fair oaks avenue

I’ve never lived in Pasadena, but the city that sits below the San Gabriel Mountains in northeast L.A. has always felt like home. As a kid, I’d run into my aunt’s neighbors and coworkers while shopping with my mom on Lake Avenue. I knew to expect a wait at now-closed Roscoe’s Chicken ’n Waffles after my cousin’s Sunday dance recitals. Years later, when I worked at an office off Fair Oaks Avenue, I’d pass my lunch breaks by walking around the neighborhood and admiring the Craftsman homes.

It turns out, many Black Southern Californians have a similar relationship to Pasadena and Altadena, its neighboring hillside community that suffered tremendous losses in the Eaton fire. After the fire, restaurateur Greg Dulan of Dulan’s on Crenshaw spent months offering free meals to residents in collaboration with World Central Kitchen. Like me, he had fond childhood memories of traveling there from his South L.A. neighborhood to visit relatives.

A year later, the Pasadena-Altadena area is still recovering, with grassroots efforts led by longtime locals and business owners, including restaurateurs and chefs who opened their dining rooms to provide a safe space for community members to gather and grieve, organized donation drives and provided free meals and resources to those in need.

At Deluxe 1717 on the border of Pasadena and Altadena, chef-owner Onil Chibas extended the bistro’s hours to remain open continuously from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

“That way, if it’s four o’clock and you’ve just finished with your contractor and you’re hungry or you want a glass of wine or a cup of coffee, we’re open,” he said.

The Eaton fire destroyed long-standing Black-owned restaurants in Altadena, including Little Red Hen Coffee Shop which first opened in 1972 and was once frequented by comedian Richard Pryor, and Pizza of Venice, a popular pizzeria on Fair Oaks Avenue.

That makes it all the more important to support the Black-owned restaurants in the area that are still standing, with several located just blocks from the burn sites. Almost all are now concentrated in Pasadena, a reminder of how deeply affected Altadena itself remains a year after the blaze. From two new bakeries to a sandwich shop and a fish market that doubles as a Jamaican restaurant, here are 10 Black-owned spots to put on your radar.