The 10th annual Black Restaurant Week in Atlanta concludes Sunday. But according to founder Warren Luckett, its mission to promote small businesses forges on.
“It’s so hard for small businesses owners to have access to capital, and to get that stimulus bump. A lot of times these operators are coming in, they’re using their savings, they’re using their liquidity, to establish the business and get it running,” Luckett tells WABE’s “Morning Edition.”
Luckett will now spend time advocating for better financing options, since the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics and University of California, Berkeley researchers report that nearly 50% of restaurants will close within the first five years.
According to Lending Tree data, Atlanta holds the highest share of Black-owned businesses of any major U.S. metro, at 10.7% in 2023. Yet, despite Atlanta reigning as America’s Black culinary capital, the metro suffered a wave of restaurant closures driven by factors including rising rent and food and operating costs…