March is Women’s History Month, and we’re celebrating the way we know best: with a seriously good meal.
This is a list of 12 women who had a vision, chased it down, and built something worth the trip. A Michelin-recognized pitmaster in Arlington. A self-taught chef who turned a traumatic brain injury into a Caribbean culinary destination in East Austin. A woman who opened Atlanta’s first alcohol-free bar in one of America’s biggest party cities. A teenager who decided her grandmother’s recipes deserved a storefront — and then built one a month after graduation.
So consider this your Women’s History Month dining guide. Plan the trip. Make the reservation. Order the thing that sounds unfamiliar. And leave a five-star review, because these women have absolutely earned it.
5804 South Cooper St, Suite 110, Arlington, TX 76017
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Fasicka Hicks, Founder & Co-Owner
Founded: 2012 (trailer) | 2018 (brick-and-mortar)
Why It Matters: In 2024, Smoke’N Ash became the first — and only — Michelin-recognized restaurant in Arlington, Texas history. The Ethiopian spices used at Smoke’N Ash are made by Fasicka’s sister in Ethiopia and shipped directly to Arlington.
There is a moment in every great culinary story where someone decides the rules don’t apply to them. For Fasicka Hicks, that moment happened at a smoker trailer in Arlington, Texas, where she and her husband Patrick began serving brisket slow-rubbed with berbere, ribs kissed with East African awaze sauce, and sides that traveled effortlessly between two continents. Customers didn’t just tolerate the fusion — they ordered from both menus and piled it all on the same plate.
Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Fasicka built something the culinary world genuinely had never seen before: the world’s only Tex-Ethiopian BBQ restaurant. In 2022, the New York Times named Smoke’N Ash one of the 50 Best Restaurants in America. In late 2024, it entered the inaugural Michelin Guide Texas as the first and only Michelin-recognized restaurant in Arlington’s entire history — a fact that felt impossible until it wasn’t. The James Beard Foundation named Fasicka and Patrick semifinalists for Best Chef: Texas. Guy Fieri brought his Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives crew through in December 2024. The Economist called it “the world’s first Tex-Ethiopian smokehouse.” Texas Monthly put it on the must-try list. None of that happened by accident. It happened because Fasicka refused to choose between her roots and her adopted home, and built something that belongs entirely to her instead.
Must Try: Tex-Ethiopian Brisket, Awaze Pork Ribs, Berbere Mac & Cheese, Brisket Injera Nachos, Doro Wat
Go Here If: You’ve never tasted anything like it — and that’s the whole point. This food exists nowhere else on earth.
Pro Tip: Weekend lines run out the door. Arrive early or take a number. It’s worth it.
914 W 36th St, Baltimore, MD 21211 (Hampden)
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Chef Jasmine Norton, Founder & Owner
Founded: 2017
Why It Matters: The Urban Oyster is America’s first Black woman-owned oyster bar. Chef Norton is a 2025 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic — one of the most prestigious culinary nominations in the country.
Jasmine Norton grew up loving oysters in a city with deep roots in the oyster trade. In the 19th century, the Chesapeake Bay oyster industry was largely built on the backs of people who never received credit for it. Norton knew that history. So when she opened America’s first Black woman-owned oyster bar, she wasn’t just opening a restaurant — she was finishing a sentence that had been left incomplete for a very long time.
A self-taught chef who navigated COVID closures, ghost kitchens, and multiple relocation challenges before finding her permanent home in Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood in 2024, Norton’s resilience is embedded in every plate. Her chargrilled oysters arrive with personalities: Cheese Louise drowns in mozzarella and lemon garlic butter; Bacon BBQ is smoky and completely unapologetic; Volcano Oy brings sambal heat. But Norton’s vision stretches far beyond the half shell. Short rib pappardelle, crispy red snapper nuggets, crab and corn soup, lobster rolls — this is coastal fine dining with a cultural heartbeat and a Baltimore soul. Her happy hour is legendary in the city, with chargrilled oysters dropping to $12 and raw oysters at $1.50 each.
In January 2025, the James Beard Foundation named Norton a semifinalist for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic — one of the most competitive categories in the country. Baltimore Magazine named The Urban Oyster the Best Restaurant of 2025. And the oyster? It is having a full moment, and Jasmine Norton is the reason.
Must Try: Chargrilled Oysters (ask for Cheese Louise or Volcano Oy), Crispy Red Snapper Nuggets, Short Rib Pappardelle, Garlic-Buttered Lobster Roll, Crab and Corn Soup
Go Here If: You want creative seafood with a story behind every plate — and an oyster so good it will change your relationship with the half shell forever.
