Matteson resident and foodie Jeremy Joyce says he’s on a mission to amplify the voices of the unheard and unite the world through food and culture.
His passion for exploring restaurants and enjoying food led him to launch Black People Eats, through which he has visited hundreds of Black-owned food establishments in and outside the United States, shot entertaining videos and shared his enjoyable experiences and recommendations on dishes with followers.
What he began in 2017 as a social media page is today a digital marketing brand and advertising company with more than 400,000 followers, including 215,000 on Instagram and 105,000 on Facebook. That helped him make Fortune Magazine’s list of 40 under 40 in 2021.
His entrepreneurial journey began with the launch of a blog.
“As I started to blog, I noticed that restaurants of color didn’t get promoted” typically, said Joyce, 33.
Black-owned restaurants on the South, West and East sides of Chicago were largely ignored, except for limited coverage during Black History Month, and he said that prompted him to launch Black People Eats to highlight their underserved voices in the restaurant industry.
“I said I’m going to tell their story,” he shared.
Joyce, who holds a degree in business from University Park-based Governors State University and who previously worked in corporate America, says he’s no food critic.
“I consider myself a content creator in the food industry,” he explained.
He sees his role as showcasing and highlighting restaurants and menu items he believes his followers would enjoy. When he decides on a restaurant to visit, he checks out the menu before visiting.
“I look at what might be interesting to my community, what might my community like to try, and from there I ask what are some of the top sellers, what’s their No. 1 dish,” he said. “When people come, what is it that they love? What is it that they desire?”
That helps him decide what dishes to try.
Black People Eats started out by focusing on Black-owned restaurants and food establishments in Chicago and then expanded to the suburbs including the south suburbs, where among sites he has visited are Soul Vibez and Can’t Believe It’s Not Meat in Orland Park, Dunning’s Market in Flossmoor and Homewood Brewing Company.
He has also visited and shared experiences from restaurants in at least 15 to 20 cities outside Illinois including Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston, Nashville and New Orleans and from several countries, among them Barbados, Switzerland, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Antigua, Barbuda and the United Arab Emirates, he said.
Asked how he became a foodie, Joyce explained he grew up eating great tasting food.
“My mom is a good cook,” he said. “She makes a lot of stuff from scratch. My grandmother is from Mississippi. She cooks. I cooked my first meal at 8 years old, French toast. I think I learned how to cook breakfast because I got tired of them waking up late on Saturdays. I was tired of waiting.”
What sets this foodie apart?
“I’m good at building relationships,” said Joyce, who has a directory of Black-owned restaurants on his website, blackpeopleeats.com, and whose business is on four social media sites. “My content is energetic. I care about what I’m posting. I love food. I have had advanced cooking classes since I was 14. I’ve always had an appreciation of food. It is in the forefront of what I do.”
Joyce, who was part of a Black History Month exhibit at Governors State University last month that recognized successful Black alumni, has found other ways to support black food enterprises. During the pandemic, he set up a Black-owned restaurant relief fund that raised more than $100,000 in two weeks to help underserved restaurants.
He has held Juneteenth restaurant celebrations, which Black-owned restaurants signed up for and participated in offering specials on Juneteenth priced at $6.19, $16.19 and $26.19 and through which the businesses generated $500,000 in sales in 2020 and $1 million in 2021, he said.
Going forward, he’s planning to work to expand his palate and that of his Black People Eats followers to include food from other underserved voices in the restaurant industry.
“My goal with the business is to continue to help amplify those restaurants in need that don’t really get the help and support,” he said.
“I want to focus on all minority and nationalities in underserved communities. I want to expose African Americans to other cuisines that they have not tried. There’s a lot of food that I haven’t tried. I want to take this journey with my community.”
Asked what he likes the most about his work, he said, “putting a smile on people’s faces.
“Food brings people together. I think the true way to build community is through food,” he said. “Food is what can get everybody to sit at the table. Great conversations can change the hearts and minds of other people, and the way to start those conversations off is with food.”
Francine Knowles is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.
