Chicago's First Ever Black Restaurant Week Is Going On Now
By Anthony Todd in Food on Feb 8, 2016 3:00PM
via Litehouse Wholefood Grill
Restaurant Week may be over (sort of), but Chicago Black Restaurant Week is just getting started. This is the first year for the event, founded by Lauran Smith, a self-described "PR Guru," and it aims to promote black-owned restaurants around the city.
The promotion isn't as systematic as Restaurant Week, in that any discount is acceptable—meaning there's no requirement that the menu be a $33 prix fixe setup. In fact, if you look at the list of restaurant, the deals are all over the place, from discounted desserts to bargain bags of shrimp. The list of restaurants includes a bunch of places that are (sadly) off of the radar of most restaurant-week going foodies, including Haire’s Gulf Shrimp, Bronzeville Jerk Shack, Litehouse Wholefood Grill, 6978 Soul Food, Truth Italian Restaurant and more.
According to WBEZ, there are more than 100 African-American owned restaurants in Chicago, and almost none of them participated in Restaurant Week. That's one reason why Smith decided to start the event. The date was picked to correspond with "Negro History Week," created by Dr Carter G. Woodson in 1926 (the precursor to Black History Month).
The event runs through Feb. 13.