GoShopBlack NYC Launch: 10 Black-Owned Businesses You Should Know
New York City has always been more than a place to shop, eat, and explore. It is a city built by culture, neighborhoods, families, immigrants, entrepreneurs, creators, and small business owners who turn ideas into storefronts, services, products, and community spaces.
As GoShopBlack launches in NYC, we want to spotlight the kind of businesses that make the city feel alive: the restaurants people recommend to friends, the neighborhood shops that carry culture on the shelves, the beauty spaces that understand the community, and the founders building something bigger than a transaction.
This list is not a ranking. It is a starting point.
Here are 10 Black-owned businesses in New York City you should know.
1. Harlem Hops — Harlem
Harlem Hops is one of those businesses that feels bigger than the product it sells. Yes, it is a craft beer bar, but it is also a cultural space, a meeting place, and a reminder that Black ownership belongs in every industry, including craft beer.
Located in Harlem, Harlem Hops is known for offering a curated selection of craft beers while also creating space for conversation, community, and culture. It has earned attention for being Manhattan’s first 100% African American-owned craft beer bar, which makes it a strong example of what happens when Black entrepreneurs enter industries where we have not always been represented.
Why you should know them: Harlem Hops shows that Black-owned businesses are not limited to one category. We are in food, fashion, wellness, publishing, beauty, tech, hospitality, and craft beverages, too.
2. BLVD Bistro — Harlem
BLVD Bistro brings Southern-inspired comfort food to Harlem with a polished neighborhood feel. Run by husband-and-wife team Carlos and Markisha Swepson, the restaurant has become known for dishes like shrimp and grits, fried chicken, biscuits, and soul food classics made with care.
Restaurants like BLVD Bistro matter because food is one of the easiest ways people connect with culture. A good meal is not just about what is on the plate. It is about the story, the hospitality, and the feeling people leave with.
Why you should know them: BLVD Bistro represents the kind of Black-owned restaurant that can become part of someone’s weekly routine, date night, family celebration, or first recommendation when someone asks, “Where should we eat in Harlem?”
3. Sugar Hill Creamery — Harlem
Sugar Hill Creamery is a Black-owned, woman-led ice cream shop serving handmade, small-batch ice cream with flavors that feel connected to the neighborhood and the culture around it.
The business has built a strong identity around community, collaboration, and quality ingredients. It offers classic and seasonal flavors, including dairy-free and vegan options, which makes it accessible to more customers.
Why you should know them: Sugar Hill Creamery is the kind of business that turns a simple treat into a neighborhood experience. It is family-friendly, easy to support, and perfect for people looking to discover Black-owned spots in Harlem.
4. The Lit. Bar — The Bronx
The Lit. Bar is one of the most important independent bookstores in New York City because of what it represents. Founded by Noëlle Santos, it brought an independent bookstore and literary space to the Bronx at a time when the borough needed one.
The Lit. Bar is more than a place to buy books. It is a community space built around reading, culture, wine, events, and representation. In a city where bookstores can disappear quickly, The Lit. Bar proves that local literary spaces still matter.
Why you should know them: Every city needs businesses that feed the mind. The Lit. Bar does that while also giving the Bronx a bookstore with personality, purpose, and community pride.
5. Brooklyn Tea — Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn
Brooklyn Tea is a tea company and tea shop rooted in Bed-Stuy. Co-founded by Jamila and Ali Wright, the business offers premium loose-leaf teas, blends, and a calm space for people who want something different from the usual coffee-shop experience.
Brooklyn Tea is a good example of how a local business can take a simple product and build a lifestyle around it. Tea becomes the entry point, but the larger experience is about slowing down, connecting, and supporting a business with a clear identity.
Why you should know them: Brooklyn Tea gives New Yorkers a Black-owned option in a category that is often overlooked. It is great for casual meetups, gifts, online shopping, and anyone who wants to support a thoughtful Brooklyn-based brand.
6. Island Pops — Brooklyn
Island Pops brings Caribbean-inspired ice cream and frozen desserts to Brooklyn. Founded by Khalid Hamid and Shelly Marshall, the business was inspired by the flavors of Trinidad and the desire to bring island taste to New York.
Their flavors, branding, and story connect directly to Brooklyn’s Caribbean community. That matters because New York’s Black-owned business scene is not one thing. It includes African American, Caribbean, Afro-Latino, African, and diasporic cultures that all shape the city.
