The American Dream in Little Caribbean 

“Miss Peaches!” 

“What’s up, how you do?” 

“You know what mi want” 

“White rice and stew chicken” 

“Mhmmhm” 

“Put some hot sauce pon it” 

“This is good? 

“Yea, dat good.” 

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This is what an everyday engagement sounds like for Charmaine Carol Newton, 55, the business owner of Peaches restaurant, in Brooklyn, New York. The area in which her restaurant is located has in recent years been appointed the name Little Caribbean. In 2017, Shelley Worrell, founder of cariBeing began the movement to officially title the neighborhood. Like other areas in New York City with high populations of immigrants like Chinatown, Little Italy, and Little India; Little Caribbean is one of the largest populations of Caribbean and Latinx people outside of the West Indies.  

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Some may say this is a perfect neighborhood to open a Jamaican restaurant, Newton had other thoughts. “I don’t want to be on Church Avenue, there are too much restaurants here, I can’t deal with the crowd.” Newton was hesitant to pursue another restaurant in this neighborhood because of the competition. “I am here, there’s one there, there’s one there, there was one across the road when you go to the bus stop…” She explains and points to all the different restaurants in a three-block radius. On Church Avenue alone, there are more than 25 Caribbean restaurants, her reluctance is understandable.  

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Tracy Hope, Newton’s cousin feels the complete opposite about having a Jamaican restaurant on Church Avenue. “Why not keep it in a neighborhood that would appreciate it more…certain places are good for certain stuff.”

Newton was born in Portmore, Jamacia. She spent 25 years of her life in her home country and migrated to the United States in 1991. Upon migrating to the States, she came to New York City. She originally opened her first restaurant in 1993 and had the restaurant for almost 17 years. The restaurant was located on Linden Boulevard however she was forced to shut her doors. In the surrounding area of the old restaurant are newly built apartment complexes. Now in the place of her first restaurant is a mini-mall, with a Burger King, laundry mat, a beauty supply store, and a Family Dollar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In 2012, after a year of renovations, she opened her location on Church Avenue. Peaches is located between Church Avenue and East 43rd Street. Due to the high volume of West Indian restaurants in the neighborhood, Newton had a strategy to ensure her business stayed afloat: keeping her prices lower than all her competition. In the beginning of her new restaurant, she used to sell everything for four dollars. Everything on her menu, curry goat, curry chicken, stew chicken, oxtail, curry and stew cow foot, and soup were all four dollars. “I had no choice but to try to keep the food four dollars when I first came here.” Newton explains lower profits add up, low prices will translate to a higher volume of customers. This has been her business strategy for the past 20 years and it has worked soundly for her. Her customers say her food is cheapest on Church Avenue, and even though she has raised the prices of her food since the start COVID-19, they still say her food is still inexpensive.

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When Newton first came to this country, she sought a better life for herself, one with more opportunities that were not available in Jamacia. Opening a restaurant was not on the horizon when she migrated to the United States. “I just decided, one day I got somewhere to rent, and I decided to turn it into a restaurant, and I started from there.” Cooking has always been a part of Newton’s life. “Back home, we have to know how to cook, yes we had to cook.” In Newton’s youthhood, she recalls waking up on Saturday morning, cleaning the house, and helping her older sister cook an enormous pot of soup. It had to be prepared before her mother came back from the town market. Her experience with cooking gave her the confidence and the guts to open her own business.

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The restaurant is named after Newton’s mother, Peaches was a pet name given to her by her parents. Her mother also inspired her to open the restaurant. During Newton’s childhood in Jamacia, her mother sold clothes at the local town’s market and sold food from their home. Her mother’s self-made businesswoman methods inspired Newton. Her mother passed away 9 years ago, and she describes the loss of her mother as an ache that still pains her. Hope says the restaurant being named after her mother means a tremendous deal to Newton. “I think it means the world to her; I don’t think she’d do it any different way.” Behind the counter, where she spends most of her days at the restaurant, hangs a sizable photo of her mom.

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In an over-the-phone interview with Newton’s daughter, Kerriane Bean, 38, she described her mother as altruistic. “My mom has been, probably the sweetest, kindest, most caring person…”  Before the COVID-19 outbreak, once a month, every first Saturday Newton would cook for a local church that would distribute food to the homeless and less fortunate. In Bean’s childhood, she vividly remembers going to Peaches after school, doing homework, and spending time with her mother at the restaurant. This restaurant is a part of her childhood, and now that she is an adult, she can fully comprehend why her mother worked so hard. “Coming from a different country...nothing will come easy; nothing will fall into your lap. I saw that firsthand with her.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Inside her restaurant, she has photos of historic figures in Jamaican and American history. Ranging from Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican nationalist and leader of the Pan-Africanism movement to Rosa Parks, who has been dubbed “the mother of civil rights movement” because she refused to give up her bus seat in 1955. “Certain things, I believe in, as a black person, they were important to me.”

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Despite her fondest of notable black figures across history, Newton doesn’t consider herself a political person. However, she does hold a few political views. “I used to vote here, not for me, because I’m a citizen but for people who’s illegal and trying to get to the next level to reach somewhere.” She’s unsure if her stance on voting will remain what it is now. “With everything, the pandemic and how they talked down about it, people dying, people sick…” Even though she hopes she’ll change her mind, she’s not very optimistic. Nevertheless, she does consider herself a religious person. Since the pandemic began, she goes to church twice a week online. She follows female Minister in Jamacia, Taneisha Shaw who’s also known as Sister Faith.

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“I guess the pandemic opened you up to other stuff. "Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Newton has added Ubereats and Grubhub to her restaurant. Keeping business going was her main concern, with prayer and tenacity she has been able to keep the restaurant's doors open.

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When Newton is not in her restaurant, she enjoys bowling, getting manicures and pedicures, relaxing, and spending time with her family, and bowling. She is a proud mom and a proud grandmother. When describing her daughter’s and grandson’s accomplishments, she had an enormous smile on her face. Her grandson, Kai, 6, is in the first grade and he has gotten scientist of the week twice and scholar of the month once.

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At the end of every year, Newton takes a week off and closes the restaurant. She does this to recharge mentally and physically and spend time with her family for the holidays. Hope says Newton’s hard work amazes her. “She inspires me, she does motivate me, watching her, it’s a whole bunch of admiration for her because I don’t know if I have the strength to do what she gets up on a daily basis to do…”

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Since the start of the pandemic, business has been very slow. Newton describes the first few weeks of the New York State lockdown as a ghost town. “Hours would go by and only a handful of costumers would come in from breakfast to dinner.” Some of Newton’s customers have even passed away from the virus. She has applied for a few COVID-19 relief programs, including the NYS Pandemic Recovery Grant, which is a flexible grant for small and micro-business that have experienced hardship due to the pandemic. However, Newton has only heard back from one recovery program.

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Newton’s plans for her restaurant upon her retirement are not concrete. Her first restaurant closing put a somber mood on thinking too far ahead in the future. She says her best way to run her business is one day at a time.