Pro Tip: Happy hour runs Monday through Friday. It’s the best seafood deal in Baltimore.
1401 Rosewood Ave, Austin, TX 78702 (East Austin)
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Chef Janelle Romeo, Founder & Owner
Founded: 2025 (brick-and-mortar) | preceded by Shirley’s Trini Cuisine food truck
Why It Matters: East Austin’s only dedicated Trinidadian restaurant, Twin Isle, brings a cuisine largely absent from the Texas food scene to one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in the country. Every dish is made from scratch.
Sometimes the path to your purpose runs through the most painful detour. For Chef Janelle Romeo, a car accident that caused a traumatic brain injury closed one chapter and, eventually, pushed her toward the one she was always meant to write.
Her finance career was over. Her mother’s advice was simple: go back to what you love. What she loved was the food she grew up eating in Trinidad and Tobago — oxtails braised low and slow, roti stuffed fat with coconut curry, doubles dripping with tamarind chutney. She launched Shirley’s Trini Cuisine as a food truck on the streets of East Austin, and the neighborhood responded with the kind of loyalty that eventually demands a permanent address.
Twin Isle opened on Rosewood Avenue in 2025, and it is a full-scratch kitchen — no shortcuts, no compromises. Named as a tribute to Trinidad and Tobago’s twin-island geography, the restaurant carries Chef Janelle’s story in every dish. The Oxtail Fries are loaded and deeply satisfying. The Roti Wraps — especially the coconut curry lobster — are the kind of thing people reroute their commute for. In a city already bursting with talented chefs, Chef Janelle has accomplished something rare: she brought a cuisine largely absent from Texas and made East Austin feel, for an afternoon, like the Caribbean coast.
Must Try: Oxtail Fries, Coconut Curry Lobster Roti Wrap, Aloo Pie with Tamarind Sauce, Doubles
Go Here If: You want authentic Caribbean comfort food from scratch — the kind that feels less like a restaurant and more like someone’s auntie actually invited you over.
16051 Dessau Rd Suite F, Pflugerville, TX 78660
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Sianni Dean, Founder & Owner
Founded: 2017 (New Jersey) | Current Texas location opened at 24
Why It Matters: Pepsi’s “Dig In” program named Cranky Granny’s one of the best Black-owned restaurants in the country. Essence Magazine covered her story. She has 185K+ followers and ships nationwide. She started the whole thing as a teenager.
A lot of people talk about their grandmother’s baking. Sianni Dean built a business out of hers.
The idea came to her at 15 years old in an entrepreneurship class in Willingboro, New Jersey — a bakery named after the woman whose recipes live in memory rather than measurements. She didn’t wait for the right moment, the right age, or anyone’s permission. At 18, Sianni launched Cranky Granny’s Sweet Rolls. In 2020, she relocated to Austin during the pandemic, connected with a local entrepreneur network, and within four months of arriving, signed her first brick-and-mortar lease. After a series of relocations and setbacks that would have stopped most people, she received the keys to her current Pflugerville location ten days after her 24th birthday.
The flavors read like a love letter to comfort dessert: Peach Cobbler Sweet Roll, Banana Pudding, Sweet Potato, Churro Cinnamon — with vegan options folded in without missing a beat. MGM Grand restaurants in Las Vegas have featured her rolls. Pepsi named her one of the best in the country. Essence profiled her. Forbes featured her. She ships nationwide. None of it happened by accident. Sianni will tell you herself: the name, the logo, the entire identity — all of it was part of a plan she made at 15. She just had the nerve to execute it.
Must Try: Peach Cobbler Sweet Roll, Banana Pudding Sweet Roll, Sweet Potato Roll, Churro Cinnamon Roll, Vegan Cinnamon Roll
Go Here If: You want a taste of nostalgia that hits like Sunday morning at Grandma’s — built by someone who had a plan at 15 and the guts to follow through.
Pro Tip: Open Wednesday through Saturday. You can order online for nationwide shipping.
13050 Bee St. #160, Farmers Branch, TX
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Chef Tiffany Derry, Founder
Founded: Roots Chicken Shak: 2017 | Roots Southern Table: 2021
Why It Matters: In 2021, the New York Times named Roots Southern Table one of the 50 Best Restaurants in America. In 2025, Chef Tiffany Derry made history as the first Black full-time judge on Fox’s Emmy Award–winning MasterChef, alongside Gordon Ramsay and Joe Bastianich.
