Alta Adams Restaurant Kicks Off LA Clippers’ Promotion Of Local Black-Owned Businesses

Throughout February, the Los Angeles Clippers are using their platform and social outreach to launch a new initiative. During Black History Month, they will promote local, Black-owned businesses in an effort to highlight the accomplishments of African Americans across the city.

The team will also publicly recognize Black staff members within the Clippers, The Forum, and their G-League squad, the Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario.

In a press release, the Clippers announced both components of their February initiative, which started Thursday.

“We are excited to use our platforms and collective voice to spotlight the employees of color that make all three of our organizations thrive, and to support the Black-owned businesses that help to shape and strengthen our communities,” said Denise Booth, the Clippers’ Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer.

According to the release, Black employees throughout the Clippers’ operations have established a “Black Community Alliance” (BCA), which is a resource group centered on empowerment and equality, with the goal of providing fellow employees with a stronger voice – whether it’s pushing for societal change, or creating personal and professional opportunities for one another. This month, the BCA group will use a Black History section of the Clippers’ official website to showcase personal stories and content. It will also highlight their professional journeys and the reasons Black history is important to them.

Supported by their partnership with Honey, the Clippers are striving to share the detailed stories of six different Black-owned businesses throughout Los Angeles.

This program, called “LA Clippers Local Business Partners presented by Honey,” is more than just a one-time promotion of each business. It is the beginning of a season-long partnership, where each locally-owned business will have resources provided to them by the Clippers and ongoing support for the remaining months of the season – not just February.

Over the next couple of weeks, all six businesses will receive exposure via social media posts, email offers, and the official Clippers App on each game day.

All six businesses, ranging from restaurants to fashion stores and entertainment agencies, will have personalized videos shared on the Clippers’ YouTube channel and website to promote the unique journey of each owner and the inspiring story behind their craft.

The businesses include:

• Alta Adams Restaurant (West Adams) – a “California soul food” restaurant that is dedicated to cultivating an equitable environment that celebrates inclusivity and empowers rising culinary talent, while serving delicious food that brings communities together
• Harriet’s Cheesecakes Unlimited (Inglewood) – Owned and operated by Harriet Parks, and has been serving up homemade cheesecake in Southern California since 1983
• Hilltop Coffee (Inglewood, Eagle Rock, and View Park) – A boutique coffee shop focused on creating an inclusive environment for creatives and engaging the local community
• GALERIE.LA – Founded by celebrity stylist, Dechel Mckillian, in 2015 with the mission to bring socially-conscious fashion to the masses
• Bid Black (Los Angeles) – Nonprofit agency to promote, normalize, and represent Black talent across the entertainment industry, with a focus on film
• ThinkWatts (Watts) – Nonprofit founded by rapper, producer, songwriter, and entrepreneur, Brandon “Stix” Salaam-Bailey, offers programs such as free financial literacy courses, a weekly meal program, and entrepreneurship training

The first business being showcased is Alta Adams, located in the heart of Los Angeles. Located just 15 minutes from downtown and the airport, it provides customers with a friendly and relaxing ambience while enjoying unique, California soul food.

Owner of Alta Adams, Keith Corbin, has embraced the process of creating an enjoyable vibe for everyone, regardless of status or culture.

“One of the biggest and strongest contributing factors to making Alta Adams what it is, and what it’s known for, is the energy on any given night,” Corbin told Forbes Sports. “Our customer base, the energy the customers bring … you have people from all different classes. You can have a CEO of a company sitting next to somebody that’s from an impoverished community. All enjoying their meals. You can have White, Black, Asian … it’s a place of inclusion. Bringing all these different experiences, conversations, and energies from different walks of life, is unmatched anywhere else.”

Corbin’s personal journey, long before starting up his first restaurant, planted the roots for how he operates his business and approaches life every day.

Growing up living with his grandmother, the only setting that made Corbin feel at home was in the kitchen. Cooking became more than just a necessity and source of feeding the family. For him, watching how much his grandmother became invigorated by the technical process and relished her ability to help others, she was undoubtedly his role model.

“That was her passion,” Corbin said. “My granny always cooked large portions every day. To feed the household, whatever friends we had over. My granny’s house was the hangout. She was up at 5:00 in the morning, cooking all day.”

Corbin, who left his mother’s house at age 14 and was subjected to surviving on the streets, was fortunate enough to have someone like his grandmother to help plant the seeds for his cooking creativity that he would later utilize.

His hardships only continued as the years rolled on, as he found himself in many tough predicaments. Growing up in the neighborhood of Watts and living in South L.A.’s housing projects, he had no realistic means of creating a prosperous life for himself. His surroundings and lack of connections made it difficult to break out of that community.

