ON Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday established in 1986, we commemorate the birthday of the civil rights leader. In his memory, we also remember the achievements of Black Americans who followed his Dream. In doing so, we celebrate people of color pursuing self-determination, their struggle to achieve equal rights under our nation’s Constitution, and aspirations for Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
In my world, as someone who lives to eat, happiness doesn’t come without good food. So I’ve selected several local businesses that I have covered previously at TAP (and elsewhere) that are Black-owned. These are by no means all the Black-owned food businesses in the immediate area, as we have many people of Afro-Caribbean descent who own and operate great places to eat. Many of them — often from mixed heritage — come from the Caribbean and South American countries such as Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and the Bahamas which make up the diversity of flavors of South Florida. I encourage you to try them all.
Holy Hog BBQ (4372 N. SR-7 in Coral Springs)
Holy Hog is an entirely black-owned business. The owner and Coral Springs resident Efrem Knight (the brother of local NBA G-league player Brandon Knight) and his family are both franchisees and franchisors. Knight is not the chain’s founder but has an equity stake in it; he also owns the Pembroke Pines and Delray Beach locations.
Overall my favorite thing I had was the pulled pork. Holy Hog is clearly shines as a pork place, no doubt. It’s what I would also likely order on successive visits. Nice and juicy, good seasoning, and most importantly, not dried out. The chain is known for its Monday and Tuesday Buy One, Get One (BOGO) deal on pulled pork or chicken sandwiches.
Krispy Krunchy Chicken (7811 West Sample Road, Coral Springs)
Krispy Krunchy, which identifies as Black-owned, is not a sit-down quick-serve restaurant (QSR). It’s situated inside a 24-hour convenience store — which is also a huge plus because the Krispy Krunchy franchise is also open 24 hours, in case you get that late-night fried food craving.
The franchise chain’s business model is typically attached to gas stations looking to add fast food to their locations. I’m not going to sugarcoat this — the actual venue is substantially more downscale than a Popeyes. If you can psychologically get over that, you’re in for a real treat.
Originating from New Orleans like Popeyes, the spice blend is similar.
The chicken is clearly brined as you would find at Popeyes or Chik-Fil-A, so it’s heavily seasoned — as in the salt content is strong, which is what you expect from fried chicken, and the coating has an element of spicy heat to it, but not an overwhelming amount. It’s definitely piquant, though.
They offer whole pieces of chicken in addition to wings, and also fried tenders, sandwiches, fried shrimp, and fish.
Priya’s Roti Shop (8007 West Sample Road, Coral Springs)
The tiny storefront offers a curated menu of popular Trini street food snacks, including the beloved “doubles,” a spicy chickpea curry served on a small fried flatbread (barra). They are $2 apiece, and if you buy five, you get one free.
The restaurant was purchased six years ago from the original owners by Justin, Carlos, and Stacy Ram. They are of mixed Trinidadian and Guyanese descent (Guyana is another country with a similar mix of Indian and Asian influences in its cuisine).
The main event is its curries, which are served with the signature roti — an unleavened flatbread made out of whole wheat flour with a stretchy consistency, stuffed with dhalpuri, a cooked and ground-up mixture of split peas, toasted cumin, garlic, culantro, and pepper — and usually a hot chile such as Scotch Bonnet. These are grilled by sticking the rolled-out to pancake-thickness dough on a hot Indian-style cast iron griddle (tawa) and rubbed with oil, which gives it the characteristic grill marks and bubbles.
The curries themselves come in different Halal-certified proteins — stewed or jerk chicken, goat, beef, fish, lamb, oxtail, crab, or vegetable. But my favorite? Curry shrimp ($12).
My preferred way to get it is as a wrap. I won’t sugarcoat this — because if you order it that way, once you cut it open, it becomes a huge wet mess, with all the protein, curry juices, dhalpuri, and aloo (potato) filling gushing out like a scene in a bad Netflix horror movie.
Roti is not the kind of wrap sandwich you try to eat with your hands, even with the T-shirt your wife won’t let you leave the house wearing — this is a knife and fork, or tear it apart with your hands on the plate type of affair. It’s juicy; it’s spicy; it’s messy, but oh so delicious.
Big Mike’s Bakery (7891 West Sample Road, Coral Springs)
Twelve years ago, Mike Hopkins was diagnosed with severe celiac disease, although he had serious gastrointestinal issues for most of his life. While he did not have a formalized background as a baker or had training in the culinary arts, he decided that he needed to learn how to make bread, cookies, cakes, and other products for his own consumption and eventually turned it into a business.
Over the years, he’s developed his own proprietary wheat-free flour formula that he uses in many of his products and has a dedicated group of followers.
What caught my eye the first time I visited his business were his big Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookies — for which I am an absolute fiend and will likely be heading back for, regardless of my own lack of wheat allergy.
His chocolate cupcakes — which come in a Double Chocolate Fudge version with chocolate icing, as well as a Madagascar Vanilla icing with sprinkles and a Red Velvet version — are sure to please. I also brought home one of his “Danger” chocolate fudge coconut bars, which is big enough to split between two people.
In addition to offering espresso drinks, he has a full menu of juices and smoothies made with natural fruits.
Swirl Wine Bistro (1435 Lyons Road, Coconut Creek)
“Where can I get a nice weekend brunch with mimosas?”
It’s one of the most frequent questions I get on Foodies Who Review South Florida. And yet, it’s not an easy question to answer, especially if you are looking for locations near Coral Springs.
However, look no further than Swirl Wine Bistro, a cozy and quirky wine bar in next door Coconut Creek, owned by Michael and Judith Able.
The tiny, intimate restaurant is hidden away in a nondescript shopping plaza on Lyons Road. It only has seven tables and 30 seats, with a few outdoors. The walls feature artwork from various local artists on a rotating basis, all of which are for sale.
The regular dinner menu is an eclectic mix of Caribbean-influenced global food. Items such as oxtail ravioli, seafood risotto, and osso bucco are featured along with dishes such as jerk chicken, snapper escovitch, and shrimp with plantains, courtesy of Judy’s Jamaican heritage.
Traditional brunch items served here, such as pancakes, waffles, omelets, and Eggs Benedict (featuring sauteed baby spinach and homemade hollandaise sauce, not from a commercial mix) are flanked by more lunchy offerings like burgers, club sandwiches, pasta, soups, and salads.
I love the ham and cheese quiche, a generous personal-sized baked round chock-full of heavy cream, Emmental and Cheddar cheeses, and diced ham, enveloped with a homemade pastry crust — a creative and decadent spin on the French Lorraine classic.
Rootz Bar (Tamarac)
This is island food at its best, especially if you are a chile-head. Chef Ade, who owns the restaurant with his family, can be best described as an artist in the comfort food of his native culture.
The menu runs the gamut from charcoal-grilled Jerk chicken and pork (only Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays) to homestyle dishes like Escoveitch (fried snapper in Creole sauce), curries as well as “island-style” pasta creations.
We began with crispy fried Jerk Wings, which really brings out the allspice and classic Jamaican flavor, and is only a little on the sweet side, and the Honey Hot, which are like classic Buffalo with a strong hit of Scotch Bonnet and then dipped in honey.
Both are excellent, are quite spicy, and I’m hard-pressed to say which one I like better. Make sure you have a cold drink handy.
While something of a reverse import back to America, the Mac and Cheese is true Jamaican-style and is not to be missed — it’s baked to order and served in its own aluminum tray and is super-cheesy with a creamy texture. Like many other things on this menu, it’s also a tad bit on the spicy side, incorporating fresh cayenne peppers and a few other things I couldn’t easily identify.
They neglected to tell us everything in it when we asked because it was a family secret. Just order it — it’s a bargain.
Jerk Express (Coral Square Mall)
Let me tell you, this is some of the most legit jerk pork I have ever had since visiting Jamaica or having attended a barbecue held by my next-door Jamaican neighbors. Jerk, which is made with chicken, pork, or fish, is quite different from most forms of barbecue. It is smoked for hours over charcoal and wood – if authentic, wood from the Pimento tree, now rare and expensive.
The meat is wet-rubbed and marinaded (typically overnight) with a spicy paste typically made with fresh garlic, scallions, thyme leaves, ginger, brown sugar, Jamaican allspice, nutmeg, salt (or Jamaican soy sauce), vinegar, and an all-important ingredient, the Scotch Bonnet chile pepper, which is similar to a Habanero.
I’m going to warn you: this was quite spicy without even adding any jerk sauce on the side. I’m not sure of the cooking method employed, whether an oven or a grill/smoker, but it was juicy and not dried out. The curry gravy on the rice was also heavenly. And it was a nice-sized portion even for the “small” order, absolutely enough food for a single person for lunch.
The stand also has other dishes in chafers such as curry shrimp and seafood (weekends only) and also stews and various other typical Jamaican fare, as well as a selection of sides such as macaroni and cheese, festivals (cornmeal fritters), callaloo (a type of cooked amaranth greens indigenous to Jamaica), and also Jamaican patties (similar to empanadas, with meat and vegetable fillings, but spicier) for sale.
We suggest you try some Jamaican soft drinks, such as Ting (a grapefruit soda), their D&G Ginger Beer, and their Sorrel Drink.
