Black-Owned Restaurants in St. Louis: What's Actually Open
Revised July 27, 2026
What are the best Black-owned restaurants in St. Louis?
Verified open and ownership-sourced: C&K Barbecue (4390 Jennings Station Rd, founded 1963 by Forris & Lucille King, snoots and rib tips), Cathy’s Kitchen (250 S Florissant Rd, Ferguson) plus Cathy’s Kitchen ToGo (Dellwood, opened Juneteenth 2024), FUFU n’ Sauce (8100 Page Ave, Togolese; owner won PBS’s The Great American Recipe), Chez Ali (City Foundry, Senegalese), Gourmet Soul (1620 Delmar Blvd, GMA Soul Food Showdown winner), Jerk Unlimited (3108 Cherokee St), Northwest Coffee Roasting (4251 Laclede Ave, roasting since 2003), La Pâtisserie Chouquette (1626 Tower Grove Ave) and SweetArt (3701 Lindell Blvd, plant-based). ⚠️ CLOSED: Sweetie Pie’s (2022; ‘2nd Act’ announced but NOT open), Turn, Ms. Piggies’, Brother’s Diner, Prime 55. ⚠️ Deli Divine is NOT Black-owned. No verified listings in south county, west county or the Metro East.
Keep reading ↓In September 2025, Lee Enterprises shut down Feast Magazine.
Feast maintained the guide — the one everybody linked to, the one that got updated when a place moved or closed. When it went dark, the maintenance stopped, and every list that had been quietly copying from it stopped being true at the same time.
That’s why the first page of results right now will send you to a restaurant that closed in 2022, one that closed this past May, one whose owners retired in 2024, and at least one that isn’t Black-owned at all. We checked every name against a source. Here’s what’s actually open.
What are the best Black-owned restaurants in St. Louis?
For barbecue, C&K Barbecue (4390 Jennings Station Rd) has been serving snoots and rib tips since 1963. For West African, FUFU n’ Sauce (8100 Page Ave) is run by a winner of PBS’s The Great American Recipe. For Senegalese, Chez Ali at City Foundry. For soul food, Gourmet Soul (1620 Delmar Blvd), whose chef won Good Morning America’s Soul Food Showdown. For pastry, La Pâtisserie Chouquette (1626 Tower Grove Ave). For coffee, Northwest Coffee Roasting (4251 Laclede Ave). And in Ferguson, Cathy’s Kitchen (250 S Florissant Rd), which stayed open through 2014 and never left.
The sixty-year-old one
C&K Barbecue, 4390 Jennings Station Rd, is the deepest story on this list and the one most worth your afternoon.
It was founded in 1963 by Forris and Lucille King, who came to St. Louis from Mississippi during the Second World War — part of the same migration that built much of north city and north county. Daryle Brantley came into the business as a partner in 1982 and opened the Jennings Station Road location in 1983. It has been family-operated the whole time.
Order the snoots if you have never had them. They are pig snouts, fried crisp, and they are a genuinely St. Louis thing that barely exists anywhere else in America — a dish that came up out of making the whole animal worth eating and stayed on the menu because people love it. Rib tips are the other order.
Where to eat, by what you’re after
Cathy’s Kitchen, 250 S Florissant Rd, Ferguson. Cathy and Jerome Jenkins opened it in 2013, which means it was one year old when Ferguson became a word the whole country knew. It stayed open. It is still there, and a second counter — Cathy’s Kitchen ToGo, 10198 W Florissant Ave in Dellwood — opened on Juneteenth 2024. Diner food, soul food and seafood. Their food later reached Schnucks shelves.
FUFU n’ Sauce, 8100 Page Ave, University City. Adjo Honsou started it as a food truck in May 2022 and opened her first storefront in August 2025. The food is Togolese — West African, built around fufu and the sauces that go with it. She won season three of PBS’s The Great American Recipe. If you have never eaten West African food, this is the easiest possible place to start.
