Black-owned brand Ghetto Gastro stops selling its toaster pastries and pancake mix at Target
Ghetto Gastro, a Black-owned culinary brand that sells toaster pastries and waffle mixes, among other items, is no longer selling its food products at Target.
Target confirmed to Modern Retail on Friday that Ghetto Gastro told the company in November that it would no longer sell its items there, and the brand’s food items were not visible on Target’s website as of Monday. Its cookbook, however, “Ghetto Gastro Presents Black Power Kitchen,” still appeared on Target’s website, as did its CruxGG brand of appliances made by appliance maker Crux.
It’s unclear exactly when the food products became unavailable from Target or why the brand decided to pull them from the retailer. Ghetto Gastro did not respond to a request for comment from Modern Retail. Tyler Ennis, founder of a new database of brands called BIPOC CPG, said he noticed Ghetto Gastro was missing on Jan. 30 when writing a blog listing Black-owned brands available at Target.
This marks the departure of a popular Black-owned brand from Target at a point when many have questioned the retailer’s commitment to diverse vendors, given its pivot in messaging on diversity, equity and inclusion. In January, the company walked back on some of its DEI goals, programs and initiatives — including renaming its “supplier diversity” team to “supplier engagement.”
Ghetto Gastro’s founders have said that its name is intended to reinvent the meaning of the word “ghetto.” Founders Jon Gray, Lester Walker and Pierre Serrao explained it in a post on Target’s website in 2023: “To us, ‘ghetto’ represents resilience, innovation and creativity — it means home; and the ‘gastro’ signifies our intention to revolutionize your palate in thoughtful ways.”
The brand first arrived in Target as part of a collaboration with appliance maker Crux. The CruxGG line consists of items like a waffle maker and air fryer. Ghetto Gastro’s founders were involved in the design of the line and provided recipes for included booklets. Earlier in 2021, Target made major commitments to Black-owned brands, pledging to add products from more than 500 of them to its shelves and spend more than $2 billion with Black-owned businesses, such as marketing agencies, construction companies and facilities maintenance.
Two years later, the brand launched exclusive breakfast offerings at Target with sweet potato pancake and waffle mix, spicy maple syrup and chocolate raspberry toaster pastries.
Ghetto Gastro, which describes itself as a “Bronx-born culinary collective,” got its start in 2012 when its founders threw underground dinner parties in New York City. The brand is still active outside of Target, selling the products on its website and at wholesale. And the collective remains a popular partner for celebrities and other brands. Gwyneth Paltrow starred in ads for Ghetto Gastro late last year, and in January, the brand hosted a launch event in New York City for a sneaker collaboration between Puma and Rihanna’s Fenty.