COMMUNITY

Nearly all of our 100% BIPOC management team was either born or raised in Oak Cliff or lives in Oak Cliff.  While there has been extensive development in our neighborhood, Michelle opened Zen Sushi in 2007, when the Bishop Arts consisted of only two streets on the same block:  7th and Bishop, and the closest sushi bar was across the Trinity River.  It was one of the first Asian concepts in Oak Cliff.

At both Zen and Beatrice, we train, employ, and work directly with people from our community.  Oak Cliff is a neighborhood undergoing rapid development and gentrification, with large pockets that have been historically underdeveloped, under-resourced, and chronically underemployed.  Job creation is a powerful form of equity.

We want to offer a different experience: in terms of our menu, in terms of how we model our practice, in terms of creating spaces that are more inclusive and less exclusive, in terms of how we source and treat our food and people.  Restaurant Beatrice pioneers pathways demonstrating culinary excellence and integrity from this community, by its own residents.  We are not transplants.

Your patronage of Beatrice gives back to communities that need the most support.  We were the first restaurant account for Restorative Farms, a nonprofit that arose from the belief that access to healthy foods is a form of equity to communities that have been resource-depleted.  We are pleased to also work closely with a number of local farmers including Joppy Momma’s Farm, which is located in Joppa, one of the last Freedmen’s towns in Texas and a federally-designated food desert.  The farm provides organic, high-quality, affordable produce to the community while also creating jobs for neighborhood residents by outfitting them with skills and experience.  As much as possible, we know our farmers.  We also know one of our ranchers, as we are starting to raise our own pigs.

We are fully vested and investing in our immediate community and its people.