Black Restaurant Week starts Sunday! Things get underway with the Soulful Sunday Brunch at Robinia Courtyard. This year’s edition includes 27 restaurants, food trucks, caterers and specialty food vendors. It can be hard to try and hit them all, so here is an exhaustive list of every restaurant to help narrow down your choices.
Restaurants
Buraka
1210 Williamson St. Open Monday, Wednesday-Friday 4:00-9:00 pm, Saturday-Sunday 2:00-9:00 pm and closed on Tuesdays.
Ethiopian food on Madison’s East Side. Buraka’s cuisine brings the taste of East Africa and Ethiopia to the city with its spiced, aromatic cuisine. The restaurant has been in Madison since 1992 as a food truck near UW-Madison’s Library Mall. Later it moved to a full-service restaurant in multiple locations in the city until ultimately closing in 2013 due to the block being purchased by a developer. It came back in 2016.
Sample a variety of food to get a taste of the region like dorowot, a stew dish made with chicken, carrots and a blend of spices slowly cooked in a thick red sauce spiked with berbere, or injera, a traditional Ethiopian flat sourdough made from teff.
Cliffs Willy Street Eats
1146 Williamson St. Open 12:00 pm- 12:00 am daily.
Food to make his grandma proud. Cliff Simmons’ Cliffs Willy Street Eats is a place for second chances. After a string of odd jobs and his arrest for selling drugs, Simmons read about the restaurant business while he served his time in prison. He thought about cooking with his grandma as a kid and always had the dream of owning his own family restaurant.
Try the comfort food inspired by Simmons’ youth with BBQ, jerk chicken, and a large selection of seafood.
Just Veggiez
540 State St. Tuesday-Thursday 11:00 am-9:00 pm, Friday 11:00 am-10:00 pm and Saturday 12:00-10:00 pm. Closed Sunday-Monday.
To-go vegan food. The restaurant is new, but Just Veggiez has been catering for years. James Bloodsaw vowed to make positive health changes in his own life after seeing his own father’s health deteriorate. Bloodsaw’s restaurant was named Emerging Business of the Year in 2023.
Just Veggiez offers vegan alternatives to all your favorite classics. Get a taste of plant-based cheese curds, a plant-based reuben, the Veggiez lasagna rolls.
Marie’s Soul Food
1637 Monroe St. Thursday-Saturday 1:00-7:00 pm, Sunday 1:00-6:00 pm. Closed Monday-Wednesday. Late night hour Friday and Saturday from 9:00 pm- 1:30 am.
A home cooked meal away from home made with love, its website says. Marie’s Soul Food offers just that — soul food. Enjoy staples from catfish, chick wings and thighs, mac and cheese, collard greens, stuffing cornbread and sweet potatoes.
Granny’s Kitchen
1423 Northport Dr. Wednesday-Monday 11:20 am-9:00 pm. Closed Tuesdays.
Have a craving and not sure what for? Granny’s Kitchen has just about every conceivable American and Southern food option you could think of. On Madison’s North Side, grab a hotdog, gyro, wings, burger, soul food and many more options.
Kingdom Restaurant
1865 Northport Dr. Open daily from 9:00 am- 9:00 pm.
African and American food. Get a classic American breakfast like country fried steak and eggs and then hop back in later for some Gambian domada, meat stewed in a mild peanut sauce served over a bed of rice.
JD’s Taste of Chicago
2570 Rimrock Rd. Monday-Saturday 11:00 am- 8:00 pm. Closed Sundays.
All the food from Chicago but without the almost three-hour drive. JD’s Taste of Chicago brings the city’s staples like Chicago style hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches.
Falbo Bros. Pizzeria
Falbo Bros. Pizzeria has three locations in greater Madison. 406 S Park St. in Madison, 5939 Seminole Centre Ct. in Fitchburg and 101 River Pl. in Monona. Hours vary between locations.
Madison style pizza. What does that mean? Falbo Bros. Pizzeria takes inspiration from Chicago and New York style pizza to create their own unique style special to Madison. The pizzeria has been around since 1992 when two UW students wanted to create better tasting pizza in the area. Its success and unique taste have grown it into a small franchise with locations in Wisconsin, Iowa and Texas.
House of Flavas
4905 Commercial Ave. Tuesday-Thursday 12:00-7:00 pm, Friday 12:30-7:00 pm, Saturday 1:00-7:00 pm and Sunday 1:00-6:00 pm. Closed Mondays.
BBQ on the weekdays and soul food on weekends. House of Flavas has been around for two years after its owner Jodie Jefferson decided to leave her job and pursue her passion cooking. She opened a family restaurant where her kids help out to bring taste of her hometown of Chicago to Madison.
Holisac Taste of Africa
815 W. Main St, Sun Prairie. Monday-Friday 9:00 am-5:00 pm.
Authentic Ghanaian food in Sun Prairie participates in Black Restaurant Week this year. Holisac Taste of Africa’s cuisine brings authentic, traditionally cooked food and drinks from Ghana to the greater Madison area.
