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September 18, 2019 The Skanner Portland & Seattle MINORITY BUSINESS ENTERPRISE EDITION Page 5 MBE 2019 Special Business Edition Events & Announcements New Website Helps Diners Find Black-Owned Restaurants By Lisa Fitch Our Weekly News Los Angeles Contributor ore than 2,000 Black-owned eateries are fea- tured on the new internet-based restaurant locator eat- blackowned.com, which launched June 21 intend- ing to support Black- owned restaurants. “There’s only one thing that everyone in this world has in common: we all love great tasting food,” creator Edward L. Dillard said. “We have soul food, vegan, BBQ, Caribbean, seafood and more listed on the site.” “I believe that if people have a place where they can find all the minori- ty-owned restaurants in this country, more of us will start to support these small businesses,” Dillard said. Increasing Black dollar circulation “Ninety-three cents of every dollar spent by Black consumers pro- duces no economic ben- efit for the Black commu- nity, as the dollar only circulates in the commu- nity for six hours,” he adds. A professional truck driver for a company out of New Jersey, Dillard has been on the road for 15 years, and travels across the country four or five days of the week. “I didn’t like the direc- tion of the country,” he said in a recent phone in- terview. “I wanted to do more to support Black- owned businesses, but I was always gone. I don’t spend money on clothes, accessories or shoes. The majority of my money was going to food. “I decided to spend it in different restaurants,” he added, noting that the in- ternet was of little help. “The problem was only the major cities and only real popular restaurants would come up in my search. The really small ones wouldn’t come up.” There already are some existing websites pro- moting Black-owned businesses in general, but they don’t have a lot of restaurant listings. Dillard was inspired. Have a vision and go forward “I had a vision in mind but didn’t have the ex- perience in designing a website,” he said. “Lucki- ly, there’s Google and You Tube. They pretty much teach you everything! I realized there was a small chance that I might be able to make this hap- pen.” Dillard spent nearly PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO / NNPA M With the popularity and general necessity of food, one might wonder, why there aren’t many more black- owned restaurants? five months conducting research for his project, collecting the names and addresses of more than 2,000 restaurants in the U.S. Then, he completed the website design. “It took me a long time to design a website,” Dillard said. “What sur- prised me is that I got the job done.” Working as a one-man show, Dillard then col- lected the restaurant pic- tures and website links to complete the project for launch. So far, the site includes 94 restaurants in New York, but only 35 within a 25-mile radius of downtown LA. Fostering culinary inclusion “African-Americans make up only eight per- cent of restaurant own- ers and managers in the U.S.,” said Warren Luck- ett, co-founder of BRW in a recent Forbes feature. “Our mission is to pro- vide a platform that calls for inclusion in the in- dustry and exposes and elevates black-owned businesses.” Visit https://labrw.com for a list of participating BRW restaurants. With the popularity and general necessity of food, one might won- der, why there aren’t many more black-owned restaurants? “Access to capital,” ex- plained Veronica Hen- drix, who participated in a panel discussion on food at a recent LA chapter meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists. “It takes a lot to start a restaurant, in terms of finding a location; work- ing with the leasing com- pany agreement; and overhead costs.” “I think that’s why so many of them are choos- ing alternative ways of creating a presence in the community,” Hendrix added. “Food trucks, pop ups, becoming personal chefs, cooking for small groups—just looking for alternative ways of rais- ing capital.” Setting realistic goals “A lot of banks initially look at them as a risk un- til they’re proven,” Hen- drix said. Nearly 60 percent of restaurants fail within their first three years, according to recent stud- ies of business start-ups. Restaurateurs have to set realistic goals; con- duct market research and analysis; and have an original concept with good food. ‘“I love talking about food,” said Hendrix, who currently writes a blog called “Collard Greens and Caviar”— a take on her wide range of food tastes, from down-south soul food to European delicacies. “Social media has been huge for me,” Hendrix said. “Through social me- dia, I’ve created a sense of food family.” The panel — which also included Noelle Carter, who formerly worked in the LA Times test kitch- en; and Mona Holmes, writer for Eater Los An- geles — agreed that food journalists are not tak- en very seriously, even though food is something we deal with every day, preparing it, or eating it, or both. “Food is very personal,” Hendrix said. “It can cre- ate a lot of memories and evoke feelings.” Attracting regular cus- tomers The panel agreed that almost nothing beats homemade, although many restaurants seek to replicate the looks, See RESTAURANTS page 10