*Black Pepper Food & Wine Festival not pictured; Chef making beef burgers on open kitchen at food festival event – Courtesy: Shutterstock – Image by: Matej Kastelic
Later this month, a food-focused festival honoring South Florida’s Black-owned restaurants returns for a third time.
On Saturday, August 26, the Miami-born Black Pepper Food and Wine Festival will return to Miami’s historic Overtown at the Urban, giving attendees the chance to sample a range of cuisines from some of the region’s best Black-owned restaurants and merchants.
“I think being able to provide an event where there’s such a wide range of generations, from children to millennials to older people, is really important,” the festival’s cofounder Alexis Brown tells New Times. “This is a true community event, and food is certainly one thing that brings people together no matter your age or race.”
Since the festival’s inception in 2019, when only 20 restaurants and merchants took part, it has changed. Joel Franklin and Brown, the other co-founder, established the festival based on their prior skills in business planning, hosting, and producing events.
Brown, the founder of the experiential marketing company Socialxchange in South Florida, is in charge of aiding in the introduction of programs like the “Basel Bae,” a Black art event, and SocialXcapade, a vacation with a related theme. Franklin, the creator of Phuse Cream and Dope Smoke Shop, was also skilled at planning events with a strong sense of place.
“The beginning was a lot of calling, a lot of convincing,” shares Brown. “After the first year, the restaurants sold out, and they had a really good experience.”
Brown claims that the Black Pepper Food and Wine Festival may be more picky when choosing its vendor roster after two successful events. This would enable a wider variety of cuisines, such as vegan alternatives, Caribbean cuisine, and non-traditional African-American food.
Lil Greenhouse Grill, Phuse Cream, Perry Wings, Rejoice African Restaurant and Bar, Ty’s Hometown Cafe & Bistros, Fannoh Flavor, Tropical Oasis Food Truck, Smokey Bear’s Barbecue, Upper Tea, and Food Dude Fresh Jerk Grill are just a few of the local eateries that will be participating in this year’s festival, which is expected to have more than 25 vendors.
The festival’s new chef cook-off debuts on Friday, August 25, the day before the festival, marking the official start of the event. The 8 p.m. to midnight event is a collaboration with EatWell Exchange, a Florida-based nonprofit organization dedicated to giving people in lower socioeconomic communities the access and information they need to eat healthfully within their own culinary cultures.
“People often feel like they have to stop eating their cultural norm foods to eat healthy,” adds Brown. “EatWell Exchange works to debunk that myth, so we decided to partner with them to offer their services during our festival weekend.”
Three identical ingredients will be sent to chefs from various cultures in a mystery package so they can create any cuisine they like. Lo Taylor (Jamaica), Sunni (Ecuador), and Patrick Thezan (Haiti) are among the confirmed chefs.
Although admission to the event is free, a $50 ticket is required for anyone who wants to taste the food made during the cook-off. Each ticket entitles the bearer to a dish of cuisine prepared by each chef as well as priority seats in front of the stage. EatWell Exchange will benefit in part from the cook-off ticket sales.
On Saturday, festival-goers can anticipate live entertainment, music, wine education, and tastings hosted by the Hue Society, as well as cooking demos and mixology demonstrations by well-known Black mixologists in South Florida.
This year, free kids’ cooking courses will be offered during the festival by the nonprofit Black Girls Cook, whose goal is to empower and inspire inner-city teenage females of color via culinary arts and urban farming.
The festival is still free to all community members, according to Brown, due to the assistance of the event’s sponsors, which include the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB), Miami-Dade County Chairman Oliver G. Gilbert, and the Miami-Dade Economic Advocacy Trust (MDEAT).
In order to promote more methods for the community to share meals from Black-owned eateries, Brown said the idea is to offer greater diversity as the event expands. She wants to conduct more Black Pepper Festival events, for instance, starting in 2019.
“We’d like to have the festival as many as two, possibly three times, during the year,” sums up Brown. “With multiple festivals, it’s our hope to normalize the experience as part of the food culture of South Florida.”
Black Pepper Festival. 3 to 8 p.m. Saturday, August 26, at the Urban, 1000 NW Second Ave., Miami; blackpepperfoodfest.com. Admission is free with RSVP via eventbrite.com.
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Mike has more than 30 years of experience in marketing and public relations. He once owned his own agency and has worked with some of the largest brands in the world.