Enjoy the country’s national dish Fufu, a doughy, mashed potato-like consistency side dish made by pounding cassava and unripe plantains together while adding water. The food is often served alongside other dishes.
C & J BBQ and SoulFood
210 S. Water St, Watertown. Open daily from 12:00-8:0 pm.
Another out of towner, C & J BBQ and Soul Food from Watertown brings southern BBQ to greater Madison. Get a taste of cowboy beans, ribs so tender it falls off the bone, burgers and so many more options to the table.
Food Carts
Most of Madison’s food carts can be found at FEED Kitchen’s 1219 N. Sherman Ave, or near Library Mall on state street near UW-Madison.
Bit of Briana — Quick on the go food. Hotdogs, boneless bites, burgers, hot links and more can be found at Brit of Briana’s food cart
Café Costa Rica — Costa Rican street food. Enjoy the taste of foods like patacones, fried green plantains served with a side of beans, or the pura vida quesadilla paired with Mango Man’s secret sauce.
JD’s Taste of Chicago — If you can’t make it to the physical restaurant, enjoy JD’s Taste of Chicago on the go from its food cart.
M&J Jamaican Kitch’n — Winners of 2022’s Taste of Madison’s best Latin American/Mexican food award, for its Jerk Pork with rice & beans, M&J Kitch’n
Propa Jerk & BBQ Jamaican — This food cart makes rounds through greater Madison with no set location. Enjoy the taste of jerk chicken, fried plantains and many other Jamaican cuisine staples from Propa Jerk & BBQ Jamaican.
Sista’s Chicken & Fish — Surf and turf. Sista’s Chicken & Fish has exactly what you think from its name. It’s seafood selection is big, but its real treat it the chicken and beef sausage gumbo served with rice and hushpuppies.
Taco Sunrise — The food cart offers American style tacos inspired by owner Gaylene Norfleet’s childhood eating dollar tacos in Chicago. The food cart also cooks comfort food.
The Walking Jerk — Jamaican style food that’s meant to be eaten on the go — just like the name recommends. Enjoy the taste of Jamaican inspired food like jerk tacos or jerk nachos and many other items findable on a taco truck with a twist.
Caterers
Dolce Desserts by Dominique
2101 Pike Dr. Monday-Saturday 9:00 am-5:00 pm. Closed Sunday.
Signature homemade desserts. The caterers make a variety of desserts from chocolate dipped fruit, taffy, pies, pudding and cakes.
Keur Fatou Catering
3902 Milwaukee St., Unit 14291. Monday-Friday 9:00 am- 5:00 pm. Open 24 hours on Saturday. Closed Sunday.
Madison’s only Senegalese food option is also paired with Gambian cuisine. Keur Fatou Catering caters events with Senegambia food, a fusion widely known throughout Africa, to make staples in the two countries like jollof rice and domoda.
Melly Mell’s
313 W. Beltline Hwy. Monday-Saturday 11:00 am- 6:00 pm. Closed Sunday.
Melly Mell’s cooks generations of family recipes to bring some “soul in your next event.” Bring the sweet taste of yams and pair that with some cornbread to your next event with these soul food caterers.
Northside Eatery
It used to have a restaurant on Sherman Ave, but now the tasty food of the North Side can come to you. Northside Eatery has all the same classic food you remember from the restaurant.
T Nutty’s Sweets N’ Treats
3522 Straubel St. Monday-Friday 12:00- 9:00 pm. Saturday-Sunday 12:00-4:00 pm.
Do not let the name fool you. While yes there are sweets, T Nutty’s shines with its treats. The caterers offer nacho, deep fried Polish fries, gizzards, gyros and more.
Specialty Foods
Restaurant week also features retail goods. Each vendor can have its food offerings either its website or at local grocery stores like Willy Street Co-op.
Artemis Provisions & Cheese
Locally-sourced goods is the staple of Artemis Provisions & Cheese. Kinglesy Gobourne is inspired by his upbringing working on dairy and beef farms in southwestern Wisconsin. His motto is “you get out what you put in,” and values the high quality of local farm sourced goods to promote healthy living. Available to order online 24/7.
Ernie’s Kick Sauce
African hot sauce inspired by Sandra Morris’ mother’s own tomato-pepper sauce. Ernie’s Kick Sauce is named after Morris’ mother Ernestine. Her friends loved the sauce and encouraged her to start packaging and selling it. You can now find the family sauce in stores like Willy Street Co-op.
Kendra’s Kreations
Thematic and romantic chocolates. Kendra’s Kreations makes timely chocolates for whatever holiday you are celebrating from Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving or Christmas. Items are available to purchase from Kendra’s Kreatinons’ website.
South Madison Farmers Market
For everything in-between, the South Madison Farmers market will be there with its locally sourced goods.
