DMV Black Restaurant Week is less than a month away. Organizers have finalized which black-owned and allied restaurants and bars will be serving up deals throughout the duration of the multi-faceted event lasting from Nov. 4 through Nov. 11. (Allied restaurants are not black-owned but support the mission of DMV Black Restaurant Week.)
Some restaurants will offer a discounted three-course meal ($25-$35) similar to Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington’s biannual restaurant week. Those black-owned and allied restaurants include:
Matchbox (Multiple locations)
American Tap Room (Multiple locations)
The Delegate (901 L St. NW)
ANXO Cidery & Pinxtos Bar (300 Florida Ave. NW)
Appioo African Bar & Grill (1924 9th St. NW)
Bukom DC (2442 18th St. NW)
Union Oyster Bar & Lounge (1309 5th St. NE)
SoBe (Lunch only, 10621 Greenbelt Road #201, Glenn Dale, Maryland)
Blue Waters Caribbean & Seafood Grill (6349 Old Branch Ave., Temple Hills, Maryland)
Cheers at the Big Chair (2122 Martin Luther King Jr Ave. SE)
The Caged Bird (1723 Connecticut Ave. NW)
Smith Commons (1245 H St. NE)
DMV Black Restaurant Week co-founder Andra “AJ” Johnson realized that the three-course meal format was too limiting for some black-owned eateries. Participants can pick up a passport either in the gift bag at the sold-out kick-off event on Nov. 4th or at any Busboys and Poets locations throughout the week for $10.
The bars and restaurants in the passport will offer a variety of deals such as 15 percent off your bill. Organizers gave these businesses the flexibility to set their own discounts. Johnson says you can collect as many stamps as you’re able in the passport, and you’re allowed to take advantage of the same deal more than once. The black-owned and allied passport participants include:
Bin 1301 (1301 U St. NW)
Calabash Tea & Cafe (1847 7th St. NW)
Culture Coffee Too (300 Riggs Road NE)
DCity Smokehouse (203 Florida Ave. NW)
FishScale (637 Florida Ave. NW)
Hen Quarter (Multiple locations)
Ben’s Next Door (1211 U St. NW)
Queeta’s Palace Chateau Remix (3439 Benning Road NE)
Unconventional Diner (1207 9th St. NW)
On The Rocks (1242 H St. NE)
Ruby’s Southern Kitchen (14207 Old Annapolis Road, Suite A, Bowie, Maryland)
Wicked Bloom Social Club (1540 North Capitol St. NW)
HalfSmoke DC (651 Florida Ave. NW)
The purpose of the DMV Black Restaurant Week is to spotlight black culinary and bar talent and to help shape the next generation of black business owners, according to the organizers.
DMV Black Restaurant Week programming hopes to build pipelines to ownership and celebrate triumphs at a slate of activities throughout the week, including a conference about the business of food and beverage education on Nov. 10 (tickets are still available and cost $60), a bartender competition on Nov. 5, and a panel on “Chefing While Female” with Elle Simone of America’s Test Kitchen at The Wing on Nov. 8.
Johnson is a bartender and the author of the forthcoming book White Plates, Black Faces. Joining her as co-founders of DMV Black Restaurant Week are Dr. Erinn Tucker, a professor at Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies, and Furard Tate, a hospitality industry veteran who prepared meals at D.C. charter schools and once ran Inspire Barbecue on H Street NE.