June marks Caribbean Heritage Month, and New Yorkers have an excuse to check out one of the most popular parts of Caribbean culture - the food.

This year marks the eighth annual Eat Caribbean NYC featuring 50 Caribbean-owned and themed restaurants across the city offering prix fixe meals through next Sunday.

Many of the places involved were hit hard by the pandemic. Some say they were able to stay open by distributing food at community events. Local restaurants are now hoping to increase foot traffic into their shops and get some new customers.

"We want this to be a rebirth of everything that is Caribbean culture, you know. Anything that has lost ground during the pandemic, we want to really push into it now that the world is opening up," says Joel Patrick, owner of Brooklyn Perk. "It's all about community here, right, so building Brooklyn Perk is about more than just financial gain. It's about building family. And it's my heritage. Both of my parents are from the Caribbean, I'm from the Caribbean, my daughter as well, so just being a part of something like this just changes everything."