Amarachi has been paving the way for Nigerian and West Indian cuisine and its relevance in the diasporic food scene in Brooklyn since 2002. While the focus is on amazing food, they see it as their mission to serve and empower the community – providing networking events for new small businesses in the area, and acting as a place to promote local art.

BKLYN Blend has been a juice bar, health food restaurant, and staple of the community since 2016. Their goal is to support the health and wellness of their community with nutrient-dense (and love-dense!) menu items inspired by their West Indian roots. Plus their spot is literally “of” the community, featuring a space made with upcycled materials sourced from demolished buildings and old water tanks in the neighborhood – even remnants of the Coney Island Boardwalk.

This Brooklyn-based café serves more than just highest-quality coffee – they’re all about the community, and will do whatever they can to best serve it. From student fundraisers to drumming up awareness for local missing women, what matters to them most is what matters to the community.

Claudy’s Kitchen opened in the Bronx during the thick of the pandemic – June 12, 2020. Facing impossible odds with nothing but the support of their community and their already-widely- acclaimed flan and empanadas, the traditional Peruvian restaurant came out the other side with a Michelin Bib Gourmand, one of just four restaurants in the Bronx to receive such recognition. Their fast-selling flans, crispy yuca fries, and delicious empanadas have helped buoy them to continued success and national (!) popularity.

Candied yams, curry chicken, baked mac ’n cheese, grilled jerk chicken… Are you drooling yet? Good! Head uptown to Greedy Pot in Harlem, New York, packed with island vibes and southern comfort to satisfy all your Caribbean and Southern cuisine cravings.

Reverence is a fine-dining restaurant in New York’s historically Black Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem, doing an East Coast take on Californian cuisine. They serve an oft-rotating seasonal prix fixe menu alongside a simple mandate: to feed the community belly, mind, and soul.

Saint Urban of Syracuse, New York, doesn’t “create dinner, it creates memories,” according to legendary chef Alain Ducasse. Every month, the theme changes to a different wine region reflective of that particular season; the South of France in August to complement the tomatoes, zucchini, and eggplant featured on the menu…Champagne in February to celebrate the cool weather and shellfish with crisp bubbles, and so on. Saint Urban brings beauty, romance, and art to upstate New York.

The Salty Heifer’s motto says it all: Adulting is hard - eat a cookie.™ Founded in 2015, in Brooklyn, they are a premier Afro-Latina-owned cloud bakery specializing in the elevation of childhood pastry classics. With unique pairings of flavors and ingredients – all inspired by the Afro-Panamanian and Caribbean cultures – they help adults get in touch with their inner child.