Good Food February 16, 2024

February 16, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

Ras Plant Based Ethiopian Food via Instagram.

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Hello Brooklyn! This week, as we’re about halfway through Black History Month, we’re focusing on Black-owned food businesses in the borough (see our list of recommendations below). Our interview is with Zewiditu Ruffin, Partnerships Director of Cloudy Donut Co. and operator of their shop at 14 Columbia Place, which opened in 2022 as the first documented Black-owned food and beverage business in Brooklyn Heights. Beyond the line-inspiring vegan donuts, Cloudy Donut Co. brings an ideology that fosters social change, opportunity and progress through the purview of a Black-owned food business (read all about it below). We at the Good Food newsletter wholeheartedly believe that food can be an effective way to generate camaraderie throughout our diverse borough and to create positive interactions that sow harmony.

I also have the pleasure of featuring the inspiring story of Lane Li, the Executive Chef and founder of Noodle Lane, a new Sichuan/Cantonese restaurant in Park Slope that aims to dismantle the stereotype of Chinese food being cheap. See the story here in my regular column, “At Brooklyn Tables with Andrew Cotto.”

Finally, please feel free to share any and all Brooklyn “food news” you come across. We’d love to spread the word! Email [email protected].

—Andrew

I imagine we have left out some of Brooklyn’s wonderful Black-owned food businesses, so please write to us with your recommendations, which we will compile into an additional list next week: [email protected].

Here are some Black-owned food businesses in Brooklyn that Good Food recommends:

Peaches – Offering four locations throughout the borough with an emphasis on various cuisines of the American South.

Winfield’s Diner – A beloved neighborhood diner in Bed-Stuy.

Cloudy Donut Co. – A vegan donut shop, with other treats, in Brooklyn Heights.

Dept of Culture Brooklyn – A tasting menu in Bed-Stuy featuring cuisine from North-Central Nigeria.

Radio Kwara – The American cousin of Dept of Culture, Radio Kwara, in Clinton Hill, was inspired by the beer halls of Lagos.

Aunts Et Uncles – An all-day vegan cafe in the Little Carribean section of central Brooklyn.

Stella’s – Caribbean food in the heart of South Slope.

& Sons – An American ham bar in Prospect Lefferts Gardens (closed for the month of February but reopening soon).

Ras Plant Based – Vegan Ethiopian food in Crown Heights.

Faces Behind The Food:

Zewiditu Ruffin

This week, we spoke with Zewiditu Ruffin of Cloudy Donut Co., the first Black-owned food business in Brooklyn Heights. Besides offering up a delicious rotation of vegan donuts, this shop is on a mission to expand and highlight opportunities for all people of color in the food world.

News

Theodora, a new restaurant from the team behind Miss Ada and Nili, opened last Friday in Fort Greene, dishing up wood-fired Mediterranean flavors.

Cebu Bar & Bistro announced a Murder Mystery Dinner on Feb. 28. The gangster-themed evening, at $175 per person (+ tax and gratuity), will feature dinner, wine, beer, sangria and an evening of mysterious fun. Call for reservations: 718-492-5095.

D.O.C. Wine Bar in Williamsburg, the only restaurant in Brooklyn dedicated to the cuisine of Italy’s island region of Sardinia, has announced Christian Iannicella as the new Executive Chef, according to owner Claudio Coronas.

The Museum of Food and Drink opened the doors on Valentine’s Day to their new home on the 2nd floor of the Empire Floors Building at 55 Water Street in DUMBO. Check out their latest exhibit: “Flavor: The World to Your Brain”

Restaurant Highlight: Syko

Vegetarian Platter from the Syrian menu.<br> Brooklyn Eagle photo: Andrew Cotto — Vegetarian Platter from the Syrian menu.
Brooklyn Eagle photo: Andrew Cotto

An alumnus of Emma’s Torch’s culinary training program for refugees, Mazen Khoury is dishing out both Syrian and Korean cuisines under one roof at Syko. They are not “fused” together but exist side by side, in harmony, on this unique menu. The fusion exists in the melding of families and in the creativity of customers. Since the publication of this article, Syko was named by Grub Street as “Brooklyn’s Most Interesting New Restaurant.”

Read about the interesting things happening at Syko here.

Today’s Recipe

Italian Lentil Soup

Lentil Soup is one of those dishes that gets around. A lot of cuisines, especially those that embrace legumes, have a version of this staple. And for good reason: Lentils are delicious, nourishing, super healthy and cheap. It goes without saying that this recipe, from our Italophile food columnist Andrew Cotto, linked from his magazine Appetito: Italian Food & Drink, leans into his ingredients and methods of preference: