Beyoncé cash helps Tottenham restaurant stay open

Emeka and Ifeyinwa Frederick said their business had been “battered” by lockdowns and the cost of living crisis

A family-run restaurant in north London has been handed a grant by the singer Beyoncé which the owners say will mean it can stay open.

Chuku’s in Tottenham, which claims to be the world’s first Nigerian tapas restaurant, was one of 10 small businesses in London to be awarded £8,000 by the charity BeyGOOD.

It opened shortly before the Covid pandemic began in 2020 and the owners said their restaurant had been “battered” by lockdowns and the cost of living crisis.

Co-owner Emeka Frederick said the award meant he could “breathe a little easier”.

Beyoncé recently played five dates at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

The money came from a $1m fund created by Beyoncé as part of her current world tour to support small businesses where she performed that have been affected by “economic inequities”.

Chuku’s was among 500 London businesses that applied for the grant from BeyGOOD’s Black Parade Route Impact fund.

Ifeyinwa Frederick, Emeka’s sister and Chuku’s co-owner, told BBC London it was “just wonderful” to be recognised by the awards team after a “very challenging few years”.

“Receiving a grant like this is really energising and can have a positive impact to help you keep going, given the challenges we faced, having opened four-and-half weeks before the first lockdown,” she said.

Emeka and Ifeyinwa Frederick opened Chuku's five weeks before the first Covid lockdown

Mr Frederick said the impact of the Covid lockdowns had been particularly severe for Chuku’s.

“We never had an opportunity to build any solid foundations from a financial point of view or a business point of view.

“We didn’t have time to build a culture. The momentum was really killed,” he added.

The siblings said the restaurant and many other businesses were facing difficulties due to the aftermath of the pandemic, supply chain issues, rising costs and the cost of living squeeze.

Last year, the siblings took to social media to “rally” their followers to book tables in order to keep afloat financially.

Mr Frederick said the campaign and the grant meant that while "the next few months are still precarious... we can now breathe a little easier than we could do last year when closure was looking more likely than keeping our doors open”.