PHOENIX — Twenty eateries are serving up special dishes in African, African-American and Caribbean flavors during the third annual Black Restaurant Week in the Phoenix area.
Charlie Mae’s Southern Bistro co-owners Marcus and Brittany Moody, who also own Charlie Mae’s Variety Kitchen, have been in business for seven years. They opened the new space to focus on southern-style fare. Impacted by the pandemic, like many restaurant owners, they were forced to change the way they did business.
“We went from a dine-in, sit-down facility to an only takeout facility and we kind of changed the way we do things,” said Marcus Moody [bizjournals.com] about the restaurants named for his late grandmother. “We went specifically from soul food to basically a variety kitchen…we did Asian food, barbecue, pizza, vegan food—we kind of brought all our restaurants together.”
The husband-and-wife team hopes that partaking in the event will give them the opportunity to showcase how their business has recovered. “Since opening this new location, we have different chefs and wanted to rebrand our business,” Moody said.
This type of resiliency is what fuels the culinary event—and its founders—to grow the event each year.
Read more of this story from the Business Journal.