Tiffany Derry has been proving people wrong since she was fifteen.
The first kitchen that turned her away cited her gender as the reason. She found another. Then another. She trained, traveled, and built her craft across some of the most demanding kitchens in the country — and then spent seven years hearing “no” from investors who couldn’t see what she was building. She turned down a hand-delivered $1 million check from an investor who didn’t align with her vision. She opened anyway, on her own terms.
Today, Derry is the founder of Tiffany Derry Concepts and co-founder of T2D Concepts, a Texas-based hospitality group spanning Roots Southern Table, Roots Chicken Shak, Radici Wood-Fired Grill, and a growing spice line at H-E-B. Roots Southern Table is the flagship — the place where her grandmother’s farm-to-table philosophy meets a dining room that requires a reservation and rewards every moment of the wait. Her duck-fat fried chicken has a following that borders on devotion. In 2022, the James Beard Foundation named her a finalist in two categories: Best Chef: Texas and Best New Restaurant. In 2025, she joined Gordon Ramsay and Joe Bastianich as the first Black full-time judge in MasterChef history. The people who said no during those seven years are watching from a very specific seat.
Must Try: Duck Fat Fried Chicken (order family style), Pork Osso Bucco, Oxtail Dumplings, Southern Collins cocktail
Go Here If: You want elevated Southern cooking rooted in real farm tradition — and to eat at the table a woman built after seven years of rejection.
2438 St Claude Ave, New Orleans, LA 70117 (Faubourg Marigny)
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Chef Lenora Chong, Culinary Director & Co-Founder
Founded: 2018
Why It Matters: Morrow’s is one of the only restaurants in New Orleans — a city that does not hand out culinary respect easily — blending traditional Creole cuisine with Korean-inspired dishes. The concept reflects the real multicultural heritage of the family that built it. Megan Thee Stallion has stopped in on tour.
Behind every great culinary empire, there is often a mother who made it possible. At Morrow’s, that mother isn’t just the inspiration — she’s running the kitchen.
Chef Lenora Chong is the culinary anchor of the Morrow’s brand. The concept she and her son Larry Morrow built is genuinely singular: New Orleans Creole cuisine fused with Korean-inspired dishes, a direct expression of the family’s multicultural heritage. The mission is bold — Larry has stated his goal of building the largest Black-owned hospitality group in the country. The kitchen is Mom’s domain, and the plates reflect it.
Chargrilled oysters share the menu with Korean BBQ short ribs. Crawfish pasta lives alongside kimchi and bibimbap. Sunday brunch brings sweet potato pancakes that have made grown people audibly emotional. New Orleans — a city with arguably the most demanding dining culture in America — embraced Morrow’s immediately. The neighborhood claimed it, the food press covered it, and the community kept it full. Chef Lenora, in the kitchen with the recipes her life built, keeps every plate honest.
Must Try: Chargrilled Oysters, Korean BBQ Short Ribs, Crawfish Pasta, Sweet Potato Pancakes (Sunday Brunch only)
Go Here If: You want New Orleans classics with an unexpected cultural twist — and the real story behind how a mother’s kitchen can become an empire.
Pro Tip: Sunday brunch is a separate experience. Go twice.
1009 Boren Ave, Seattle, WA 98104
Chef Tina Fahnbulleh, Founder & Owner
Founded: 2017 (pop-ups & catering) | 2023 (brick-and-mortar)
Why It Matters: Gold Coast Ghal Kitchen is the only West African restaurant of its kind in Seattle. “Gold Coast” is the historic name for Ghana. Chef Tina was born in Liberia, raised in Ghana, and spent part of her childhood in a refugee camp, where food from across West Africa became her first love language.
Tina Fahnbulleh didn’t open a West African restaurant because it was trending. She opened one because she moved to Seattle and couldn’t find the food that raised her. So she cooked it herself.
Born in Liberia, raised in Ghana, shaped by the full breadth of West African culinary tradition — Tina started with pop-ups and farmers’ markets, and the community came hungry every time. By 2023, the demand had outgrown every temporary setup, and Gold Coast Ghal Kitchen opened its permanent doors as Seattle’s only dedicated West African restaurant. No half measures. No watered-down versions. Full Liberian, Ghanaian, and broader West African cuisine brought to the Pacific Northwest with total commitment.
The Goat Peanut Soup has people planning return trips before they’ve finished the first bowl. The Waakyé — rice and black-eyed peas, pronounced waa-chay — is a cultural institution served on a plate. The Fufu is made with the care of someone who knows exactly what it means to be far from home and desperate for something real. Chef Tina once went a week without Potato Greens rather than serve a subpar version. That kind of integrity doesn’t come from culinary school. It comes from love.
