Black-owned businesses are helping the coronavirus restaurant recovery

Scores of black-owned businesses making the rounds on social media are helping some Big Apple eateries bounce back from the coronavirus sooner than expected. LoLo’s Seafood Shack in Harlem, known for its Caribbean-style seafood, has seen revenues go from 50 percent during the darkest days of the pandemic to 70 percent — and now back …

Scores of black-owned businesses making the rounds on social media are helping some Big Apple eateries bounce back from the coronavirus sooner than expected.

LoLo’s Seafood Shack in Harlem, known for its Caribbean-style seafood, has seen revenues go from 50 percent during the darkest days of the pandemic to 70 percent — and now back up to 100 percent as efforts to support black-owned businesses gain steam, said owner Leticia “Skai” Young-Mohan.

Business has become so brisk in recent weeks that Young-Mohan — who runs LoLo’s with chef-husband Raymond Mohan — has added a takeout/pickup window to more safely serve customers. The eatery, which serves Belizean conch fritters for $9.87 and softshell crab sandwiches for $12, had previously been letting patrons in the store two at a time.

“It started to get busier and we wanted everyone to be safe,” said Young-Mohan, who was born and raised in Harlem. “It was a safer way for everyone to interact — from our team to the community.”

While there’s no telling how long the boom will last, Young-Mohan says she sees signs that it’s more than a temporary bump, including a recent surge in customers on Juneteenth, a holiday to honor the end of slavery. June 19 “was literally the busiest day — not including catering — that LoLo’s Seafood Shack has ever had in the five-year history of the company,” Young-Mohan said. “Makes me all the more optimistic that support of black-owned businesses is here to stay.”

Customers waiting outside of LoLo’s Seafood Shack.

James Keivom

Crab legs and shrimp steampot combo at LoLo’s Seafood Shack.

James Keivom

Journalist-activist Dorissa White agrees. “People are rethinking how they consume and it is for the better,” said White, who recently launched a Buy Black challenge for New Yorkers to restrict themselves to patronizing black-owned enterprises for 30 days.

“Businesses, especially in New York, have reached out to say they’ve seen an increase in Web and food traffic and in some cases they have even sold out of their products,” White said, noting that Melba Wilson of Harlem’s legendary restaurant, Melba’s, sold out her entire inventory of cookbooks.

In lower Manhattan, Robert “Don Pooh” Cummins, a music executive and restaurateur who co-owns Brooklyn Chop House, says his eatery — known for selling dumplings and sushi alongside steak — has seen an average of 100 more deliveries a day since the racial justice protests began.

The restaurant, located across the street from City Hall, has been giving back to protesters, including a recent delivery of hundreds of dumplings and chicken satays to gathering activists. “I think this unfortunate tragedy is uniting everyone,” he said of the George Floyd killing.

Aliyyah Baylor, owner of Make My Cake on the Upper West Side and Ma Smith’s Dessert Cafe in Harlem, said she was barely making payroll after the pandemic hit, with sales down to just $500 a day at its worst.

But then, thanks to the swell of support for black-owned businesses as a way to alleviate systemic racism, “I’m now up to 75 percent of what I was generating pre-pandemic,” she said.

“People say they have seen us on support-black-business lists. There are a lot of lists circulating, and we’re on apps and on Facebook posts. There have been a lot of new customers,” she said.

Delicious food at the right price remains a top priority for most customers, she added, but many mom-and-pop outlets get overlooked simply because they aren’t well-known brands — not because they don’t provide excellent quality and service, she said.

Baylor estimates that some 50 percent of her client base are new customers drawn to the lists making the rounds on social media. And she’s already seeing many of them return because they enjoyed their experience and want to make a difference.

“I strongly feel that this is not a trend. It’s not a flash in the pan,” Baylor said. “People are adding the black-owned businesses to their community-shopping networks and building relationships.”

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