Restaurateurs promoting Black-owned brands via Juneteenth dance party

Because dance is a global artform known for bringing people together, seafood restaurateurs and husband-and-wife Ferhat and Keyia Yalcin thought it was the perfect way to promote Black-owned businesses on Juneteeth. Falling this year on Saturday, the holiday marks the end of slavery in the U.S., commemorating African-American freedom.

"Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom and it is an opportunity to support Black-owned owned business and artists while celebrating the end of a horrific chapter in American history," said Keyia Yalcin, who first opened Fishnet Restaurant in 2011 in Baltimore with her husband, Ferhat. "However this is an opportunity also to dwell on the joy of this event. Any opportunity that we have to dwell on joy after a pandemic year is a good thing."

The Yalcins partnered with Baltimore's, "The Take Out Get Down" to host and record a dance party on May 25 featuring 100 guests and several DJs. Customers who purchase meals from a list of Black-owned businesses this week will receive a QR code to access the 4-hour party, which they may attend virtually while also hosting their own live watch parties in their homes.

"At the core of Juneteenth is celebration, and we want to give people concrete ways to join in the celebration," Keyia Yalcin told FastCasual. "Looking at Juneteenth through a lens of celebration gives us a lot of latitude to heavily promote Black-owned restaurants during this time. It's my hope that one of the aspects of Juneteenth is that it can become something like St. Patrick's Day or Cinco de Mayo in its mainstream celebration."

She said the world has learned over the past few years that diversity in any area leads to be better outcomes.

"If we as a community come together in focused ways to make sure that all parts of our community are thriving then we end up with stronger communities," Keyia said. "Juneteenth is an opportunity for us to look at Black businesses and support them economically.

"We are essentially saying with our dollars that we see these businesses and want them to do well as vital parts of our community."

A concept rooted in community
The Yalcins created Fishnet 10 years ago as a way to honor not only their marriage but also their communities and cultures. Ferhat, a Turkish-born restaurant general manager — who got his start at a three-star Washington, D.C restaurant — and Keyia Yalcin, a Howard University alum from Baltimore, described both their relationship and the restaurant as a "vibrant and exciting marriage of opposites: of East and West, of timeless old-school values and new-school savvy, of simplicity and complexity."

"Honoring the traditions and recipes built in that space is of the utmost importance to us as we nurture and press toward the vision of Fishnet in the future," Keyia said.

The menu features only scratch-made meals, and nothing goes to waste. The couple, for example, butchers its own salmon and repurposes the off-cuts (or non-filet cuts) for the salmon croquettes.

"We even make use of the bones, slow cooking them to coax out their deep natural flavors for the stocks that are the base for our soups we occasionally offer as a special," Keyia said. "Using every part of the fish and keeping our menu small and focused means we can pass on the savings to our guests. We are driven by the goal of making high-grade fish and seafood as accessible, and as approachable, as possible."