cities where the one-day event takes place each year.

Speaking to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution during his visit to Marietta Proper, one of 85 food businesses in Metro Atlanta offering food and drink specials between Aug. 4 and 18, Luckett described the mission of Atlanta Black Restaurant Week as championing small, food-focused businesses.

“It’s an uphill battle,” said Luckett, a Morehouse College graduate who worked as an analyst at Morgan Stanley before launching Black Restaurant Week in Houston in 2016, a year before he brought the event to Atlanta. “We want to provide a platform that actually generates revenue and awareness.”

Participating restaurants for 2024 include some of Atlanta’s most popular Black-owned establishments, such as Virgil’s Gullah Kitchen & Bar in College Park, Gocha’s Breakfast Bar in Southwest Atlanta, Hapeville’s Pit Boss BBQ, Black Coffee Atlanta, plant-based ice cream parlor The Creamy Spot and Twisted Soul Cookhouse & Pours.

Credits: Noah Fecks

Credits: Noah Fecks

Unlike the business model of some restaurant week promotions, Luckett says Atlanta Black Restaurant Week is free. Some other promotions require restaurants to pay to participate, then discount menu items and offer limited-time deals to large numbers of new diners who don’t often become regulars.

“For us, restaurants don’t have to give away any of their profits. They keep all of the revenue. We see this as an opportunity to boost these businesses. All we ask is that they come up with a special offer that highlights an item on their menu.”

Jordan Lynn Traylor, a Black woman, is the owner and general manager of Marietta Proper, a cozy coffee shop and brunch restaurant by day that pivots to serving gourmet small plates and libations by night.

Traylor said that for Atlanta Black Restaurant Week, she decided to offer off-menu items to showcase her talented team of culinary professionals.

Diners visiting Marietta Proper during the event can order a special dish the restaurant has never prepared before: lightly breaded tempura-style Chilean sea bass topped with caviar and gribiche sauce — emulsified hard-boiled egg yolks mixed with Dijon mustard, capers, olive oil and vinegar.

The dish will be accompanied by a cocktail made with herbal and citrus vodka, which will balance the rich fat of the fish and its batter. It’s “a fancy twist on McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish,” Traylor said.

“We will certainly keep everything that works well, but we want to offer something new to customers and allow our regulars to see what we have on offer for the week.”

Credits: Thomas Swofford

Credits: Thomas Swofford

One of the goals of the weeklong event is to showcase the creativity of Atlanta’s Black culinary community, Luckett said. He also said it’s important that Atlanta Black Restaurant Week helps restaurants looking for support after the tough times brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Luckett said he applauds the resilience of Atlanta restaurants and their owners. It has been a learning experience for him to see so many deserving businesses go under in recent years.

To that end, he and his partners have created a nonprofit called Feed The Soul Foundation. Its goal, he said, is to provide grants to Black business owners and others representing historically marginalized communities.

This year, Luckett said Feed The Soul will award a $10,000 grant to FruiTea Bubbles Café, a Smyrna tea shop owned by Lisa Lindsay, a Black mother of two and longtime Cobb County resident. In addition to the funds, FruiTea Bubbles will also receive six months of free business consulting, with options including website management, human resources and more.

Black Restaurant Week is now taking place in 15 markets, with more than 700 businesses participating, Luckett said, and the event is on track to soon serve more than 100,000 customers.

Luckett plans to include not only black-owned restaurants in Atlanta, but also those in suburbs like McDonough, Jonesboro, Marietta and Kennesaw. He hopes to increase the diversity of participants, proximity and landscape for any restaurant that wants to get involved, from mom-and-pop fast-casuals to high-end speakeasies.

“Doing more with less is often the motto for many restaurants,” Luckett said. “We understand how critical it is to provide that support.”