Must Try: Goat Peanut Soup, Waakyé (rice and black-eyed peas), Fufu, Grilled Suya, Potato Greens Stew
Go Here If: You want to taste the West African diaspora, made by a chef who traveled a long way to bring it to you.
Multiple locations, Oakland, CA
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Founded by Dorothy Everett | Family-Run for Over 50 Years
Founded: 1973
Why It Matters: Dorothy Everett opened Everett & Jones more than 50 years ago — decades before food tourism, Instagram, or “support local” was a concept. The family still runs it today. It is one of the longest-running woman-founded restaurants on the entire West Coast.
Some legacies don’t need a trend to validate them. Dorothy Everett opened Everett & Jones Barbecue in Oakland in 1973, and for more than five decades, this family institution has been feeding the city — quietly, consistently, without needing anyone’s list to confirm that it matters.
The BBQ is slow-smoked, deeply seasoned, and served with the kind of warmth that only comes from a kitchen born out of love rather than calculation. There’s a reason Oakland doesn’t qualify Everett & Jones with adjectives. It simply is the benchmark. Families have grown up eating here. Grandchildren now bring their grandchildren. The restaurant predates the entire modern vocabulary of food culture — food media, viral moments, the language of “must-try” and “hidden gem” simply didn’t exist yet when Dorothy built this.
She built it because her community needed a place, and she had the gift. Every chef on this list is standing, in some way, on the foundation that women like Dorothy laid. That is not a small thing. That is the whole story.
Must Try: Slow-Smoked BBQ Ribs, Beef Brisket, Sausage Links, whatever the family special is that day
Go Here If: You want to eat at a table that has been feeding Oakland for over 50 years, long before anyone was keeping score.
1744 W. Balmoral Ave, Chicago, IL 60640 (Andersonville)
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Renauda Riddle & Angela Barnes, Co-Founders
Founded: May 2021
Why It Matters: Named after Alice Walker’s poem “Be Nobody’s Darling,” this James Beard Award–nominated bar in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood is a masterclass in community-first hospitality. Angela is a corporate attorney. Renauda is a state auditor. Together, they built one of the most celebrated bars in the country.
Renauda Riddle and Angela Barnes are not what you picture when you think “bar owners.” One is a corporate attorney. The other is a state auditor. They bonded over golf and craft cocktails, and somewhere in the middle of a pandemic, decided to rescue something their city was losing.
When the neighborhood’s beloved queer women’s wine bar closed during COVID, Riddle and Barnes moved fast. They took over the Andersonville space and built Nobody’s Darling — named after Alice Walker’s poem that opens with the line “Be nobody’s darling; be an outcast.” The words are printed on the wall. You’re meant to read them before you order.
The cocktail menu is its own kind of curation: drinks named after Josephine Baker, Jamaica Kincaid, and Angela Davis, with every spirit on the shelf sourced from women-owned, queer-owned, or BIPOC-owned brands wherever possible. The chandeliers were salvaged from a shuttered downtown restaurant and hang with a vintage grandeur that somehow feels exactly right. On any given night, you’ll find people of every age and background sitting elbow to elbow in actual conversation. Less than a year after opening, Nobody’s Darling received a James Beard Award nomination for Outstanding Bar Program. Barnes has said they didn’t set out to win awards. They set out to create a place where their community could feel at home. Turns out, doing that well is award-winning work.
Must Try: Jos Baker Manhattan, Darling Old-Fashioned, Southside Lychee Martini, Kahlo Margarita
Go Here If: You want the bar version of a warm hug — beautifully designed, brilliantly curated, and full of people having real conversations.
334 Marcus Garvey Blvd, Brooklyn, NY 11221 (Bed-Stuy)
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Nickquae “Lucky” Williams, Founder & Owner
Founded: October 2020
Why It Matters: Lucky first had the vision for this bar at 18. She spent the next decade working two jobs — up to 16 hours a day, six days a week — saving for the build-out. Her liquor license arrived in March 2020. The world shut down two weeks later. She opened in October 2020 anyway.
Nickquae Williams has been called Lucky since before she earned it. She has more than earned it.
The idea came at 18 years old. Over the following decade, she worked every role in hospitality she could find — bartender, server, manager, events — studying the business from every angle and saving quietly. When the SBA loan came through in 2019, she signed a lease in Bed-Stuy, designed the entire space herself, and waited on her liquor license. It arrived in March 2020. The world shut down two weeks later.
