Trinidad and Tobago-born Natalie Lamming spices up New York with Caribbean flavour
When Natalie Lamming left TT for the US at the age of 18 to attend college, like so many other legal immigrants, finding employment became a necessity. The job she found, though, was actually one she had frowned upon then.
"I worked in restaurants just to make ends meet...It was the easiest job to get at the time.
"People tend to look down on restaurant work and trade jobs, and if you had asked me, when I was going to school if this is what I'd be doing, I'd tell you 'no,'" the former Bishop Anstey High School student told WMN.
Twenty-seven years later, she works in the same industry – from waitressing, bartending and managing different restaurants, to business owner since 2012.
"I have two restaurants under my belt," both located in Brooklyn, New York.
Savannah Spice is named after the Queen's Park Savannah, and Sebastian Spices and Slices is named after her 11-year-old son.
"I got tired of working for people; my agenda for the future was never to stay on that path. I think that's why I didn't se
When Natalie Lamming left TT for the US at the age of 18 to attend college, like so many other legal immigrants, finding employment became a necessity. The job she found, though, was actually one she had frowned upon then.
"I worked in restaurants just to make ends meet...It was the easiest job to get at the time.
"People tend to look down on restaurant work and trade jobs, and if you had asked me, when I was going to school if this is what I'd be doing, I'd tell you 'no,'" the former Bishop Anstey High School student told WMN.
Twenty-seven years later, she works in the same industry – from waitressing, bartending and managing different restaurants, to business owner since 2012.
"I have two restaurants under my belt," both located in Brooklyn, New York.
Savannah Spice is named after the Queen's Park Savannah, and Sebastian Spices and Slices is named after her 11-year-old son.
"I got tired of working for people; my agenda for the future was never to stay on that path. I think that's why I didn't settle for being an employee. They (my employers) were benefiting from the things I was bringing to the business."
She said opening the first restaurant was not easy because she didn't have access to loans and she had no family inheritance. She raised funds to invest in the venture by planning events, using the contacts she made while working at the restaurants to her advantage.
"The Queen's Park Savannah represents a lot of things for me. My grandmother lived in Belmont, my mom worked on Jerningham Avenue, my dad used to go horse racing, so the savannah is like a staple.
"It is one of the perfect landmarks; it represents the culture – the Carnival, if you want something good to eat, if you want to relax."
The restaurant was formerly named The Savannah, and Lamming said she's made a number of adjustments over the years as funding became more readily available.
"Before it was more like a trendy bar where people could get some food, but now it's more like a trendy restaurant. I name all the foods and drinks off colloquial names, like Zesser and Mr and Mrs Fete, Miss Dorothy Saltfish; and we find creative ways to do things with food. We do a lot of the traditional foods you will find around the savannah."
She later rebranded it Savannah Spice because her husband is Grenadian.
"We tend to use a lot of their spices and incorporate it into the foods – from mango chow to curry crab to oil down. We do it the Trini way and the Grenadian way...
"Sometimes we do some fusions like oxtail lo mien, and we do a Sunday lunch – pie, stewed chicken, calalloo, you know what Sunday lunch is like in Trinidad and Tobago."
She said Sebastian Spices and Slices was opened last year and sells pizzas with anything Caribbean – saltfish, oxtail, breadfruit.
"Everything is customised. We even do customised lasagne and pies."
But its main objective is to set her son up for future success in whatever path he chooses to follow.
"I acquired the first restaurant the same year I got pregnant with my Sebastian, and because I work for myself, he basically 'lived' in the restaurant with me.
"Over the years I've had extravagant birthday parties for him until I realised he wasn't really interest and the parties were more about me. "One day he told me, 'You have your own, I want my own (restaurant),' and I said, 'You know what, we're not doing the big parties any more.' The money I would spend on parties I used to acquire a ten-year lease on a space for a restaurant, and when he turns 16 I can add him to the lease, I can add him to the corporation. Even if he wants to do something else, he doesn't have to look for a space to do it because he already has one at a reasonable rent.
"And he will have first option to renew the lease or buy the building. I'm setting him up for the future even without knowing what direction he will go."
She believes, as in other cultures, Caribbean parents should try their best to create a good, sturdy platform on which their children can start off in life.
"And it's not just about life insurance. Set them up with experience; it's not always about the money.
"I try to teach Sebastian both the good and the bad of his business. I tell him, 'Everyone is not going to like the pizza,' I remind him that there are Health Department rules, I take my time and try to teach him different aspects of the business and allow him to make an input."
"He can always look back and say he had this experience, and can use what he learns now to apply to things in the future."
Lamming said she has noticed the mental, social and emotional changes in her son because of the experience.
"He's a little bit more assertive, not so shy any more; he's standing taller. It's about leaving a legacy, and not necessarily a financial one."
She said the pizza shop is doing well and her goal is to franchise it.
"I'm developing it to see where it can go."
And she has big plans for Savannah Spice too.
"I always tell people if I open a restaurant in Kentucky or Texas, the people there will have to eat calalloo because I am so big on culture..
"If I can step out and do this somewhere totally different – not the typical New York or Miami or DC where a lot of West Indians reside. I just have to find the right state in which it will work."
Sometimes splitting her time between both restaurants, she said, can get tricky.
"But I have a good staff. The economy is changing and covid has changed things and people want to know who they're spending their money with and they want to see you, so I have to split my time evenly at the two restaurants.
"And I let Sebastian spend time in the pizza shop too. As a business owner, your staff needs to see you and you have to be one-on-one with your patrons."
Lamming is also observing the political climate with concern.
"It's crazy that so many years after I came here we have a similar political climate. It is having an impact on the economy and we're going through a lot of changes as small business owners. But we are trying to make the best of it."
But the restaurant business in not the only part of the hospitality and tourism industry to which Lamming is attracted. She also plans and manages events.
"I'm a people person, so hospitality intrigues me. I do large events in which I showcase artistes from the islands, mostly Trinidad. I'm very big on showcasing the culture, because sometimes Caribbean culture is misunderstood in the US. They only see us one way and I always try to show our positives."
One of her productions is the annual Shhh event that comes off on Memorial Day, observed on the last Monday of May. She's been hosting it for the past 16 years and describes it as the official event to start the summer on the New York soca scene.
"Shhh because it's supposed to be Brooklyn's best kept secret," she said of the name.
She introduced the event to Grenada and St Lucia last year, and this year at TT Carnival.
"It was well received and I'm going back to St Lucia and Grenada this year."
These events, she said, are produced under her Natalie brand.
"My brand represents me, so I purposefully didn't come up with a put together name. My name represents me and the standard I want to execute.
"Anyone in New York know what a Natalie event is and the standard it keeps. It helps me keep myself accountable."
As she looks back on where she started and how far she's come, Lamming said the best experience came from living it.
"I started when I was 18 on something that I looked down on then, and now I'm 47 with something that lifts me up. If you ask me to do a resume for you right now, it would say nothing but 'hospitality service.' But it works for me."
