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Far fewer businesses than expected join the inaugural Metro Detroit Black Restaurant Week through Aug. 27.
The idea is to highlight black chefs, black-owned restaurants and their neighborhoods. The promotion "will include a diverse selection of cuisine — soul food, Caribbean, French, Jamaican, Japanese, American, etc. — among 15-20 casual and fine dining establishments," Melody Baetens writes in The Detroit News last Wednesday.
Only 12 destinations are listed, as it turns out.
Fancier ones offer three-course lunch choices for $25 and three dinner courses for $35, starting today (Aug. 21). Lower-key places, including a food truck and carry-out site, offer an entree, two side dishes and soft drink for $15.
Early last month, in Baetens' first of two previews, organizer Kwaku Osei-Bonsuas said as many as 30 restaurants could be featured.
She speaks with him again:
"As the story of Detroit progresses, a lot of times there’s concern surrounding the idea that people of color will be left out of the narrative,” said Osei-Bonsu, who runs the Black Metro Eats website with his Restaurant Week co-organizer Lauren Bates.
“We’re doing this week in hopes that we can kind of write our own story and make sure that we’re part of the narrative of Detroit’s progress.
The first restaurant to sign up was Le Crepe at 317 S. Washington in Royal Oak. A newer recruit is River Bistro, a tiny Caribbean and soul spot open since last Sunday at 18456 Grand River in Detroit.
These are among other choices during the seven-day promotion:
- ima: 2015 Michigan Ave., Detroit
- 1917 American Bistro: 19416 Livernois Ave., Detroit
- Detroit Vegan Soul: 19614 Grand River Ave. and 8029 Agnes St., Detroit)
- Kuzzo’s Chicken & Waffles: 19345 Livernois Ave., Detroit
- Sweet Soul Bistro: 13741 W. McNichols St., Detroit
- Savannah Blue: 1431 Times Square, Detroit
- Yum Village food truck: 1428 Grand River Ave., Detroit (5-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday
- City Wings: 2896 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit
- Jamaican Pot: 14615 W. Eight Mile, Detroit (take-out only)
- Brix Wine & Charcuterie Boutique: 7968 Kercheval, Detroit (wine flight and charcuterie board)
Menus for seven participants are here.
In a media release, Bates says:
"This week is about giving people that live, work and play within these communities a chance to try something different and new that they may have never thought of trying before."
Osei-Bonsu is a software engineer at Meridien Health Plan who moved back to Detroit in 2015 after working in New York City.
