‘Come on by’: Week-long event celebrates Black-owned restaurants

ByBlacks Restaurant Week is on and features Black-owned eateries in Nova Scotia.

More than 30 Black-owned restaurants across five provinces have opened their doors to food lovers ready to eat well and spend with intention.

Canada’s largest Black-owned media platform, ByBlacks.com, organized the return of ByBlacks Restaurant Week, also known as BRW, from May 11 to 17.

In Atlantic Canada, six restaurants are participating:

• Aanuoluwa Foods in Charlottetown
• The Opus Café & Catering in Cherry Brook, N.S.
• Mary’s African Cuisine in Halifax
• Freedom Culinary Culture in Halifax
• Brawta Jamaican Jerk Joint in Halifax
• Flavours From The Savannah in Halifax and East Hants

“I think in 2023, Discover Halifax reached out to us and said, ‘Can we get some of the Black-owned Halifax and Nova Scotia restaurants involved in the program?’,” explains Roger Dundas, co-founder of ByBlacks.com. “And at the time, we were just doing, you know, it’s a prefix menu that the restaurants would offer appetizer, entree, dessert and then give a discount of 25 per cent or more.

“So they got on-boarded, I visited, I did a whole trip out there and I visited each, I think it was eight-to-10 black-owned spaces,” he adds. “And that year we had six participants from there. And I also did a kickoff event for the entire restaurant week program from Halifax as well.”

“As a Black female business owner, I feel it’s necessary for us to be able to have something that belongs to us and an idea or a time for us to be able to showcase the foods that we particularly have learned from our grandparents and our ancestors,” says Debbie Vaillancourt, owner of The Opus Café and Catering in Dartmouth, N.S.

“And then be able to bring it to the table to allow others to be able to experience that.”

Vaillancourt says she loves the week-long event because it allows them to bring something different to the menu, whether it’s a three-course fixed price menu, or a $10 option.

“I think more so exposing the general public, just being able to be able to give them that knowledge and then giving them an opportunity to try the cuisine so that they can then say, ‘Hey, I tried that at the Opus’,” she explains.

“We are the top ranked online magazine for Black Canadians in the country,” says Dundas. “Let’s use our superpower to help them to market, because that’s one thing I can say overall that most smaller establishments, not the big chains, they don’t have a strong marketing presence.”

For Dundas, the week is important for the exposure.

“It’s the bringing in of new customers and people, even from the community and also outside the community,” he says. “It’s that awareness that people know who you are and what you offer. And then the other thing that I really like, and this has been happening now, across the country, is that different restaurants are not only opening up new locations, but they’re also launching products.”

For The Opus, this year’s dish is Cajun chicken with mac and cheese, served from noon to 3 p.m. every day.

“Why Cajun chicken? Because it’s spicy,” laughs Vaillancourt. “And we’ve always, I think as a culture, we’ve dabbled it into spices and flavours and things of that nature that accentuate the food and make it that much more enjoyable.”

Part of the local success, Dundas attributes to local businesses.

“I think Discover Halifax has been one of the best partners for the restaurant week program since they joined. So, kudos to them,” he says.

Dundas adds there’s no doubt the food keeps people coming back.

“It introduces some amazing food. So, we have, in terms of cuisine, that’s the thing that also happens in restaurant week. So, you get to sample cuisine from many different countries, many different islands and many different countries within Africa as well,” he explains. “So, I think that’s the thing that I love.”

“Just really come on by. For nothing else to experience Opus and to experience ByBlacks Week,” adds Vaillancourt.

“It’s an opportunity for folks to come in and just be communal with each other and have a conversation about the foods that we do offer here. I mean, this is a little corner of the city of Dartmouth, but it’s a really hopping place and it’s a place for folks to come in and really just feel at home.”

ByBlacks Restaurant Week runs until Sunday, May 17.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page