7 Black-Owned Culinary Destinations in Upstate New York

On a recent trip upstate, we checked in with a few of our favorite Black-owned bakeries and restaurants that are as resilient as they are travel-worthy. In the Catskills and Hudson Valley, amidst spectacular waterfall hikes, artsy small towns, and the vast expanse of open land, these inspiring places and people remind us why we should be celebrating and supporting Black-owned businesses far more than just one month or one trip out of the year.

One business owner we spoke to, Tamika Dunkley, cited the recent New York Federal Reserve report, which showed roughly 41% of Black-owned businesses closed in the first few months of the pandemic as compared to 17% of white-owned businesses. “If you don’t have relationships in banking or the ability to have funds in the bank as a cushion or be able to gain access to capital… it’s hard,” says Dunkley. “There is so much bureaucratic red tape, it’s intentional, it’s systematic, it’s part of the struggle that people of color have been going through since the inception of America.”

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