An adventurous dining experience where meaty shareable mains are the showstoppers, an elevated Southern spot where family serves as the backbone for many of the dishes, and a restaurant that serves as an incubator to propel the careers of up-and-coming chefs. At these Black-owned restaurants in Chicago, the chefs and owners have created spaces that honor their heritage while also creating something uniquely their own.
The start of Black History Month is just one reason to celebrate these next-level restaurants and chefs in Chicago.
Read on for 6 must-visit Black-owned restaurants in Chicago, and make a booking on OpenTable.
ETC. (Loop)
While Lamar Moore has been the chef at a number of Chicago restaurants, including Bronzeville Winery, ETC. marks his first-time as a partner. “As African Americans, it’s very difficult for us to have some form of ownership in anything,” the Chicago Southside native says. “I’ve always been taught that if you have skin in the game, it makes you appreciate it even more and is a badge of honor.”
That pride is evident at the newly opened restaurant in dishes that tap into Moore’s Southern heritage—he counts his Mississippi-born grandmother as a big influence—as well as his culinary experience and travels. Moore also looks to his team for input. “We’ve had some good conversation after we close at night on what it means to us to be at this restaurant and what it means for our ancestral heritage too,” he says.
That translates to elevated Southern plates like deviled eggs topped with a sprinkling of caviar, hummus made with black-eyed peas, and steak tartare infused with Alabama white barbecue sauce and Japanese Kewpie mayo.
You can’t leave without the oxtail and grits. Moore makes an oxtail steak of sorts from meat that’s slowly cooked. White grits are replaced with heirloom purple ones from South Carolina, which gives the staff the opportunity to delve deeper into the stories behind ETC.’s food and ingredients with diners.
“I love the teaching moments,” Moore, a 2025 James Beard semi-finalist for Best Chef: Great Lakes, says. “We want to make food that gives you a warm hug as that’s what we do in the South.”
Frontier (Noble Square)
Walk into Frontier and odds are you’ll see multiple groups of diners seated around the large tables. Whether it’s an anniversary, birthday, or any special occasion, the Noble Square restaurant is the go-to spot for many Chicagoans to celebrate with family and friends.
Credit goes to James Beard semifinalist for outstanding restaurateur, chef/partner Brian Jupiter, to whom Southern hospitality comes naturally. At Frontier, as well as its younger sibling, Ina Mae Tavern, the New Orleans native makes everyone feel welcome to the party.
It’s all about shareable meaty mains here—think a carving board topped with crab-stuffed branzino, elk shank, and lamb ribs—and whole-cooked animals including smoked wild boar and goat and farm-raised pig and alligator. “We’ve always been about creating somewhat of a feast for our guests,” Jupiter says.
Don’t miss the Southern-inspired sides like the five-cheese mac that arrives at the table bubbling in a cast-iron skillet. “The visual of it makes diners think of their moms and grandmas,” Jupiter says. “It makes them think of past holidays while creating new memories too.”
But Jupiter’s hospitality goes beyond what’s on the plate. “While the Southern cooking style has always been an influence of what I do in all of my restaurants, it’s also been about teaching other African Americans that are looking to either grow as a chef or grow as restaurateur,” he says, adding that mentoring kids from different neighborhoods has been an important focus, too. “Those are ways I try to stay linked with my heritage at all times.”
The Duplex (Logan Square) and Revolver (Wicker Park)
Ever since his first restaurant job hosting at a Red Lobster more than 20 years ago, LeQoinne Rice has pretty much worked every hospitality position—from busser and bartender to line cook and general manager—at companies such as Applebee’s, Lettuce Entertain You, and So Clutch Group. Now, as the owner of For the People Hospitality, the Kendall College of Culinary Arts graduate uses all those skills overseeing three concepts.
Wicker Park’s Revolver is a swanky cocktail lounge that channels a stylish speakeasy vibe, while The Duplex is an innovative dining experience in the heart of Logan Square. Rice is also behind the hip-hop dive bar The Dime in Los Angeles. At all three, inclusivity is the driving force and inspiration.
At The Duplex, which opened in May 2021, chefs get the opportunity to start their own restaurant without the financial burden. The restaurant’s core menu is supplemented with the dishes from the micro-concepts run by a rotating group of chefs. “We are the space for you to do what you want creatively within the confines of the business,” Rice says of the incubator-like restaurant.
Make sure to get orders of the restaurant’s shrimp and grits with smoked Gouda and the chicken and doughnuts—both dishes speak to Rice’s Alabaman heritage. And make sure to have a good time. “It’s beautiful to see when you are walking past Duplex people of all walks of life who come here,” Rice says. “Creating an environment for people who look like you is important.”
Virtue and Cantina Rosa (Hyde Park)
Many of the chefs and owners mentioned in this guide often cite OpenTable advisory board member and legendary chef and restaurateur Erick Williams as their mentor—and that’s no surprise given that he’s known just as much for his restaurants as he is for his community building work.
Williams received the Chicago Mayoral Medal of Honor in 2021 for his efforts, including feeding frontline workers during the pandemic and his advocacy work for the Black community.
And all of that work is supported by his beloved Hyde Park restaurants, including Virtue—where he made history as the first Black chef to win the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes—and the newly opened Cantina Rosa (Williams also runs Daisy’s Po Boy and Tavern in the neighborhood).
Chicagoans know to head to the MICHELIN Bib Gourmand Virtue for biscuits and pimento cheese, blackened catfish, or collards and smoked turkey, while Cantina Rosa—a collaboration with Williams’s longtime colleague Jesus Garcia—is quickly becoming the go-to spot for playful tropical-inspired drinks and Mexican-inspired snacks. Either way, they’re just another marker of the investment Williams has continued to make in his community.
“We are grateful to Chicago and the neighborhood of Hyde Park for supporting us in a way that allows us to grow our foundation and our beliefs around food and beverage,” he says.
Lisa Shames is a writer focused on travel and food culture in Chicago, IL. She has covered Chicago’s restaurant scene for publications including CS, Chicago Tribune, and Time Out and is the U.S. contributor for Sogoodmag.
