Eat like a local at Miami-Dade’s Black-owned restaurants. Here are some of our favorites
Miami-Dade County has remarkable Black-owned restaurants.
All over the county, from longtime mom-and-pops to celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson’s new Overtown spot, there are new and emerging restaurants worthy of your tastebuds and your dollars, and not just during Black History Month.
Too often Miami’s Black voices— African-American, Caribbean and Afro-Latino — are marginalized or muted.
Starex Smith, a Miami food blogger and activist who writes under the name The Hungry Black Man, has been highlighting these businesses for several years. One particular “dining while Black” experience set him out on this path: “We want to highlight places that are doing a phenomenal job of having a diverse, friendly environment,” he said.
In that spirit, these are some of our favorite Miami-area Black-owned restaurants. Miami Gardens in particular has blossomed with local, independent restaurants offering a wide range of the cuisine you can only find in South Florida.
Eating like a local doesn’t mean eating at the same 10 spots where you have eaten since childhood. It means eating out of your comfort zone, exploring places that are not just new but new to you. It’s the only real way to call yourself an apostle for the 305.
Awash
Miami seems to be able to hang on to only one Ethiopian restaurant at a time. I’ll gladly take more of them as long as we get to keep Awash. Give me the combination injera platter, a mandala of colors, flavors and textures that includes doro wat (stewed chicken), shiro (split yellow peas) and misir (red lentils). Plenty of spongy rolls of injera bread to sop it up and Ethiopian coffee to finish.
19934 NW Second Ave., Miami Gardens. 305-770-5100
Bon Gout
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Jean “B.J.” Lucel and Wesley Bissaint had hauled their smoker and grill around Little Haiti, cooking roadside barbecue true to its name. But as outsiders prospect for cheap real estate in Little Haiti, Lucel and Bissaint staked their claim. They unhitched their grills and anchored them to a storefront in the neighborhood where they grew up.
Little Haiti responded by showing up hungry — with money in hand.
99 NW 54th St., Little Haiti. 786-280-1159
Clive’s Cafe
For 38 years, Pearline “Miss Pearl” Murray rained down flavorful Jamaican brown stews at her Wynwood location of Clive’s. And when developers forced her out in 2014, she consolidated at the second location in Little Haiti, which remains a locals’ favorite, and never skipped a beat. Tender oxtail that begs for you to suck it off the bone poured over rice and peas, with a side of sweet plantains, is the play. In a rush? Order a golden, flaky Jamaican patty and stuff it inside a baked-to-order hunk of yeasty coco bread (it’s not on the menu; ask for it), and you have a meal to keep you full the rest of the day for about four bucks.
5890 NW Second Ave., Little Haiti. Clivescafe.com. 305-757-6512
Lil Greenhouse Grill
Owner Nicole Gates collapsed into a hug with a visiting Oprah Winfrey and found herself crying — not for the first time as she and her partner, chef Karim Bryant, have fought for the past three years to keep their restaurant open in the Overtown neighborhood they call home.
Bryant, who had been a chef at Capital Grille, Prime 112, BLT Prime in Doral and executive chef at Wynwood’s The Butcher Shop, brings his own twist to the Overtown cuisine he grew up on.
1300 NW Third Ave., Overtown. 786-277-3582
Lorna’s Caribbean & American Grill
A lot has changed recently about Lorna’s Caribbean restaurant, a neighborhood favorite that’s been popular with Miami Gardens locals — and local celebs — for more than a decade.
It’s got a new location, a new vibe, no longer a take-out spot for brown stew chicken, fried Jamaican dumplings, conch stew and jerk everything, but a lavish and sleek new sit-down restaurant with a full bar and live music. The one thing that hasn’t changed is Lorna Westmoreland in the kitchen.
19752 NW 27th Ave., Miami Gardens. 305-623-9760
Red Rooster Overtown
Marcus Samulesson aimed for his restaurant to bring life to this southeast corner of Overtown — and it is fulfilling its promise.
More than four years have passed since Samuelsson and partners bought this spot, the former Clyde Killens Pool Hall, where the country’s biggest Black artists, such as Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole, once performed. Now it where men in ties and women in high heels fill every socially distant table and seat at the bar. Incandescent globe lights warm a tropical blue-and-gold dining room, while a DJ spun a bumping mix.
What’s true of the items we tried during a recent review — fried yardbird, sour orange pork ribs, cauliflower “burnt ends,” mac and cheese — is true of Sameulsson’s new restaurant: It makes you want to return.
920 NW 2nd Ave., Overtown. 305-640-9880
Royal Castle
The employee who integrated Royal Castle’s once-vast chain became the sole owner of the last remaining burger slider spot. Now James N. Brimberry has handed over the reins to his grandson, also named James, who is polishing this Miami gem.
Sit at the counter, order a six-pack of sliders with a honest-to-goodness birch beer (picture root beer mixed with cherry Coke) and most likely it’ll be young James serving your order with an easy smile.
2700 NW 79th St., Miami. 305-696-8241
Shuckin’ & Jivin’
Cajun inspired, this tiny restaurant wedged into the corner of a strip mall draws long lines for dishes like shrimp and grits and chicken and waffles. Their Cajun meat-and-two fills up a takeout container. But I say go with the spicy, crunchy chicken sandwich.
4759 NW 167th St., Miami Gardens. 305-974-4751
Sunday’s Eatery
You ever had fried ribs? Trick Daddy teamed up with local restaurateur Latosia Colvin, who opened Finga Licking with DJ Khaled, to bring them to the masses at Sunday’s Eatery.
She partnered with co-owner Elric Prince, the Miami record producer known as E-Class, to expand her creation. He brought the fame, tapping into his famous client roster and rapper friends to put the restaurants on the map. Colvin, meanwhile, backed it up, mixing Miami’s Southern and Caribbean cuisines on the plate.
2675 NW 207th St., Miami Gardens. 305-621-9600
Taste Rite Bakery
Miami Gardens is blessed with several Caribbean cultures and Jamaican patties are plentiful in strip malls throughout. The ones at Taste Rite were “so good I spent my light bill money,” blogger Smith wrote for the Miami Herald. The ackee and salt fish patty is their specialty, with all the dough and fillings made in-house daily. But you can’t go wrong with the traditional beef patty.
Eat it like a local: Buy a piece of pillowy soft coco bread bun and wedge the flaky, buttery Jamaican patty inside for a perfect bite.
18400 NW 2nd Ave., Miami Gardens. 305-249-7483
This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 3:28 PM.
