ORLANDO, Fla. – The cooking begins early at Plus Cafe Bakery & Restaurant on Washington Street.
The family-owned restaurant serves all sorts of Caribbean meals from marinated chicken to Haitian black rice.
Kerine Jean Francois, who is from Haiti, is one of the owners who opened the business with the help of her loved ones.
“When you come and buy chicken wings from us, it’s totally different. We literally do it in our own way—we season the chicken wings with our seasoning that we blend from scratch,” Francois said.
[TRENDING: Become a News 6 Insider]
The restaurant is one of six in Central Florida part of this year’s Black-owned restaurant food tour. The goal is to celebrate these local restaurants during Black History Month thanks to the website GoSeeTheCity.com.
“Go See the City is a coupon app for restaurants and it reduces food waste as well,” said Aneshai Smith, founder of Go See the City.
Smith said it was important to spread the word because several Black-owned restaurants took a hard hit during the pandemic.
“About 40% of restaurants that were Black-owned, and also businesses, actually closed and so what we wanted to do is not only highlight these businesses, but also drive a lot of foot traffic toward them,” Smith said.
Workers at Plus Cafe said they both regular customers and new ones, something they are happy about having just opened the business over a year ago.
Francois said love and family is what keeps the establishment going.
“Everything is possible. We just need principles and respect with each other and to make sure we all know we are not here for us, but we are for the community. We are here to serve,” Francois said.
The Black-owned restaurant food tour runs from Feb. 15 through Feb. 28.
Participating restaurants include:
- Seana’s
- Plus Cafe Bakery & Restaurant
- Dexter’s Birdland
To receive coupons and other offers, download the Go See The City app on your phone. The invitation code is ORLANDOBETA.
Check out the Florida Foodie podcast. You can find every episode in the media player below: