Sugar's Crab Shack, whose food is pictured here, is among the Richmond Black Restaurant Experience participants that will receive a grant through RBRE's emergency relief fund. (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
“Next week, we’re going to start passing out checks,” says Amy Wentz, a co-founder of Richmond Black Restaurant Experience (RBRE).
Created four years ago to highlight Black-owned restaurants — often an underrepresented and underfunded pillar of Richmond’s food scene — as well as to provide a platform for education surrounding the difficulties and disadvantages such businesses face, the organization is now helping to make sure those same businesses keep their doors open amid the coronavirus pandemic.
With the help of BLK RVA, an initiative of Richmond Region Tourism intended to showcase the city’s Black experience, RBRE has raised more than $43,000 in two months through an emergency relief fund to support Black-owned restaurants in the city following the closure of dining rooms due to COVID-19. The initial goal was $15,000, which was then raised to $25,000 after a strong show of support. Nearly 500 donors have contributed via the GoFundMe page.
Carleen Burrell, owner of Jackie’s Restaurant on Laburnum Avenue, opened the space named after her late mother almost four years ago, aiming to blend soul food with live entertainment and music. She says a grant would help to keep her 16-person staff employed.
“I’ve stayed open, but I’ve had to cut my hours back as well as my kitchen staff; we usually close at midnight,” Burrell says, noting that her head chef’s hours decreased from eight- to five-hour shifts.
As programs and fundraisers popped up throughout the region to assist restaurants during the pandemic, Wentz noticed one problem: Many of the Black-owned restaurants in the city didn’t know where to turn.
“Honestly, our owners didn’t know about [the various fundraisers and grants] and weren’t connected to those networks and [were] kind of lost about where to find resources,” she says.
Springing into action, she created an online chat group for owners seeking answers to questions about the reopening phases, outdoor seating requirements and where to apply for loans. “We were able to identify there were some serious needs,” Wentz says.
At the same time, Tameka Jefferson of BLK RVA and RRT's Katherine O’Donnell expressed interest in launching an online fundraiser selling T-shirts and merchandise.
“I said, ‘Look, we’re doing this fundraiser over here with RBRE, let’s combine efforts,’” Wentz, also an Action Team member with BLK RVA, recalls. “One of the goals for BLK RVA is to display Black culture in the city of Richmond, and what better way to do that than partner with them to do this fundraiser for restaurants?”
All proceeds from the online sales will be donated to the RBRE relief fund. Originally only intended for brick-and-mortar restaurants, the grants will now be divided equally among all the caterers, food trucks and restaurants that participate in RBRE, Wentz says, adding that by the time the fundraiser closes, they hope to offer each owner $1,000.
Burrell, a three-time RBRE participant, says the biggest hit to her business has been the loss of nightlife and alcohol sales.
“I noticed a lot of [workers] don’t get tipped with the curbside [pickup service]. They have kids and bills and things,” she says. “With my nightlife, they would do really well with tips. I think this [grant] would really help with holding onto positions and being able to continue to pay the employees."
When Black Restaurant Experience, the brainchild of Urban Hang Suite’s Kelli Lemon, Shemicia Bowen and Wentz, kicked off four years ago in 2017, 19 restaurants participated; this past February that number doubled. There are currently over 60 Black-owned restaurants throughout the region.
“It has made the city more aware of Black-owned establishments,” Burrell says of RBRE. “I think a lot of people really aren’t aware of how many Black restaurants we have.”
While the fundraiser has far exceeded its original goal, Wentz hopes that the momentum and support for Black-owned restaurants in the city continues.
“It’s about making sure we’re spreading the wealth and spreading the resources around,” Wentz says. “We're thankful to be able to help Black-owned restaurants, and hopefully it inspires others to do the same for other folks in the city that need it as well.”
Originally dubbed Black Restaurant Week, the organization later added “Experience” to the name, with the future goal of expanding beyond seven days to include celebrations of the Black community and Black curators of culture. Instead of using the hashtag #RBRE with the year, they have adopted the hashtag #RBRE365.
“There are 52 weeks in a year," Wentz says. "There’s nothing wrong with us having something … that encompasses Black culture, Black food, Black excellence, period, that all walks of life can attend.”
She says that summertime cookouts and events around Thanksgiving and other holidays, including the recently adopted statewide holiday of Juneteenth that celebrates the end of slavery in the United States, are additional opportunities for visitors and local Richmonders to celebrate “all of the amazingness that we have brewing in our Black culture.”
Wentz adds, “Richmond is the birthplace of the Black experience. … We built this city, and the experience that comes from being Black has created a whole new art and culture and food scene in this city that [needs] to be exposed. As we're talking about taking down monuments and racism and changing names of streets, what will visitors experience when they come here? We want them to experience our culture.”
RBRE will begin distributing grants from the RBRE relief fund the first week of July.
