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6 Black-Owned Chain Restaurants That You Should Be Supporting

If you're looking to support Black-owned chain restaurants in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, start with these Black-owned national brands.

While signing petitions, attending protests, and getting educated on racial inequality in the U.S. are undeniably important ways to support antiracist efforts like the Black Lives Matter movement, supporting Black-owned businesses is another necessary way to support the Black community. And one easy way to support Black businesses is by eating at these Black-owned chain restaurants, which have been serving up incredible eats for years now.

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Juices For Life

Juices For Life is a New York-based smoothie chain and juice bar, which was founded by The Lox rapper Styles P. The franchise looks to promote plant-based diets in the Black community, and now has three locations (with one more on the way!).

Fatburger

Fatburger was founded in 1952 by Black girl boss Lovie Yancey, and it has since become a wildly successful franchise with locations throughout 15 countries, including 79 restaurants in the U.S. alone. Although it has since been bought by a major parent organization called FAT Brands, the fast food burger chain still continues to heavily advocate for racial equality.

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The Urban Vegan Kitchen

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UVK was started so it could eventually become a Co-op owned by like minded individuals who valued education, creativity and dialogue as a means of empowerment and revolution, the result is this photo- 2 latinos and 2 Blacks BORN and BRED New Yorkers. They have given time, energy, money, heart and soul to keep the dream going for the past 4 years. We believe that those who WORK the land should reap the benefits and the little that we had was being put away to open new spots and create other opportunities for co-ownership. Obviously, things have changed, but we press on. UVK operated in direct response to what the founding member felt was, at the time, the almost non existent POC representation in the vegan restaurant scene. We celebrate our culture loudly, even though in the beginning it was suggested we "tone it down" so people wouldn't feel "alienated". We were even told we put two words in our name that were a "no-no"- Vegan and Urban, we were told it would 'turn people off". We said fuck that, it's who we are and we don't roll like that. We wanted to people to FEEL who we are so we play the music we play and we put the photos we want on the walls, and if they want to walk out they could, and they have, but the ones that stayed are family. We wanted to create an environment where POC could feel like they were home and where people of all races and orientations also felt welcomed and included. Because usually it's the other way around, most vegan spots where not created BY US or for US and we always felt like we were in someone else's party. That's not to say we didn't like them or liked hanging in them, but it never felt like HOME. But that is changing, more and more spots are catering to brown and black people, we hope we had a little something to do with that. Don't let anyone fool you, we have been outsiders since DAY 1 in this vegan world for MANY reasons. But like many of our heroes we also never wanted to use our POC status as a crutch because that is not strength, instead we want to celebrate who we are and where we come from. Our strength is LOVE, our ammunition is KNOWLEDGE and FOOD is our weapon, please come and USE it!

A post shared by UVK (@urbanvegankitchen) on Jun 6, 2020 at 5:55am PDT

The Urban Vegan Kitchen is co-owned by Pamela Elizabeth, a Black chef who owns eight restaurants across New York City, including the famous vegan Blossom restaurants. The Urban Vegan is part restaurant and part lounge, and it highlights American Southern food, including staples like fried okra and plant-based burgers.

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Jamba Juice (six locations)

Venus Williams is a spokesperson and a franchise owner for Jamba Juice, according to Everything Girls Love. The tennis player has opened six locations in the D.C and Maryland area, which she opened to inspire young people to make healthy choices.

“My goal is to help inspire our nation’s youth to become more active and to make better dietary choices. As a recognized healthy, active lifestyle brand that offers simple menu solutions for eating right while engaging in healthy activities" she said.

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Wingstop (nine locations)

Although Wingstop is owned by a major parent organization called Roark Capital Group, nine of the locations — which are mostly located in the southeast U.S. — are owned by Black rapper Rick Ross, according to Forbes.

"... the energy in here is always fun. It’s always youthful. Not only that, you know they got my favorite lemon pepper wings in the world, so it’s just a natural attraction," he said.

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520 Wings

Southern-based wing chain 520 Wings was opened by Black entrepreneur and Savannah native Gary Mcfarlin Gordon back in 2011. The restaurant has two different locations — one in Gary's hometown of Savannah, and the other in Hinesville, Ga. Needless to say, if you're looking for something delicious and seriously spicy, 520 Wings won't let you down.

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Tanorria’s Table

While Tanorria’s Table isn't a restaurant chain, it's a home-catering service created by Tanorria Askew, who appeared on Season 7 of Master Chef. Her brand brings homemade restaurant quality food, including ready-to-eat frozen meals and a slew of signature recipes, to food-loving custoemrs. The longtime chef also owns a cake mix company called Treats by Tanorria, which is a total a go-to for easy-to-make sweets.

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Fenn Coffee

Fenn coffee has six retail locations throughout California markets, and the owner, Max Fennell, is considering running for the Menlo Park City Council, to hopefully work on local police brutality, according to PaloAltoOnline.

"If anything, this continues to wake something up inside of myself... I think people are frustrated. I'm frustrated," he said.

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He's now asking himself: "Max, are you just going to post Instagram posts or are you going to give up the next four years and be in service for your community?" The aspiring politician, business owner, and triathlete said about working on police brutality. It goes without saying Max is determined to help drive change in his community.

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Supporting Black businesses is — and has always been — essential. It's time for us to put our money where our mouth is, and bring business to each of these high quality chains.

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Martina Birk

Update: 2024-09-16

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