Chicago chefs who received the Black Kitchen Initiative grants are turning up the heat on their business ventures

For Dozzy Ibekwe, opening Dozzy’s Grill in the middle of the city’s West Side Medical District helped create a platform to address the lack of access and awareness around the Nigerian cuisine he grew up with.

Meanwhile, Kristen Harper, owner of Cleo’s Southern Cuisine, relied on faith to step away from a sports journalism career into one surrounded by food after some friends challenged her to start a food company. Her flagship South Side location was born from that challenge. She honors her grandmother every day as the restaurant’s namesake.

As for Quinton McNair, proprietor of Strugglebeard Bakery in Hyde Park, the baking skills that fuel his entrepreneurial endeavor were honed as a way to support his mental health; it’s something he hopes to pay forward to Black male youths in the community.

Aside from being in Chicago, these Black entrepreneurs share one other common denominator: They are the recipients of the Heinz Black Kitchen Initiative grants, funds of up to $25,000 each that went out to 62 Black-owned food businesses nationwide at the end of 2023. The funds are helping to fulfill the dreams of local business owners.

“I really needed the grant in order to continue to grow,” Ibekwe said. “Dozzy’s Grill wants to make West African cuisine accessible, relatable, affordable.”

It’s the second time Ibekwe has received the grant. Dozzy’s Grill launched in 2020, offering only takeout and delivery from a 200-square-foot ghost kitchen in the South Loop. The money allowed him to secure a lease and equipment for his current West Side food court space. He’s looking forward to getting a proper bricks-and-mortar home for his creation.

“The goal is to continue doing well with what we’re doing, which is to connect the dots for people who seek West African cuisine and to demystify what is West African cuisine,” Ibekwe said. “We do that by being more visible. Having people come experience what we do on site.”

He said it’s a far cry from when he was growing up in the south suburbs, where he didn’t see Nigerian eateries that his nephews and nieces could comfortably go to. But Dozzy’s is filling that gap. “This cuisine is being celebrated here, there and everywhere on social media,” Ibekwe said.

For McNair, working with his hands was his safe space. He was a helicopter mechanic during his tenure in the Army. At one point, he started fixing and modifying cars, which turned into home improvement. Eventually, he started using his hands for baking to help with his mental health during the pandemic.

The Matteson resident sold his first cookie in December 2020, and by May 2023, he had signed the lease for his current bakery space. After a four-month build-out, Strugglebeard opened on Oct. 14. Strugglebeard’s signature style is to use liquor in its cookies instead of vanilla extract. The No. 1 seller is the limoncello cookie.

“Initiatives like this, where it’s specifically tailored for us, we need so bad,” McNair said. He wants to pay it forward by starting the Be A King Everyday program, or BAKE, for young Black men. McNair aims to speak at schools and invite young men into his bakery to try making something. While their creations are cooling, he talks to them about issues for young Black men or sets up listening sessions with local experts, entrepreneurs and business owners to talk about things like finances.

He also wants young men to see women in positions of leadership. Strugglebeard’s leadership is mostly Black women.

“That’s something that we need to do better at, working with women, producing leadership. … I’m trying to affect and influence young Black men as if I was trying to raise them to date my daughter,” McNair said. “I feel my ideal target is young men, early college, late high school. If we talk to these men, where they’re going and they see somebody that looks like them … I’m somebody who’s been through a lot, who is finally healing through baking and now I want to share stuff with other young men who look like me.”

The Black Kitchen Initiative grant pulled him out of operating in the red for the first time since he opened his doors.

“I had already been financing a lot of this out of my retirement and disability check. Before we were generating income, I had to pay all these people and we hadn’t sold a cookie yet. I was in the negative … borrowing money from people to pay payroll. That grant allowed me to operate back into the positive, to get some much-needed supplies, to be able to pay my rent and my people without me having to eat ramen for the rest of my life.”

The initiative is a collaboration between Heinz, the LEE Initiative and Southern Restaurants for Racial Justice, which aims to provide financial support and uplift Black-owned food businesses to preserve Black culinary culture nationwide. Recipients were chosen by a committee of fellow Black business owners, and grants were awarded based on business needs.

“We had a lot of conversations about how to make this industry more kind and equitable. … It needs to be a kinder industry for people,” said Lindsey Ofcacek, co-founder and executive director of the LEE Initiative, which stands for Lets Empower Employment.

“For us what that means is diversifying what leadership and ownership looks like. With the Black Kitchen Initiative, we were fortunate to work with Anne Quatrano and Lisa Donovan and all of these chefs and bakers who formed Southern Restaurants for Racial Justice. They were hosting bake sales to fund Black-owned businesses that were struggling. We did a few bake sales with them and we were fortunate enough to partner with Heinz and expand the program. They pledged a million dollars in grants, as well as the ‘Black Kitchen Initiative’ podcast, to shine a light on the grant recipients.”

Ofcacek hopes to offer grants again this year. She said Heinz had the financial resources to aid the initiative and also help promote Black restaurateurs’ stories on social media channels. McNair and Ofcacek said being a grant winner also comes with resources like webinars on how to build a TikTok account and on the best human resource practices.

Harper has twice won the grant. This time she’s using the money to expand her flagship restaurant in Bronzeville from 12 seats to 35 or 40. She is also using some funds to gift staff members who have been with her since Cleo’s opened in May 2019.

“I really appreciate this initiative. … To be honest, it’s one that stands out,” Harper said. “I haven’t seen a whole lot since the calming down of the Black Lives Matter movement. I feel like at that point, there were a lot of people trying to give money to Black and brown people but I feel like as time has gone on, people tended to forget, so a lot of those grants that I saw back then, I don’t necessarily see now.”

Harper has her sights set on creating a product line with Cleo’s name on it.

“I’m working on our fish seafood fry, on our chicken breading,” Harper said. “I’m working on our remoulade sauce. I’m working on the butter that makes people fall in love with our waffles, that butter that makes people fall in love with our muffins — stuff you can have in your fridge at home and add your own little spin on it and Cleo’s can still be at the table. I’m just trying to get into as many homes as possible.”