Black Restaurant Week gets underway in Houston

Black Restaurant Week is back in Houston for the ninth year, highlighting local Black-owned eateries, from soul food to Caribbean dishes.

How it works: This year's event showcases more than 80 restaurants.

• The two-week-long event, which started Sunday and runs through April 14, aims to promote Black-owned restaurants. And many of the participating restaurants offer set menus or specials for the week.

Flashback: Falayn Ferrell helped start the annual event in Houston in 2016. She says back then, there were about 20 participating restaurants.

• Now the team has expanded to hosting more than a dozen Black Restaurant Weeks across the country, including in Austin, Dallas and Atlanta.

What they're saying: "It's essentially a marketing campaign," Ferrell tells Axios. "It really does help drive that economic value to the restaurants. Plus we're not taking any percentage of sales, so anything that they earn, they're able to keep within the restaurant."

• Ferrell adds that Houston's Black-owned restaurant scene has significantly grown in the recent years.

Zoom in: Houston's food scene reflects its diversity, offering cuisines from Nigerian to Jamaican and barbecue and vegan food. Here are some of the featured restaurants:

• The Fry Guys, which started as a food truck and now has a brick-and-mortar restaurant, serves deluxe and loaded fries.
• Dandelion Cafe serves all-day breakfast and competed in Good Morning America's "United States of Breakfast" competition last year.
• Reggae Hut Cafe is the spot for a mix of Caribbean dishes, including jerk chicken, oxtails and brown stew chicken.

What's next: There are several events and experiences tied to the restaurant week, including the kickoff event at Kiss Houston Wednesday and brunch this Sunday at Comfort Foodies.

Go deeper: Here's the event's full restaurant list and offerings.

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