A TRIBUTE TO BLACK-OWNED KITCHENS

By Frank Sabatini Jr.

Since 1976, when President Gerald Ford designated the month of February as Black History Month, the tradition of honoring numerous civil-rights achievements made by African-Americans and others of African descent has continued annually.

The national event is also cause to celebrate Black-owned businesses and their contributions to our cities and neighborhoods. Here, we shine a specific spotlight on the culinary contributions Black entrepreneurs have made to our local food scene.

Below is a summary of places that have won our palates.

Hanna’s Gourmet Normal Heights

leg of lamb and prawns to poultry and beef. The family imports many of the spices used in the dishes, and prides itself on the warm hospitality it extends to both longtime and new customers. 4651 Park Blvd., 619-677-6767; muzita. com.

Ali’s Chicken & Waffles

City Heights and Downtown twists he puts into many of his dishes, his food rises above the norm.

Austin is a Louisiana native who worked in kitchens throughout New Orleans before coming to San Diego. He brings to the table dishes such as savory alligator cheesecake stacked with andouille sausage and draped in dreamy crawfish cream sauce. It’s become one of his star creations since opening the hip indoor-outdoor restaurant several years ago.

We also loved his “dookey chase” chicken wings, which carry the crispy goodness of Southern-fried chicken. When we last ordered it, the wings came with house-made cheddar biscuits and a decent serving of collard greens strewn with sausage. What you get here is soulful stuff that only a skilled chef versed in Cajon-Creole cooking can pull off outside The Pelican State. 2305 University Ave., 619-396-2316; louisianapurchasesd.com.

Soul Sarap

San Diego and surrounding areas

Chef-owner Hanna Tesfamichael delved into cooking while growing up in the East African country of Eritrea, which is considered a crossroads for some of the world’s best spices. She studied food and nutrition at San Diego State University, from which she graduated, and later worked as a nutrition counselor for Jenny Craig.

As a longtime, avid collector of cookbooks, Tesfamichael eventually opened the bistro-style Hanna’s Gourmet on Adams Avenue, where she has mastered the art of international cooking.

Adjusting to the pandemic, this talented, versatile chef shifted her focus to catering and holding private parties at the restaurant, although it is still open to the public from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Sunday for brunch. In addition, she offers family-style meals at the restaurant a couple times a month (check the website for details), and customers can also order meal kits on her website each week from a global, rotating menu that covers Europe, Mexico, the Middle East, Asia and more. Pick-up for the meal kits are on Sundays. 2864 Adams Ave., 619-280-5600, hannasgourmetsd.com.

Muzita Abyssinian Bistro University Heights

For more than 15 years this homey bungalow on Park Boulevard has been serving cozy, flavorful meals cooked by family members of owner/ founder Abel Woldemichael. The menu spotlights a host of exotic Ethiopian specialties, some of which you eat with your fingers.

If you’ve never had vegetables or meats bathed in chili-rich berbere sauce, only to be scooped up with spongy injera bread, this is a fitting place to try it. The menu is vegan friendly while covering all bases in the way of animal proteins. Guests will find dishes featuring everything from

Ethiopian transplant Genemo Ali belongs to the ambitious set of young entrepreneurs with a combined knack for business and culinary.

Since leaving his homeland with family members some years ago because of political unrest, he settled in City Heights and completed high school. He then enrolled at San Diego State University and earned a bachelor’s degree in business marketing. Along the way he had visited the famous Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles in Los Angeles and fell in love with the food. It became his inspiration to open Ali’s Chicken & Waffles inside a Donut Star. Just recently, he opened a second, bigger location in Downtown San Diego.

The business specializes in fried chicken tenders that are marinated in buttermilk and dusted in three types of flour as part of his own recipe spin. Though before opening Ali’s, he had taken over a Thai food stand at the farmers markets in Little Italy and Hillcrest, under the Coconut & Co.

It is from that business where he derived the recipe for a fabulous coconut syrup offered at Ali’s that pairs exceptionally well to both the waffles and the fried chicken. He also carried over a spicy Thai sauce for the chicken, which ranks among a few other mild-to-hot heat levels. The tenders land on combo plates with a choice of side, and also in sandwiches. Nearly everything is made to order. 4350 University Ave., and 1139 Sixth Ave.; alischickenandwaffles.com.

Louisiana Purchase

North Park

Chef-owner Quinnton “Q” Austin of Louisiana insists the menu he created for Louisiana Purchase in North Park doesn’t reflect “touristy French Quarter food.” Thanks to the original

Raised by an African-American father and Filipino mother, Litisha Franklin is a Washington State transplant who brings to San Diego an earnest background in culinary arts. Her pop-up food business offers a menu of lively fusion dishes that are best described as Filipino soul food with Southern touches.

Since launching her brand, she has appeared throughout San Diego at farmers markets, breweries and public events, including last year’s December Nights in Balboa Park.

