Restaurants have been slow to recover following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many major restaurants have seen reduced returns or closed outright, despite restrictions being lifted. Yet, in the past year, several food hubs have opened around the country, giving several food vendors a second chance following the pandemic.
That was the case for Brise Cafe, previously located in California, Couva, after the business got an opportunity to open at the Port Food Hub in Couva in March.
Brent Samuell, who co-owns Brise with his wife Cherise Joseph-Samuell, explained the hub has turned around their fortunes.
“Financially, that was a tough time because I was off the payroll with work and my wife’s main source of income was the food business. So we were closed because of COVID. So coming out of COVID, we always had an eye out for a physical spot to get back the cafe open,” Samuell said. He added that the unique design and layout at the spot appealed to them, as did the attitude of the landlord.
“We liked the concept because of the containers, and it had a nice name and the landlord was very proficient and professional when it comes to the layouts and updating the space,” said Samuell. He said since reopening Brise Cafe has seen consistent business, with Fridays and Saturdays being particularly busy.
Samuell said the combined marketing of the tenants at the Port has served to the benefit of everyone based at the food hub.
“I think at the start, we didn’t expect it to be so busy. You just think about it as we reopen. But the targeting of the social media pages, because think about seven vendors all at once promoting one spot. So everybody already has different followers, different clientele, all sharing this information that hey you could get seven things from seven different vendors at one location. That kind of stirs a lot of curiosity, which generates business,” said Samuell.
Shortly before the Port Food Hub opened, Damian Chow opened the Sangre Grande Food Hub.
The hub has achieved similar success to the Port, however, Chow’s inspiration in developing the spot was more community-driven.
“One of the things about Grande Food Hub was to make it a true destination point. I wanted to kind of create a different destination point in Sangre Grande where people from all over Trinidad would come, “ Chow told the Business Guardian, “I wanted to sort of create like a foodie capital.”
The Grande Food Hub regularly welcomes guest chefs from different areas, so that people would be exposed to new dishes every week.
He hopes that his hub would generate the same level of activity in his hometown as seen at Queen’s Park Savannah, Eddie Hart grounds and the Cross in San Fernando.
“You don’t see families going out together at the park and the Savannahs as a unit. So yeah, I wanted to create that family-friendly environment where families could come out, young and old alike and it comes in one space, though, and is about putting Grande on the map,” said Chow.
Chow believed these hubs have also been additionally appealing to customers, who are looking for more value for money during this challenging economic stretch.
“I think, because of the pandemic, you’ll find people kind of gravitating away from the normal restaurant, the standard traditional restaurants, to now gravitate towards food trucks and food tents and food spaces. And I think sometimes it’s a lot of convenience, you get variety. It’s cheaper sometimes because you don’t have to pay a service charge and you have more freedom and the opportunity to try different things in one location. So, I think the food venues have become very, very popular in Trinidad,” said Chow, who is amazed by its success.
“We’re truly humbled by the response both from our local community and by people from outside Sangre Grande. We get a lot of repeat customers and a lot of people. It’s almost like a watering hole. Now people come and (people) they haven’t seen for a long time or they just kind of come and decompress,” said Chow, “ We get people from all over Trinidad coming into Grande because of the Grande food hub every weekend from South, Port of Spain, Central everywhere including from Toco and Mayaro.”
Chow explained he had been approached to develop similar spots in other communities and even in St Kitts as a result of the food hub’s impact.
The community-centric approach also informed the development of the newest food hub in Woodbrook, Food Square.
It is the third such hub to open in the area in a year after Off the Avenue on Carlos Street and Woodbrook Yard on Tragarete Road.
One of the co-developers of Food Square told the Business Guardian that he hoped the location would bring back the community vibe which had been disappearing from the area.
“A lot of what’s happened over the past few years and in Woodbrook is a high level of commercialisation of the area and it’s losing a lot of its charm. We work intimately with the Woodbrook residents to make sure that we will be a place that brings that back,” said the Food Square representative. “We are playing the music, we are celebrating with the kids, and there are no fees to enter. There’s no charge as it’s a community space. It’s a space for everyone. And we wanted to be a place where you could celebrate art. Culinary art, of course, but also visual and musical art and performance art.”
The new spaces also have not hindered the business at the more established food zones.
Owner and operator of Aunty Jam’s, Jamilia Constance, was one of the food trucks that contributed to the rise of the Eddie Hart food court eight years ago. She said the increasing number of hubs around the country has only strengthened the foodie culture.
“Development for me is always a good thing. That’s progress so there are a lot of like-minded foodies like me out there, so once they could get a space that is something that I would see as a good thing,” said Constance who explained that the variety available at these spots had become a major draw.
“Because there are so many different options so for example somebody may be selling punches. Somebody might be selling souse and because people have the knowledge that yeah we could get all these things in one spot, we have on most weekends a lot of people coming from all over Trinidad to try out the foods here,” said Constance.
She recalled the development of the Eddie Hart food court and what it had generated for her and other operators and felt the continued development could do the same for other small businesses.
Constance said since opening at Aunty Jam’s at Eddie Hart eight years ago, selling gourmet burgers and wings, she has been able to generate enough of a following to open a second location in Santa Cruz which also features full meals.