Celebration of Kansas City’s Black restaurants begins. See the spots & deals involved
Some of Kansas City’s Black restaurants are coming together this fall to showcase the diverse offerings at local eateries, from West African, Ethiopian and soul foods to new takes on baked potatoes and nachos.
Local entrepreneurs say the Black dining scene suffered major losses when Soiree, The Krave and Privee closed during the summer of 2024.
Ryan Sorrell, the founder of The Kansas City Defender, is hosting Kansas City’s first Black Feast Week, partnering with 16 Black restaurants and local food influencers across the metro to offer special deals and highlight restaurants new and old in the Kansas City metro.
While it actually runs for two weeks from Tuesday, Oct. 1, to Monday, Oct. 14, Sorrell said the idea for the Black Feast event came after the closure of restaurants like Soiree. He wanted to find a way to help smaller restaurants in the area who may not have a surplus of money to spend on advertising or marketing.
His team worked directly with the restaurants and provided materials like high-quality photography and videos, interviews and highlights to tell their story for free.
“Our goal is to increase their visibility and restaurant traffic long beyond just Black Feast Week,” Sorrell said.
He said he hopes this is the start of a new Kansas City tradition, and will include more restaurants in the following years. Some of the restaurants included in 2024 are known for their barbecue, like LC’s Bar-B-Q, while others like Kinship Cafe specialize in coffee.
Kinship Cafe owner T.J. Roberts was one of the first restaurant owners Sorrell reached out to with the idea of hosting the celebration. The collaboration and uplifting of some of the city’s hidden gems are what excites Roberts the most about Black Feast Week.
“I think that’s the part that will be exciting; for people to become new fans of different types of foods and different types of cultures,” Roberts said. “It’ll be exciting to see how the list keeps growing.”
Roberts is also excited for people to try some places that they didn’t know existed or haven’t had the time to go out and enjoy a meal. One place on his radar? District Biskuits. He said he’s worked with owner and chef Guroux Khalifah many times, but hasn’t been able to try one of the many sandwiches on sale.
The city’s culture will be on full display for the next two weeks, and Roberts hopes people trying these restaurants for the first time feel the love and care that went into creating the dishes that represent their heritage.
“This is going to be two weeks of the best spread of love the city’s ever had, and it’s going to be really great,” Roberts said. “If people acknowledge food and how it’s created, that’s a beautiful thing to be a part of, even when you’re just enjoying it.”
What restaurants are featured during Black Feast week?
Sixteen restaurants across Kansas City are featured in the first annual Black Feast Week. Sorrell said the Defender posted on Instagram asking which restaurants wanted to be included. They wanted to keep the list short for the first year so they couldn’t overwhelm their audience.
Historic restaurants and fresh faces are on the list, including:
- Chef Smokey
- Deez Nachos
- District Biskuits
- District Fish & Pasta House
- Fannie’s Cuisine
- Kinship Cafe
- LCs Bar-B-Q
- Mattie’s Foods
- Mesob Restaurant & Rhum Bar
- My Village Grill
- Niecie’s Restaurant
- TC’s Fully Loaded
- Tee Tasty Foods
- Urban Cafe
- Vine Street Brewing Co.
- Wah Gwan Jamaican & Nigerian Cuisine
What deals can you find during Black Feast Week?
Each restaurant included in 2024’s Black Feast week will offer a special deal for visitors. Here are a few you can try over the next two weeks:
- Chef Smokey: gumbo greens with cornbread and a side of buss down wings ($20)
Deez Nachos: monster nacho with house lemonade ($13), smoked wing with house lemonade ($10)
Kinship Cafe: roast beef sandwich and chips combo in partnership with TC’s Fully Loaded ($10.99)
- Tee Tasty Foods: special sampler plate for egusi and fufu served with chicken ($16.99), or egusi and fufu with goat meat ($18.99)
- Vine Street Brewing: $10 flights
This story was originally published October 1, 2024 at 3:43 PM.