Her past menus show off sumptuous dishes such as lumpia filled with veggies, ground pork, ground beef and coconut chili sauce; beer-battered fried mushrooms with pickled daikon and roasted pepper aioli; sauteed chicken liver served over fried with jalapenos, cheese sause and tamarind spices; and more.

In years prior, she attended the culinary program at the Art Institute in Seattle, and worked in the kitchens of Fairmont Hotels, including the company’s Grand Del Mar property.

Franklin can be reached and tracked via her Facebook and Instagram pages under SoulSarap or her website, soulsarap.com.

Nomad Donuts

North Park whole milk and fresh slices of the fruit. Whenever she visited San Diego from her home in Mississippi, she would make the pudding for Grays.

The event takes place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. the third Sunday of every month at 2720 Howard St. To place orders for Choice Confections, call 619-7524864 or visit choiceconfections.com.

The house-made puddings come in assorted flavors such as red velvet, pistachio, butterscotch, French vanilla and more. All are addicting, but with the banana version consistently sending customers over the moon.

As being the only shop in the country that exclusively sells pudding, Grays has enjoyed national publicity and teams up with restaurants and hotels that use his product. For Black History Month, his banana pudding will be available at The Smoking Gun in the Gaslamp Quarter. 8257 El Paso St., 619-642-6274.

Hammond’s Gourmet Ice Cream

North Park and Point Loma

Maya’s Cookies

San Diego’s most far-out donut flavors can be found at Nomad Donuts, which sprung onto the scene in 2014 to the tune of creations incorporating everything from tomato-strawberry jam and balsamic glaze to roasted pineapple and panang curry.

Now a well-branded business, owner Brad Keiller and a surfing buddy started Nomad in a small space before moving nearby once sales began taking off. That current address offers ample seating with a kitchen than cranks out a daily plethora of donuts ranging from traditional to gourmet.

Also at the heart of Keiller’s inventory are Montreal-style bagels, which compared to traditional styles, are slightly sweeter and thinner. They’re served plain and used also in a variety of hearty breakfast sandwiches. 3102 University Ave., 619-431-5000; nomaddonuts.com.

Choice Confections

La Mesa

Mission Gorge

What is likely the nation’s one and only Blackowned vegan cookie company, Maya’s Cookies operates right in our own backyard, within a quaint shop that evolved from its vendor days at local farmers markets.

Owner Maya Madsen started the company in 2015 to help put her three sons through college. As the business slowly grew, a major spike in sales and popularity occurred unexpectedly in the summer of 2020, when the Black Lives Matter movement became front and center in the national news. The result was a consumer outpouring of support for Black-owned businesses—Madsen’s cookie company not excluded.

Today, the cookie line offers a vast selection of flavors that include everything from classic chocolate chip and Snickerdoodle to white chocolate espresso, brown sugar oatmeal with rum-soaked raisins, and several wheat-free options. Madsen also presents seasonal “collections” with February odes to Black History Month and Valentine’s Day. 4670 Mission Gorge Place, Suite G; 858-2659957; mayascookies.com.

Extraordinary Banana Pudding

La Mesa

Smooth, velvety classic-style pudding rules the day at Extraordinary Banana Pudding, which was launched in 2020 by ambitious San Diego native, Toran Grays.

He created the business as a tribute to his late great-grandmother, Agnes White, whose signature pudding recipe was banana, made with

San Diego State business graduate AJ Williams took over Hammond’s Gourmet Ice Cream in 2019 after spending 25 years in corporate America. He purchased it from the original owners.

“I was ready for a change,” he noted. “And when I made the pivot to becoming a full-time entrepreneur, it was a dream come true.”

The company operates shops in North Park and Pacific Beach, and offers a vast, rotating repertoire of more than 300 flavors of super-premium Hawaiian-style ice cream and sorbets. The former translates to creamy goodness flaunting 18 percent butterfat. It’s supposedly the only ice cream you’ll find on the mainland that carries Hawaii’s Seal of Quality, which means half the agriculture ingredients used for making it comes from the state of Hawaii.

Williams has added shakes and “cookie skillets” to the menu since owning the business. 3077 University Ave., and 3740 Sports Arena Blvd., Suite 6; hammondsgourmet.com.

Get your cupcakes, cookies and other custom-decorated confections with a side of celebrity at Choice Confections.

The home-based business is owned by licensed baker Danielle Hannah, who made it to the final rounds a couple years ago on Episode 6 of Hulu’s streaming series, Baker’s Dozen. The suspenseful bake-off put the lively camera-friendly baker in the limelight as she competed with 13 other contestants on a posh Los Angeles ranch.

Though she didn’t win the grand prize of $5,000, she survived the show’s three elimination rounds and became the semi-finalist after belting out themed baked goods such as cacao cupcakes with Chantilly bourbon-cream, and a four-layer cinnamon roll cake sided with chocolate-covered bacon.

Since then, she has expanded her client offerings to include cakes in a jar and cake-sicles. And for Black History Month, she will join the new Soul Swap Meet in North Park as a vendor.