Black-owned Eateries Increasing In Cincinnati

CINCINNATI — Six years ago, Allen Woods, Derrick Braziel and William Thomas launched entrepreneurial hub MORTAR in Over-the-Rhine to help minorities and women in Cincinnati take their talents and turn them into viable businesses. "There are people who are very creative and have these brilliant ideas, but maybe they don't have the know-how of how to get started or they don't have the resources for finding a location or capital to get a business started,” Woods said. “So, we wanted to create MORTAR to help them through those processes." Fast-forward to today: Cincinnati is seeing an increase in new black-owned bars, restaurants and other small businesses. Several of those business owners have participated in programs at MORTAR or the restaurant-focused Findlay Kitchen small business incubator that opened in 2016.