After spending some time in prison, Corbin realized everything would be an uphill battle. Because of his background, there were no guarantees he would get a chance to prove himself in a professional setting. Most employers would turn the other way after learning of his past.

“Coming home from prison, the only thing you would usually get hired for are labor jobs or oil refinery,” Corbin said.

It wasn’t until 2015, when Corbin was in his mid-thirties, that he would finally meet the right people and have the ability to showcase his hidden talents – the ones he learned from his grandmother twenty years earlier.

Upon trying to move up the ranks within his local oil refinery, Corbin was let go due to his personal background check showing he had served time.

A few weeks passed before he discovered a brand new restaurant was hiring, ironically located in the same building he used to occupy before his prison sentencing.

His first big break, working for renowned chefs Daniel Patterson and Roy Choi at “LocoL,” turned out to be his major stepping stone to the business model he runs today.

“You got to understand, when I started working for LocoL, I believe I was 36,” he said. “Up until then, there was no opportunity for me, or for the individuals that come from the same situation. Growing up in the projects, you inherit a drug trade. You inherit these underground economics. You don’t have the network of other people in society or cultures, where their grandfather started a business that you could take over, or this whole network where you could be plugged in.”

The confidence LocoL showed in Corbin, when seemingly nobody else would give people second chances in such a high-profile environment, allowed him to see a clear path for other people in his same shoes.

“When I got an opportunity, I wanted to build a network for those who don’t have a place to be plugged into,” he said. “And I wanted to shake up this culture of the culinary world, which is dominated by 98% Caucasian. Sometimes, you just get tired of eating the same things over and over. So if you bring something (new) in, it changes the dynamic.”

This is partly why Alta Adams is known for their inclusivity. Not only as it pertains to their culture and atmosphere within the restaurant itself, but also their employment process. Corbin has made a powerful effort to hire cooks and staff members from his local community in Watts, the inner city, and from all different types of backgrounds — including those who were previously incarcerated. To Corbin and the Alta Adams staff, there is always room for second chances in a world and industry that offers very few.

The food served at Alta Adams follows a similar theme to Corbin’s upbringing. It promises a unique style and flavor that’s inspired from his creative nature of cooking at a young age.

“Taking something common and doing something different with it – that’s kind of always been my thing,” Corbin said. “It carried over to opening Alta. Taking something I inherited from my granny – which is southern soul food – and reframing it into this idea that I have for California soul food. It resembles the style and culture of West Africa, which is grain-forward, using what’s around you, farm-to-table, grain center, vegetables, and using fresh produce and products. That’s what we do at Alta.”

As Corbin likes to call it, California soul food is his own personal twist on the traditional southern soul food people are used to. You can view his menu here.

He also touches on an interesting subject regarding the healthy nature of his style of soul food, in comparison to what the narrative has typically been.

“Everything I make is created and controlled,” he explains. “That’s how we bring the best product to the stage. One of the things I don’t like about the stereotype of soul food is that it’s the contributor to Blacks’ health problems and heart disease. For me, I wanted to show that it’s not the food – but the lack of resources and the lack of fresh produce we have access to in these communities.”

Considering he was never truly blessed with the proper supplies and resources up until landing his first job as a chef, Corbin has enjoyed the process of making healthier food for his community now that he’s established.

“For some of those that wouldn’t eat soul food normally, they are enjoying it the way it’s being prepared at Alta,” he said. “That’s because it’s much cleaner, much healthier. I wanted to show that it can be just as healthy as other cultures’ food if we had access to the same products and ingredients.”

While some would argue the leading component of drawing customers to Alta Adams is the unique taste, others might say there’s a stronger incentive to visit.

In a world that continues to feel divided, the number one takeaway Corbin and the restaurant staff attempt to leave for their customers is the feeling of being welcomed and appreciated – not just as individuals, but as a community.

“You can come in by yourself, and leave with a friend,” Corbin said. “I’ve had people come in, connect with someone that’s running a car dealership, and then turn around and go buy a car. It’s a place where you can just come in and network.”

One of his tricks in a non-COVID setting, staying true to his background of watching his grandmother welcome a large group over for dinner, is to strategically place his shareable items and refreshments in the middle of the chef counter. According to him, there are 12 seats stationed around the counter, and he will intentionally spark new conversations amongst the patrons just by his product placement.

“Alta, on any given night when you come in, is the idea behind what America should look like,” he added.

Partnering with the L.A. Clippers has given Corbin and Alta Adams the chance to see how much their journey and success within the community are appreciated, especially serving as a model for other African Americans in Los Angeles.

Alta Adams is located on 5359 West Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90016.

For an overview of each business highlighted by the Clippers over the next few weeks, you can visit the team’s “Write The Story” section on their website.