Chez Ali, in the food hall at City Foundry. Alioun Thiam came to the United States in 1999 and to St. Louis in 2013 by way of New York. The food is Senegalese and Afro-Caribbean — yassa chicken, thieboudienne, which is essentially Senegal’s national dish. Sauce named it one of the year’s best new restaurants in 2021.
Gourmet Soul, 1620 Delmar Blvd, Downtown West. Chef Lavinia McCoy won Good Morning America’s Soul Food Showdown, which is a national credential almost nobody in this market has. Elevated soul food — lamb chops, an Old Bay bowl. Their published hours are unusual, running Friday through Sunday, so check before you go.
Jerk Unlimited, 3108 Cherokee St. Jamaican, chef-owned by Trevoy Woods. This address previously held Jerk Soul, whose founder relocated to Ghana; Jerk Unlimited is the rebrand that continued in the space.
Coffee, pastry and dessert
The most interesting part of this list isn’t restaurants at all.
Northwest Coffee Roasting Co., 4251 Laclede Ave in the Central West End, has been roasting since 2003. Jason Wilson acquired the company around 2012 and runs it now — a Black-owned roaster, not just a cafe, which is rare anywhere in the country. Open 7am to 6pm daily, with a second counter inside the Schnucks at 8650 Big Bend in Webster Groves that opened, pointedly, on the last day of Black History Month.
La Pâtisserie Chouquette, 1626 Tower Grove Ave, Botanical Heights. Simone Faure is a New Orleans native who trained in Ritz-Carlton kitchens and opened her own patisserie here in 2013. Macarons, cakes, French pastry done properly. Tuesday to Friday 9 to 2, Saturday 9 to 3.
SweetArt, 3701 Lindell Blvd. Chef Reine Keis has been at this since 2008, and the food is entirely plant-based — vegan soul food and baking, which is a harder trick than it sounds. There’s also a SweetArt stall at City Foundry, though the Lindell location is the one we could confirm operating.
What closed, and what’s still being recommended anyway
This section exists so you don’t drive somewhere that isn’t there. Every one of these still appears on live pages as a going concern.
Sweetie Pie’s is the big one. The last location closed in 2022. A revival called Sweetie Pie’s 2nd Act has been announced for north city with a $1.5 million city grant and a banner on the building — but it is not open, and no opening date has been given. Do not plan a meal around it.
Turn, in Midtown, closed at the end of May; the chef and his wife relocated to Little Rock. Ms. Piggies’ Smokehouse on Page closed when the Matthews family retired around Thanksgiving 2024. Brother’s Diner on Whittier is permanently closed. Jerk Soul on Cherokee is gone, though its address lives on as Jerk Unlimited. Prime 55 shows one location closed and another permanently closed.
And the instructive one: Deli Divine on Delmar appears on Black-owned roundups constantly. It is not Black-owned. Its owner is Ben Poremba, an Israeli-born restaurateur. It ends up on those lists because it sits inside the Delmar DivINe building. Nobody did that maliciously — one list guessed from the address, and everyone downstream copied it. That is exactly how these lists decay.
Two we won’t claim either way
If you search this term right now, Google’s own local results put Blazin Kitchen (3636 Page Blvd) and 4 Hens Creole Kitchen (City Foundry) at the top. Both are open — we verified that — and both look genuinely good.
We could not find a published source naming their ownership. Google’s ranking is an inference from how people search and tag, not a statement of fact. So we’re telling you they exist, that they’re open, and that we couldn’t confirm the one thing this list is about. That’s more useful to you than a confident guess, and it’s the same standard that kept Deli Divine off the list above.
Where the map is thin
Honest geography, because padding this would be easy and useless.
The verified list concentrates in the city (Gourmet Soul, SweetArt, Chouquette, Northwest Coffee, Chez Ali, Jerk Unlimited) and north county (Cathy’s Kitchen and ToGo, C&K, plus FUFU n’ Sauce just over in University City). North county also holds the oldest and deepest roots on the list.
