Food blogger Starex Smith has dined at, praised and critiqued some 2,320 Black-owned restaurants nationwide, yet no visit was more astounding than his trip last year to Marcus Samuelsson’s Red Rooster in Overtown.
Inside the Ethiopian-Swedish chef’s kitchen in the historically Black neighborhood, Smith stood in awe at the cultures crossing in the cuisine and, more surprising, with customers at the tables.
“You don’t see a lot of Black culinarians here open restaurants with such diverse crowds,” says Smith, whose “The Hungry Black Man” social media handle fetches 40,000-plus followers on Instagram and TikTok. “I thought, ‘Why can’t we have more of that?'”
Theinfluencer-turned-restaurateur has now opened his second eatery, Brandon’s Bistro in Pembroke Pines, a scratch kitchen highlighting coastal Southern cooking rooted in the African-American diaspora, from Savannah and Jacksonville to Gullah Geechee cuisine in the Lowcountry.
To pull it off, Smith partnered with retired Super Bowl champion Kayvon Webster and former NBA player and Pine Crest School grad Brandon Knight. Smith’s Smith & Webster Hospitality Group formed when he co-opened Smith & Webster in northern Miami last May.
Brandon’s Bistro, which debuted in early March in a suburban strip mall across from the Pembroke Lakes Mall, serves menu standouts like braised oxtail, hominy cakes, smoked turkey legs, and shrimp and grits. On April 1, it expanded to a Wednesday-Sunday schedule and added a 9 a.m.-2 p.m. weekend brunch service.
Smith says Brandon’s Bistro’s fare should invite the same diversity of diners that he witnessed at Red Rooster. Brandon’s is “a place where you go to celebrate Grandma’s 90th birthday, or connect with old college friends while feeling comfortable and unjudged,” he says.
But that hasn’t been the reality since Brandon’s soft opening weeks ago. The storefront has instead invited stares from passersby and odd encounters with customers, Smith says.
“I noticed the stares when we dined there for the grand opening,” a customer named Cynthia Eugene posted on Smith’s Facebook page. “They just have to understand the world is big enough for all of us.”
In a video exchange posted on Facebook on March 14, which Smith captured on his phone while preparing to shoot an Instagram reel, a man is seen asking two employees,“You don’t speak ebonics?”
“The amount of racism we just experienced as a restaurant that isn’t even opened full time in Pembroke Pines has been at an all-time high!” Webster tweeted on March 23.
“We know the curiosity and stares are a real problem. Our brands should be celebrated by everyone,” says Smith, who began championing (sometimes harshly critiquing) Black-owned businesses on “The Hungry Black Man” blog in 2016 after a litany of awkward “dining while Black” experiences. “It’s a sad reality that it’s so hard to do that with a Black [restaurant] founder in South Florida. It’s not like that in D.C., Atlanta, Chicago.”
Stories of Black excellence are splashed across the walls of the 40-seat eatery, with murals of figures including James Hemings, an enslaved cook of Thomas Jefferson who created macaroni and cheese; Augustus Jackson, a 19th-century White House chef who invented an improved method of making modern ice cream; and Edna Lewis, the “godmother of Southern cooking” who inspired generations of chefs. Their illustrations appear next to black-and-white photos of historical and contemporary Black chefs.
The Brandon’s Bistro’s concept came together after Smith’s visit to another Black-owned business, Holy Hog Barbecue in Coral Springs, for his blog. The pit stop was co-owned by Knight, the NBA player who today is with the pro Puerto Rican basketball team Piratas de Quebradillas. It had “so many challenges with execution, we decided it wasn’t best to do a [Hungry Black Man] video review,” Smith recalls.
Months later, Knight invited Smith back to the restaurant, insisting Holy Hog’s brisket, ribs, Brunswick stew and mac and cheese had improved since the initial visit.
“He tried it again and told me it was worse than the first time,” Knight recalls. “For example, he said our Brunswick stew had to taste a certain way for it to be authentic, and it didn’t. I should’ve taken offense to it, but I’m all about improving and learning. He’s smart. He said, ‘What you put in is what you get out. If you’re mediocre, you don’t win. If you take care of the product, the customers will love you.'”
Smith also told Knight to “stop the bleeding” and close shop. But Knight asked Smith to put his money where his mouth was and help him make it better. So together they converted Holy Hog’s Pembroke Pines location into Brandon’s Bistro and designed the menu with chef Gerald Harvey (Smith & Webster, Fort Lauderdale’s late Royal Pig Pub).
“[Brandon] didn’t have the appropriate support systems in place, so that was the initial motivator,” Smith adds. “I had the power to change it.”
The result is a Brandon’s Bistro menu built with Harvey’s French techniques and Southern influences.
Appetizers range from braised short ribs in blueberry glaze on a bed of garnet yam puree and celery leaf to chopped kale salad tossed with black-eyed peas, corn bread croutons and honey garlic dressing. For entrees, there’s fried catfish with black-eyed peas, collards, sauteed crawfish and a pancetta-lemon aioli; shrimp and grits with roasted corn, sauteed kale and summer tomato ragout; and the Chef Harvey Burger, topped with gruyere, housemade dijonaise and caramelized onions on onion brioche.
If Brandon’s menu proves popular, Smith says there are plans to expand the bistro to Knight’s othernow-closedHoly Hog storefronts in Coral Springs and Delray Beach by 2024.
“That’s why all these experiences at the restaurant haven’t soured me,” Smith says. “Brandon hit the jackpot with this lease, and I’m more motivated than ever.”
Brandon’s Bistro is at 207 N. Hiatus Road, Pembroke Pines. Call 954-955-7927 or go to EatApp.co for reservations. The website BrandonsBistro.com is under construction.
