Got News...

[Mulak]

Hey guys

a few days ago, I was talking to my mom just about life and stuff. Then during the conversation, she brought up that she want to open a restaurant in a few years.. out of nowhere, its just shocked me haha

she want a small scale restaurant like people come pick up food and either eat here or go to work or home and eat there. just simple food, nothing fancy stuff, a place without waiter/waitress.

we are from st. lucia, in the caribbean and but we are living in canada. My mom was born in st. lucia, but I was born in canada

my mom doesnt want the restaurat to be a caribbean place, more of a north america type food. But i told her that alot of restaurant are like that. She doesnt want like a curry smell type place like a roti shop or a full caribbean style. There are 3 caribbean style in my city and 2 of them are roti shops and the 3rd is a caribbean food place. So I suggested to her was do north american with caribbean flair to it

some examples off the bat like...

jerk chicken sandwich with a choice of salad, french or rice and bean

ice cream with mango syrup or mango ice cream

homemade beef and chicken patties

dumpling soup

what do you guys think so far...

[Mikyart]

Location sets the type of food. Where are you in Ontario?

[mark1]

I think you're on the right track, I like your choices and you might add some kind of fish sandwich and soup to go, like pepper pot or maybe pumpkin. Also maybe a veggie choice like a veggie burger on pita like they do in St. Kitz. And have no idea how difficult they would be to get, but how about conch fritters.
Last suggestion, not particularly 'island', but kinda feels like it should be! Some version of a po' boy sandwich.

[lebelage]

Conch fritter po'boy with green papaya remoulade

[moselle]

I missed you Janice,

[Mulak]

I live in Oakville area

[Derek Cooks]

Okay, I will tell you an observation...

There is a Turkish community here that has a few restaurants. Most of them are just pain old "'Merikan" food, because they don't think that there are enough Americans who are adventurous enough to eat stuff that actually has flavor or spices in it.

So this one cousin goes out on his own and starts a resto that is pretty authentic Turkish food, and he is shunned by the rest of the family because he isn't following the "formula" for success in feeding us 'Mericans. He is being pretty successful for a less-than-one-year-old place.

I have noticed that here in the middle-of-the-middle-of-the-midwest-USA that there are Mexican families, Chinese families and other ethnic families that have restaurant "dynsaties" that succeed here in the USofA. And they all serve the same old same old bland old stuff - the things that 'Mericans have come to expect as "food".

By-and-large, us 'Mericans just don't want to be challenged by food. More's the shame. So your Mom is "right" from a total business perspective - but I would argue her to death in terms of what is really good food, and in the long run, what is truelly profitable.

But then again, it isn't MY bucks that are on the line here...

[Mulak]

so basically in a nutshell that we should do north american - caribbean style food?

[Blueicus]

Fortunately Oakville is a little more multicultural than middle America, as long as the food is good and you can get a decent clientele, you could probably do fine on simply caribbean... however, you also noted that your mother didn't want to do an entirely caribbean place, so I would personally make the menu lean towards slightly more sophisticated versions of "Canadian" food with caribbean twists, because I'm pretty sure that area doesn't have anything like that.

However, despite what I said you've got to keep your local clientele in mind. Are you in a heavy suburbian neighbourhood? A denser, more downtown-like area (I know you're in Oakville, but still )? Office buildings? Factories?

[Mulak]

I think canadian food with caribbean flair is a untapped market, at least in oakville that I know. The roti shops in oakville got a rating of 9 or 9.1/10 so the food is good but the place look like a dump, seriously. My mom go to one of them and she always see a lot of people white, japanese, latin, chinese and so on, each race have higher population than black. This shows that non-black population of oakville like caribbean based on people review at one of those restaurant review site.

I know a lot of people think of caribbean, they know one of the most popular caribbean food which is jerk chicken. So i'm going to try to make the best jerk chicken in oakville and beyond (hopefully :] ), so at least my place have an different direction comparing to the roti shops.

I'm not sure where in Oakville that we are going to put the restaurant because we are going to have in a few years. The reason for that is because i'm in college full time right now so i dont have time for it. so at least we have a lot of time to food experiement and plan and learn the business like codes, permits, things we need to cook, concept of the place and so on.

i was thinking of a few names for restaurant off the bat.. first of all the place is a small scale restaurant where they come buy the food and they can either eat in or go to work/home and eat there, simple quick tasting already made food because I want a fast service so the food will already be done... the names was thinking of so far, Soca Cafe, Simply Caribbean, Calypso Cafe... its doesnt really seem any canadian in the name, got any name suggestions?

[mark1]

Marley Soul Food Cafe

[Lorraine]

roti shops in oakville got a rating of 9 or 9.1/10 so the food is good but the place look like a dump, seriously.

I agree, it is an untapped market.

I'm not sure where in Oakville

That was my next question. If Oakville keeps growing at 2-3 thousand new homes per year, you may be able to pick your market. Good luck, and keep us posted. I always like a new place to eat.