A Guide To Black-Owned San Francisco 

Chef and owner Jay Foster and business partner and co-owner Deanna Sison first brought Little Skillet to San Francisco in 2009, launching as a takeout window operation with a menu jammed with soul food classics (the fried chicken and Belgian-style waffle is their signature dish). The spot became so popular that they reopened as a counter service restaurant in Victory Hall and Parlor, a bar just down the street, in 2014. Just off the beaten path in a quiet alleyway near Oracle Park, you’ll find the brick-walled space that somehow manages to feel both elevated and unpretentious. Don’t miss out on the stone ground grits, mac and cheese served in a mini-skillet, and the BBQ pulled pork plate.

Radio Africa Kitchen began in the garage of Ethiopian chef Eskander Aseged, where he’d host groups of 15 or 20 friends for lively conversations around homemade meals. In 2012, he turned that concept into Radio Africa Kitchen, named after the Ethiopian ritual of gathering around the radio for meals and community. Aseged, who came to the US as a refugee at age 19 and got his culinary chops in some of San Francisco’s most renowned kitchens including Square One and Campton Place, wanted to celebrate the historically Black Bayview neighborhood by opening his restaurant there and working with local farmers and fisherman. One of the more popular items on the menu is the sautéed lamb, couscous, and chermoula, but you also can’t go wrong with their vegetarian roasted eggplant dinner.

Z Zoul bills itself as the only Sudanese restaurant in the Bay Area, and though we’re not sure of the veracity of that claim, many locals will tell you it’s certainly the best. Inside this cozy, mom and pop eatery in the Tenderloin, chef and owner Aref Egali (who runs the restaurant with his wife and co-owner, Dalia) dishes out hearty portions of Sudanese staples like fuul (fava bean stew), roasted lamb shank, and kisra (a tangy flatbread), along with a friendly helping of insight and recommendations about Sudanese cuisine. After your meal, enjoy a cup of coffee and support an important cause: the coffee beans come from a nonprofit that sources them from a camp for Sudanese refugees, donating 80 percent of profits back to the cause.

Tom Bennet, a Philadelphia transplant who runs this charming old-school dessert shop with his two daughters, has been passing out ice cream cones to locals and tourists for 30 years. On the menu is a tantalizing selection of over 100 flavors. You’ll find Americana classics like mint chip, butter pecan, and rainbow sherbert alongside Asian-inspired offerings like red bean, green tea, and black sesame. According to Bennnett, the most popular flavors are vintage classics caramel praline and peanut butter chocolate. You can also order up shakes, sandwiches, hot dogs, and any of the seemingly endless varieties of candy filling glass jars on the shelves in the quaint shop, which is located on the cafe and boutique-lined Fillmore Street.