Black business owners, as of 2021, have the lowest entrepreneurship rates of any single race and ethnicity in the U.S., but Arizona has several programs and organizations to combat the wealth disparity gap and assist the launch and success of Black-owned businesses
Before COVID, it looked like Brian Webb had a solid business plan for Phx Lechon Roasters a vendor we touched on in August while diving into the Valley s under-the-radar Filipino cooking scene. Webb had regular gigs at farmers markets, along with large-scale events and scores of people lining up for mouth-watering slices of lechon or whole spit-roasted pig.
The pandemic eliminated these opportunities for lechon, but Webb continued to connect with Filipino families and other communities who wanted to celebrate with a whole roast pig and locally made Filipino food.
Last month, Phx Lechon Roasters sold out of whole pigs for Christmas. Webb says he even had a customer from Canada who ordered a whole lechon for her parents in Tempe. “I ve been selling a lot of whole pigs to Latinos, people from Mexico. A lot of Puerto Ricans,” Webb says. “The pig really transfers over to so many different cultures. Everybody loves the pig. Not everybody makes it.”