Black Restaurant Week LA 2024: Where to celebrate
LOS ANGELES - Black-owned restaurants from Burbank to Long Beach are in the spotlight for Black Restaurant Week LA, which runs from Aug. 23 through Sept. 1.
1010 Wine and Events was one of the restaurants featured on Good Day LA. It opened in Aug. 2021 and is the first and only wine bar in Inglewood. In addition, they carry the largest selection of Black-owned wines in California.
"Inglewood is where we were born and raised, and we still reside here. So, I think it’s really cool to have a space in the city that we grew up in and see people we grew up with come and patronize our business," said 1010 Wine and Events co-owner Leslie Jones.
"I think being able to attend a coalition of other Black-owned business owners to depend on and highlight their successes is a really great opportunity and I think Black Restaurant Week does that," she added.
Just over a mile south of 1010 Wine and Events is Dulan’s Soul Food Kitchen, which has been a staple for decades. Its location on Crenshaw in South LA’s Hyde Park community has been there for over 30 years, while its Inglewood location opened in 1999.
Fried chicken, yams, okra, macaroni and cheese, are just some of what they offer, bringing a taste of the South to the City of Angeles.
"We really tried to build something nice so that we could serve the community well," owner Greg Dulan explained. "It is very rewarding to be able to service the community where I grew up."
Dulan’s has also served President Joe Biden and even King Charles.
"We do our best every day to make sure that everybody feels welcome and at home and that they love our food," Dulan said.
A third restaurant featured on Good Day LA on Tuesday was The Original Taco Pete.
It all started at the corner of E. 41st Street and S. Central Avenue in South LA’s Historic South-Central neighborhood in 1966. Like the eatery, the intersection has a lot of history and was also where the LA Black Panthers met.
"We just have a long history of food, iconic dishes and flavors. We like to say we have the ‘black taco.’ In Los Angeles, there’s so many tacos, so it’s just slightly different," Aaron Jones told Good Day LA.
Similar weeks uplifting Black-owned businesses are held in other U.S cities such as Atlanta, New York, and Washington D.C.