Black-Owned Restaurants in Seattle: A Diner's Guide (2024)

Two brothers and a friend, all from the neighborhood, opened this striking black-and-white taproom at 23rd and Jackson. They offer growler fills and cans, but the taproom is a friendly spot to sit back with a Basement stout or pineapple IPA.

Solomon Dubie’s first spot, Cafe Avole, specialized in Ethiopia’s jebena coffee ceremony. Today, he runs Avole Ethiopian Coffee Roasters with his brother, Getachew Enbiale, sourcing single-origin beans from Ethiopia’s Yirgacheffe and Guji regions. Gavin Amos runs the coffee company’s flagship cafe in the Liberty Bank Building. The counter serves up espresso, pastries, and fresh juices. Avole has adapted its signature coffee ceremony tradition; the cafe serves shots from a clay jebena, not unlike a pull of espresso. Customers can take them to go, but visitors who choose to linger with their jebena get a refill for free.

Seattle’s equivalent of Paris cafe culture perches on Post Alley at Pine. Here chef Daisley Gordon does right by classic dishes—quiche, pan-roasted chicken, oeufs en meurette—and instills in his kitchen the sort of perfectionism that renders even the simplest asparagus salad or brunchtime brioche french toast memorable. The patio hits the sweet spot for another hallmark of Parisian cafe culture: watching all the people go by.

Capitol Hill’s restaurant scene changes by the minute, but chef Sabrina Tinsley’s northern Italian menu is a comforting constant on 12th Avenue (ditto that gorgeous space). Tinsley embraces the Emilia-Romagna region—land of prosciutto and parmigiano-reggiano and hearty meat sauce—and channels Capitol Hill at its energetic best.

Chef Makini Howell—Seattle’s version of vegan royalty—puts out cultured, plant-based plates at her flagship restaurant. Howell has added multiple dishes to Seattle’s meatless canon (her mac and yease, a properly decadent tofu reuben, some incredible salads) but she also knows when to keep things straightforward, like pan-roasted cauliflower or truffle-topped gnocchi. Meanwhile her adjacent salad restaurant, Plum Chopped, puts Evergreens to shame.

Mother-daughter owners Barbara Collins and Lillian Rambus recently relocated from Madison Valley to a prominent new address on Jackson Street. And they brought along a basion of family recipes. The pair makes marvelous buttermilk and corn bread waffles, shrimp and grits, or just a simple breakfast with grits or home fries. But Simply Soulful’s most distinguishing quality might be its regulars, the sort of enthusiasts who won’t hesitate to extol (rightly) the biscuit and sweet potato pie to uninitiated diners.

New-ish owners Yodit Seyoum and Filli Abdulkdra have put their own stamp on the former Amy's Merkato. The menu's huge and contains a diversity of Ethiopian and Eritrean food, including breakfast foul (even a vegan version), a traditional clay pot service for the shiro wot, and dishes like qateqna, a rarity on Seattle's Habesha menus. All this, plus espresso and market shelves of bulk spices and pantry items.

The popular Somali street cart recently leveled up to a proper brick-and-mortar restaurant. Chef Honey Mohamed and her mother Marian Ahmed (yes, she's Mama Sambusa) serve those titular savory pastries, as well as sandwiches, salads, and pasta. Dishes bear the names of family members, and the assurance that the entire menu is halal. Mohamed's cheesecakes are unexpected and fun and, wow, the kitchen will fry up those samosas until 4am.

Co-owner and executive chef Dre Neeley and wife/partner Pepa Brower have built a Vashon Island destination, with a menu that cross-references European and Northwest cuisine, with ample dashes of the American South. Neeley is a chef with stamina, able to shift positions and pop up in the form of burgers or souvlaki or tonkatsu sandwiches.

Rodney Hines isn’t entirely comfortable describing Métier as Washington’s first Black-owned brewery (“We have a horrible history of not telling everyone’s story, right?”) but he’s undeniably a force, helping to break the beer industry out of a very white box. His industrial Woodinville taproom pours a range of reliably great beers. You’re more likely to see his tallboy cans at markets around town. In summer 2022, Hines opened a handsome Seattle taproom at 26^th and Cherry, which immediately became a neighborhood hub. Umami Kushi’s Harold Fields supplies his okazu pan, plus some just-for-Métier snacks like housemade pretzels, jerk potato chips, and smoked salmon macaroni salad.