Celebrating Black-Owned Restaurants in Los Angeles

People always ask me how I find restaurants for this column. The answer is a combination of driving, following trusted sources, social media, and general online polling. These are things that require a lot of time. If I'm not on my way to try a new restaurant, I'm on my phone trying to find one.

Case in point: I found the @blackownedfoodla account on Instagram over a year ago. Tiffany Hinton Jefferson created the account shortly after the pandemic began.

Most of his videos begin with Jefferson standing in front of a restaurant, beckoning viewers to follow him. “Who wants some wings?” he says with a voiceover. “Yes! Follow me to the restaurants on these streets of Los Angeles.”

I'll do it, I thought.

Jefferson's Instagram account is dedicated to highlighting Black-owned restaurants. When she opened her account, she was recently laid off from her sales job at a funeral home. She was newly divorced and at home with a new baby.

“It was a lot, but I wouldn't be in this place to help drive these businesses if all of that didn't happen,” he said.

Even before the pandemic, Jefferson said, she used various food TV series as guides to help her plan her weekend excursions.

“I coined myself the black version of Anthony Bourdain and Guy Fieri,” he said. “I wanted to do that in Los Angeles. The foodie thing, but covering black-owned restaurants.”

Now, he's turned his love of food into a part-time business, helping some of the restaurants he features on Instagram with their social media accounts and other marketing.

I recently met up with Jefferson for lunch at Joyce Soul and Sea downtown, one of the restaurants he highlights on his social channels. He was on lunch break from his full-time job in funeral sales.

Nashville Hot Fried Catfish Roll and Bring Back Pok Pok at Joyce

The restaurant, located at the end of the Eighth and Grand luxury apartment complex, is a cheerful place. It is named after co-owner Prince Riley's mother, who grew up in the South. It's also the middle name of the daughter he shares with co-owner Athena Riley.

At lunchtime, the dining room is flooded with sunlight and packed with diners from nearby office buildings, many of whom feast on lobster rolls, burgers and seafood platters.

Co-owners chef Sammy Monsour and beverage director Kassady Wiggins, who are also married, are behind the menu and cocktails.

Jefferson guided me to the Nashville Hot Fried Catfish Roll.

The sandwich consists of two long filets that are crusted and sprinkled with a Nashville hot-style seasoning that vibrates with chili rather than heat. The fish is cooked well and is as juicy as a piece of dark meat chicken.

“This is the best catfish I've had in Los Angeles,” Jefferson says, still chewing. “This right here. If I take a second bite, you’ll know it’s good.”

The fish is placed on a toasted and buttered brioche bun, barely visible beneath the fillets. It takes a few maneuvers to keep everything in the bun, which will inevitably snap. If you manage to squeeze the fish into the bread and put some anchovy remoulade, pickle chips, and crumbled iceberg into every bite, you'll be handsomely rewarded.

Another favorite is Bring Back Pok Pok, inspired by Monsour's love of Andy Ricker's now-closed Pok Pok restaurant in Portland, Oregon. Ricker opened a location in Los Angeles' Chinatown, but it ended up being a blip in an endless sea of ​​Los Angeles openings. However, he still misses the chicken wings with fish sauce, based on a recipe from a Portland employee named Ich Truong. Monsour misses them too.

Coat a fried chicken breast with a sweet and spicy glaze with ginger, chili, honey, and fish sauce. It's reminiscent of Pok Pok wings, only seasoned with fresh herbs and sliced ​​jalapenos. But what makes the sandwich is a thick layer of crunchy, nutty peanut chili, fried bits of something that tastes like onion and garlic, and lots of chilies. I would buy that condiment in a jar.

Garlic noodles with fried catfish and Jollof platter with ribs at Two Hommés

Jollof Rice Dish with Root Beer Braised Short Ribs from Two Hommés.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

I also have to thank Jefferson for my new favorite restaurant, Two Hommés in Inglewood. It is rare that every dish ordered is appetizing and on a menu that is impossible to define.

Abdoulaye Balde, aka Chef AB, and Marcus Yaw, aka Chef Mando, opened Two Hommés in the Comfort LA space on La Brea Avenue in fall 2022. The two describe the restaurant as “an Afrocentric restaurant,” but The menu veers into culinary routes from around the world.

The honey berber chicken bites are all juicy and crunchy, glistening with the blend of Ethiopian spices. The ceviche is fresh, sour and sweet, vibrant with pickled onion and the flavor of passion fruit along with well-fried toast. Tender and blistered zucchini za'atar is served atop a cream with shito, the earthy, smoky Ghanaian chili sauce.

Garlic noodles with fried catfish from Two Hommés in Inglewood.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

You can mix and match a base of garlic noodles or jollof rice with various proteins. My garlic noodles arrive in a tangled mound with a sizable fillet of catfish covering the top. Garlic noodles are springy, garlicky, and a little sweet. They rival those everyone went crazy for at Crustacean in the '90s. And the fried catfish is some of the best in town, with a tough exterior that's deeply crispy and fluffy meat in the center.

I also have to recommend the Jollof dish with root beer braised short ribs. The piece of rib is glazed with root beer and cooked until almost caramel. The meat splits easily in two with a spoon. With Ghanaian jollof rice, a bowl of “azz bomb black beans”, some bananas and a pile of arugula salad, it's a hearty dish you can happily get lost in.

I intend to return many times, with a group of people to order the full menu.

Turkey Chops at Soulo's Kitchen

Turkey cutlets with rice and gravy, macaroni and cheese, and candied yam from Soulo's Kitchen in downtown Los Angeles.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

Chef Derrick Bivens cooks in half of Lokels Only's kitchen space in downtown Los Angeles. And he's dedicated half of his menu to the burgers he's known for at his Billionaire Burger Boyz restaurants and food trucks. The other half of the menu includes chops (both pork and turkey), wings, blackened or fried seafood, grits, and any sides you'd expect to find at a soul food restaurant.

Turkey cutlets are the way all turkey should be prepared, with a fried coating that's light, spicy, and crispy. The juices spill out when you cut a piece and mix with the rice and sauce below. It's more satisfying than any Thanksgiving turkey that's been brined and basted repeatedly.

I opted for the macaroni and cheese, which comes as a scoop of well-seasoned cheese shells, and also as a side of candied yam. Yams are wonderfully rich and taste like butter and brown sugar. They are not too sweet and have the ideal, almost soft texture.

One meal is enough for two. And chances are there will be leftovers.