Why you should know them: Island Pops is a strong reminder that Black-owned businesses can preserve culture while also creating products that appeal to everyone.
7. Fe Noel Little Caribbean — Brooklyn
Fe Noel is a fashion brand founded by designer Felisha “Fe” Noel. Her Brooklyn boutique, Fe Noel Little Caribbean, is tied to the energy and culture of Brooklyn’s Caribbean community.
The store is not just about clothing. It is about design, storytelling, heritage, and creating a physical space around a fashion brand with roots. In a city where many independent fashion businesses struggle to keep storefronts open, spaces like this deserve attention.
Why you should know them: Fe Noel represents the creative side of Black entrepreneurship: fashion, design, culture, and luxury built from a community foundation.
8. The Laq Lab — Brooklyn
The Laq Lab is a Black-owned nail salon in Brooklyn known for manicures, pedicures, press-ons, and detailed nail design. Beauty businesses are a major part of Black entrepreneurship, especially in cities like New York where nail techs, hair stylists, barbers, makeup artists, and beauty supply stores help shape local culture.
A business like The Laq Lab matters because customers are not only paying for a service. They are paying for skill, style, atmosphere, and trust.
Why you should know them: Beauty is one of the strongest categories for GoShopBlack because people actively search for Black-owned nail salons, hair stylists, barbers, braiders, beauty supply stores, and makeup artists they can trust.
9. Diallo Beauty Supply — New York City
Diallo Beauty Supply is a Black-owned beauty supply business based in New York City. The beauty supply industry is especially important because Black consumers spend heavily in hair care, beauty, grooming, and personal care, but ownership in the industry has historically not reflected that spending power.
Black-owned beauty supply stores give customers a chance to keep more of those dollars circulating in the community. They also create a better customer experience because the people running the store often understand the products, textures, routines, and needs of the community.
Why you should know them: Diallo Beauty Supply is exactly the type of business more people should be able to find quickly when they search for Black-owned beauty stores in NYC.
10. HealHaus — Brooklyn
HealHaus is a Brooklyn wellness space focused on healing, community, meditation, yoga, and inclusive wellness. Founded by Darian Hall and Elisa Shankle, HealHaus built its name around making wellness feel more accessible and less exclusive.
That matters because wellness can sometimes feel expensive, disconnected, or not built with Black and brown communities in mind. HealHaus helped change that conversation by creating a space where healing, mental health, movement, and community care can exist together.
Why you should know them: Black-owned wellness businesses deserve more visibility. Supporting them helps expand what wellness looks like and who gets to feel welcome in those spaces.
Why GoShopBlack Is Starting in NYC
New York City is one of the best places to launch GoShopBlack because the city already has what every marketplace needs: density, culture, foot traffic, creators, restaurants, beauty professionals, service providers, retail stores, and customers who love discovering new places.
But discovery is still a problem.
Too many people want to support Black-owned businesses but do not know where to start. Too many businesses depend on word of mouth, Instagram posts, or outdated lists. Too many great local businesses get attention for one week during Black History Month or Juneteenth, then disappear from people’s radar.
GoShopBlack is being built to make discovery easier.
The goal is simple: help people find, support, and share Black-owned businesses near them.
Whether someone is looking for brunch in Harlem, a nail tech in Brooklyn, a beauty supply store in Queens, a bookstore in the Bronx, or a service provider anywhere in the city, GoShopBlack wants to make that search easier.
How You Can Support
Supporting Black-owned businesses does not always require a big purchase. You can start small.
Order food. Buy a book. Leave a review. Share a business with a friend. Book a service. Tag the business when you post. Follow them online. Add them to your weekend plans. Recommend them when someone asks where to go.
Small actions add up.
And if you know a Black-owned business in NYC that should be listed on GoShopBlack, submit it. The more businesses we add, the easier it becomes for people to discover what is already here.
NYC has the businesses.
Now we are building the platform to help more people find them.
Final Word
This launch is not just about a website. It is about visibility.
Black-owned businesses are already part of New York City’s culture, economy, food scene, beauty industry, fashion world, and neighborhood identity. GoShopBlack is here to help make them easier to find, easier to support, and harder to overlook.
Start with these 10 businesses.
Then keep going.
