RALEIGH, N.C. — About 40 North Carolina businesses participated in this year’s Black Restaurant Week which ran from April 28 to May 7.

What You Need To Know

• The Raleigh-Durham Black Restaurant Week ran from April 28 to May 7
• The campaign builds awareness on local black-owned culinary businesses
• Royal Cheesecake & Varieties was one of about 40 Triangle businesses that participated this year

Kenneth J. Williams and Tamara Williams own Royal Cheesecake & Varieties in Raleigh and took part in this year’s Black Restaurant Week.

“I'm ‘grandma certified’ I call myself, so passing it on and sharing the recipes or the idea of baking from my grandmother, my mother,” Tamara Williams said.

About 10 years ago, Williams was hesitant to start a business with her husband because they just got married.

“He said, 'we should start a business together.' And I told him, ‘I don't want to work with you.’ He laughs every time. He didn’t laugh then. But we were newlyweds. I wasn’t sure, you know, people work together, if you still are going to be together. But I was wrong,” Williams said.

They’ve made a living making cheesecakes and other desserts together ever since.

“I do the cheesecake, my wife does the varieties. If you need that Mississippi red velvet cake, that big mama's coconut cake, North Carolina sweet potato pound cake. We do tea cakes, everything from the new school to the old school,” Kenneth J. Williams said.

This was their second year participating in Black Restaurant Week, a campaign that they say does help get their business noticed, but they want to earn customers based off their tried and true recipes.

“We're a restaurant, and we happen to be Black-owned, so that's what people really need to realize, you know, is not just ‘oh support us because we're Black.’ Support us because we're good. We have good products. We have good prices. We deliver excellent customer service, and our products are always consistent,” Kenneth J. Williams said.

They say they love seeing people smile when they eat their desserts, but they also say there’s more to their mission as a small business.

“It's so big to us because we're Christians and being able to just touch people with something more than cake, just to be able to get into people's lives is another way, another ministry for us,” Kenneth J. Williams said.

Many of the participating businesses offer specials during Black Restaurant Week. To find a list of businesses that participated, visit the Black Restaurant Week online directory.