South county, west county and the Metro East are effectively uncovered. We found no Black-owned restaurant in west county or Illinois that we could source ownership for — not because none exist, but because nobody has documented them. Several candidates appear on old lists with no owner named and no independent confirmation anywhere.
If you run one of those places, that gap is the whole point of the box at the bottom of this page.
About the numbers you’ll see quoted
One more thing worth being straight about, because it gets repeated locally as though it were local.
The encouraging figures — Black-owned employer businesses up roughly 57 percent between 2017 and 2022, revenue up about two thirds — come from U.S. Census Bureau data and are national. They are real, and they are not a St. Louis statistic. We looked for a trustworthy metro-level number and could not confirm one we’d be willing to print, so we’re not printing one.
What we can tell you is what we found doing this: a short list of operators, several of them decades deep, working in a market where the publication that used to keep track of them no longer exists. Whether that’s a boom or a squeeze, the practical response is the same — go eat at them.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best Black-owned restaurants in St. Louis?
C&K Barbecue (4390 Jennings Station Rd, founded 1963) for snoots and rib tips, Cathy’s Kitchen in Ferguson for diner and soul food, FUFU n’ Sauce (8100 Page Ave) for Togolese, Chez Ali at City Foundry for Senegalese, Gourmet Soul (1620 Delmar Blvd) for elevated soul food, and Jerk Unlimited (3108 Cherokee St) for Jamaican.
Is Sweetie Pie's still open in St. Louis?
No. The last Sweetie Pie’s location closed in 2022. A revival called Sweetie Pie’s 2nd Act has been announced for north St. Louis with a $1.5 million city grant and signage on the building, but it has not opened and no opening date has been announced.
What is the oldest Black-owned restaurant in St. Louis?
C&K Barbecue, founded in 1963 by Forris and Lucille King, who moved to St. Louis from Mississippi during World War II. Daryle Brantley joined as a partner in 1982 and opened the Jennings Station Road location in 1983. It has been family-operated for more than sixty years.
Is there a Black-owned coffee roaster in St. Louis?
Yes. Northwest Coffee Roasting Co. at 4251 Laclede Ave in the Central West End has roasted since 2003 and has been owned by Jason Wilson since roughly 2012. There is a second location inside the Schnucks at 8650 Big Bend in Webster Groves. A roaster rather than just a cafe, which is uncommon.
Where can I find Black-owned West African or Caribbean food in St. Louis?
FUFU n’ Sauce at 8100 Page Ave in University City serves Togolese food; owner Adjo Honsou won season three of PBS’s The Great American Recipe. Chez Ali at City Foundry serves Senegalese and Afro-Caribbean dishes including yassa chicken and thieboudienne. Jerk Unlimited at 3108 Cherokee St serves Jamaican.
Why are so many Black-owned restaurant lists for St. Louis out of date?
Feast Magazine maintained the definitive local guide, and Lee Enterprises shut Feast down in September 2025. Most other lists were copying from it, so when updates stopped, every downstream list froze. Several now recommend restaurants that closed between 2022 and 2026.
Are there Black-owned restaurants in west county or the Metro East?
We could not verify any. The businesses we could source ownership for are concentrated in the city, north county and University City. That does not mean none exist in south county, west county or Illinois — it means no published source documents them, which is a gap in the record rather than in the market.
Is Deli Divine a Black-owned restaurant?
No. Deli Divine on Delmar is owned by Ben Poremba, an Israeli-born restaurateur. It appears on Black-owned roundups because it operates inside the Delmar DivINe building, and one list’s assumption was copied by others. It is a good illustration of why these lists need checking.
Own a Black-owned business in the St. Louis metro? The publication that used to keep track closed in 2025, and we found almost nothing documented in south county, west county or the Metro East. That means searches are turning up stale lists instead of you. Being listed somewhere current is how that gets fixed — adding your business takes a few minutes.
Hungry now? See our guide to soul food in St. Louis, or browse restaurants across the metro on St Louis Near Me Directory.
Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.