Black-Owned Businesses in Tampa to Support in 2026

This is the deepest and most evenly spread ownership category anywhere in our directory, and it is not a restaurant list. Fifty-two Tampa Bay listings carry the Black-owned tag: thirteen in beauty and personal care, thirteen in restaurants, twelve in retail, five in health and wellness, four in creative and event work, plus a pharmacy, a screen printer, a real estate brokerage, and a nonprofit teaching financial literacy.

You can get a haircut, buy a suit, order custom shirts for your team, fill a prescription, book a wedding videographer, and buy your child a book from businesses on this page. That range is rare, and it is the reason this guide is organized by what you need rather than by what is biggest.

Quick answer

1. For dinner in Ybor City, 7th + Grove, Southern comfort with a Guyanese twist.
2. For barbecue, Al's Finger Licking Good Bar-B-Que, also in Ybor.
3. For a haircut, Central Station Barbershop and Grooming in St. Petersburg.
4. For locs and textured hair, Locs of Wisdom, Salon Brazyl, and My Shade & Texture.
5. For children's books, Cultured Books.
6. For a prescription, North Tampa Pharmacy.
7. For buying or selling a home, Spartan Group Realty.
8. For custom apparel and merch, Debonair Prints.
9. For a wedding film, Northwood Films.
10. Our Tampa Bay hub carries the full list.

Where do I go for hair, skin, and grooming?

Thirteen listings, the largest group on this page, and they split into services and products.

For hair, Locs of Wisdom specializes in locs, Salon Brazyl works with textured hair and is women-owned, and Central Station Barbershop and Grooming is a full-service barbershop and grooming studio doing multicultural cuts, fades, and designs for men, women, and children. Central Station is in St. Petersburg rather than Tampa proper, and it carries a paid tier.

For skin and treatments, Glowmour Beauty Medispa, Luxe Face & Body Med Spa, and Caribbean Mystique Spa cover the medispa and spa end.

For products you can buy and take home, Blue Hibiscus Organics and Pure With Love make natural soaps and skincare, CurlyCoilyTresses and My Crown Luv are hair care brands, and Body Luxxe and Yokie Empire work across beauty and body care.

Where should I shop?

Twelve retail listings, and they cover more ground than most city guides manage.

Cultured Books is a children's bookstore, which makes it the one on this list to know if you are buying for a kid. African Extravaganza and Queens Vision African Apparel both carry African clothing, accessories, and decor.

For clothes, Riccardo's Menswear handles menswear, Accent Styles Boutique and Closet of Classe cover women's apparel with Closet of Classe working in resale, NuPlug does streetwear, and Noite Rose is a luxury loungewear brand.

For gifts and the home, Posh Wicks and Timari Candle Collection both make candles and home fragrance, A Celebrated Moment does personalized gifts, and MKM Custom Designs works in custom apparel and design.

Where should I eat?

7th + Grove is the one to plan around. Southern comfort food with a Guyanese twist in the heart of Ybor City, and the only Featured listing in this category. It is women-owned as well.

Al's Finger Licking Good Bar-B-Que is a family-run barbecue joint in historic Ybor serving Tennessee-style smoked ribs, pulled pork, and Southern sides.

Caribbean cooking is the deepest thread here: The Jerk Hut and Flavaz Jamaican Grille for Jamaican, Island Crew Restaurant and Catering and Island Flavors and Tings for wider Caribbean, with Island Flavors carrying specialty groceries alongside.

For Southern and soul, M&R Cafe and Blue Flame Southern Restaurant & Lounge. Ray's Vegan Soul does the plant-based version, which is worth knowing because it is the only one. Kay's Kitchen serves Chicago-style chicken and seafood, Ladies of the Sea is seafood, and Flipn' Fries Factory is exactly what it sounds like.

For dessert and drinks, PattyeCakes bakes cakes, COPA is a family-owned wine bar and tapas lounge, and Ben & Jerry's Midtown Tampa Franchise is a Black-owned franchise of a national brand.

What can I hire rather than buy?

This is the section most city guides cannot fill, and Tampa can.

Spartan Group Realty is an independent brokerage led by broker-owner Renee Thompson, working with buyers, sellers, and renters across Tampa Bay. It is the only Black-owned professional services listing in the metro and it carries a paid tier.

Debonair Prints does screen printing and embroidery for custom apparel and merchandise, which makes it the business to call before an event rather than after one. Northwood Films makes cinematic wedding films.

For events, Picnic Ave does picnic and event styling, Petite Party Pavilions handles party and event rentals, and Xplore Possibilities, LLC makes handcrafted canvas word art.

What is here for health?

North Tampa Pharmacy is an independent neighborhood pharmacy serving North Tampa, and it is the only pharmacy of any ownership tag in our Tampa directory. Independent pharmacies are exactly the kind of business that disappears quietly, so it is worth knowing this one is here.

Ignite Fitness Studio is a boutique fitness studio. Renewed Vision Wellness Center does life coaching and holistic wellness, Harvesting Joy covers wellness services, and Pink Butterfly Bush Steam Lounge is a feminine wellness and steam lounge.

Every Dollar Countz / We Gonna Learn Today is a Tampa nonprofit teaching Black history, civics, financial literacy, and coding to students and families through a free online platform. It takes volunteers as readily as donations.

What is not on this list?

The professional trades and most licensed practices. Beyond Spartan Group Realty, there is no Black-owned attorney, accountant, financial adviser, physician, dentist, contractor, electrician, or plumber listed in Tampa in our directory.

Black residents are about 20% of Tampa, so those businesses plainly exist. What does not exist yet is a record of them here. Salons, shops, and restaurants get written about in local media and chamber guides; a law practice or an HVAC company does not, which is why this page looks the way it does. If you run a Black-owned firm in Tampa Bay in any of those categories, you would be the first one listed in it. Listings are free to add.

How is ownership determined?

Each listing shows a verification status. Publicly listed means ownership was recorded from a public source such as a chamber directory or the business's own description. Self identified means the owner told us directly. Certified means a third party verified it.

We never infer ownership from a name, a photo, a neighborhood, or the kind of food a restaurant serves. A Jamaican restaurant is not evidence of a Black owner, and treating it as evidence is how directories fill up with confident errors.

Tampa also has guides to its LGBTQ-owned, Latino-owned, women-owned, and Asian-owned businesses, plus a general diverse-owned businesses guide.

Common mistakes

Expecting a restaurant list. Beauty and retail each hold as many or more listings than food does. This is the one city in our directory where that is true.

Looking only in Tampa proper. Central Station Barbershop is in St. Petersburg, and Spartan Group Realty works across the whole Tampa Bay region.

Missing the services. The brokerage, the print shop, the pharmacy, and the wedding filmmaker are the hardest listings to replace and the easiest to scroll past.

Treating a tag as a certification. Ownership tags are sourced claims with a status attached. Formal minority-business certification is separate and shown separately.

FAQ

Sources

• Business names, categories, cities, and ownership tags come from published Inclusivity.org listings in the Tampa Bay directories (Tampa, St. Petersburg, Dunedin), queried 2026-08-15. Counts reflect that snapshot.
• Tampa's Black population share, about 20%, is from American Community Survey five-year estimates (19.5%) as reported by Neilsberg and Florida Demographics.
• Central Station Barbershop and Grooming describes itself as being in St. Petersburg while filed under the Tampa city value. This guide describes it by its real location.