Dine at Los Angeles's Essential Black-Owned Restaurants on Juneteenth..............And any day, for that matter

[Celerity]

https://la.eater.com/los-angeles-restaurant-news/303912/juneteenth-black-owned-restaurants-support-los-angeles



In 2021, Juneteenth became a federal holiday, commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States: June 19 marks the date news reached enslaved Black Americans in Galveston, Texas, two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order declaring that all enslaved people in the rebelling Confederate states “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”

When I think about Juneteenth in 2026, my sights always go to the achievements of Black Los Angeles residents and restaurants. I grew up in Northeast Los Angeles and am a lifelong city wanderer, especially when dining out. Owning a restaurant remains the ultimate challenge with a failure rate that tops most industries, so when a beloved spot like Inglewood’s the Serving Spoon, which opened in 1982, received the James Beard Foundation’s 2026 America’s Classics award, it makes me beam. The restaurants that stand out to me have built a supportive anchor for their surrounding community through their food and service.



Throughout the history of Los Angeles, Black-owned restaurants have kept Angelenos fed and satisfied, welcoming guests into dining rooms that emanate warmth and inclusion. You can see this in action at the Serving Spoon, which has waffles, grits, and fried catfish, as well as servers who remind me of family, neighbors, or friends. This feeling also persists at the 42-year-old Simply Wholesome, where visitors can hop into the health food section, but not before finishing a mango-jalapeño salmon platter washed down with ginger lemonade.

Though Woody Phillips, Los Angeles’s patriarch of Southern barbecue, died in 2020, Woody’s Bar-B-Que still operates three Southland locations. Just look for the white smoke signals flowing from each building, and a blackened hot link sausage or meaty rib tips will be in your future. I’ve been taking my mother to the family-owned Harold & Belle’s for many years because she loves the seafood gumbo. The Jefferson Park restaurant opened in 1969, where Creole and Cajun specialties are served in a charming dining room.

snip