She opened anyway. October 2020. Pandemic. No playbook. Just a decade of preparation and the decision that she had waited long enough.
Inside, the vibe delivers exactly what it promises: purple and pink lighting, oversized feathered angel wings as the centerpiece, and cocktails that smell like fruit and flowers before they reach your lips. The food is serious — teriyaki steak skewers, crispy catfish strips, cheesy cauliflower arancini — not an afterthought. The Infatuation reviewed it. The neighborhood claimed it. Lucky’s is now exactly what she saw in her head at 18.
Must Try: Signature fruit-and-flower cocktails, Teriyaki Steak Skewers, Crispy Catfish Strips, Cauliflower Arancini
Go Here If: You want a lounge that was built slowly, deliberately, and with real sacrifice — and looks exactly like someone’s dream should.
679 Knickerbocker Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11221 (Bushwick)
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Erin Boyd, Founder & Owner
Founded: 2023
Why It Matters: Erin Boyd is also a singer, songwriter, and activist. There are no TVs at Filthy Diamond — on purpose. Every event she hosts is free or donation-based. A $4 Rolling Rock sits on the menu alongside craft cocktails because she believes affordability is a form of community care.
Erin Boyd will tell you exactly what Filthy Diamond is: a neighborhood watering hole, by creatives, for creatives. She named it after her love of dirty martinis and a conversation about diamonds — formed under pressure from the earth, slowly becoming something extraordinary. The metaphor landed. She ran with it.
The bar at 679 Knickerbocker in Bushwick is part cocktail bar, part vinyl listening room, part live music venue, part chess night, and part fully licensed community space. The sound system was sourced from vintage speakers pulled from a national theatre. There’s a wooden upright piano, in tune and playable. A backyard patio with garden plants and outdoor tables for warmer months. Rotating chef pop-ups bring food into the rotation.
Every event is free or donation-based. That’s not an oversight — that’s the whole philosophy. Boyd built a bar that sustains the creative culture of New York rather than simply charging it for entry. No TVs. By design. You talk to the person next to you. That’s how she intended it, and that’s what happens.
Must Try: Dirty Martini, rotating craft cocktails, chef pop-up specials, and chess night on Mondays
Go Here If: You want a bar with an actual soul — vinyl, live music, a backyard, real conversation, and zero TVs. Exactly as designed.
141 Mangum St SW, Atlanta, GA 30313 (Castleberry Hill)
Aja Wolfe, Founder & Owner
Founded: January 2023
Why It Matters: The Sober Social is Atlanta’s first, and one of the country’s most celebrated, completely alcohol-free bars. Expanding to a westside location in 2025. When Aja does last call, nobody is calling a ride.
Aja Wolfe had a vision that most people thought was a contradiction: open a bar in Atlanta — one of America’s most legendary nightlife cities — and don’t serve a single drop of alcohol.
The Sober Social opened in January 2023 in Atlanta’s Castleberry Hill neighborhood and has been quietly changing what a night out looks like ever since. The drinks are not juice. They are handcrafted, layered, mood-enhancing beverages built with serious intention: spirit-free cocktails, kava kava infusions, CBD add-ons, Delta-8 canna cocktails, and herbal blends designed to help you settle in without the morning regret. The Society’s StrawTini and Social Rita have become signatures. The Reserve — an alcohol-free Old Fashioned at $13.50 — converts skeptics on the first sip.
The space leans speakeasy: warm lighting, brightly colored booths, intimate arrangements made for long conversations. Remote workers arrive in the afternoon. Friend groups come in the evening. People who don’t drink come because they finally have somewhere to go. People who do drink come and discover they don’t miss it. The Sober Social is expanding to a second westside Atlanta location in 2025.
When she does last call, nobody’s calling a car. That’s the whole revolution, right there.
Must Try: Society’s StrawTini, Social Rita with CBD add-on, The Reserve (alcohol-free old-fashioned), Espresso Martini (NA)
Go Here If: You want a great night out without the morning after — and proof that a genuinely good drink doesn’t need alcohol to deliver.
Go Celebrate Them
Women’s History Month is every March, but these restaurants are open year-round. The best way to honor the women on this list isn’t to read about them. It’s to show up, order the thing that sounds incredible, and tell someone else about it.
Share this post. Tag the restaurant. Bring your friends. Come back.
These women built tables and pulled up chairs. The invitation is open.
Author: Falayn Ferrell
Managing Partner - Operations of Black Restaurant Week
