Miami’s Favorite Haitian Restaurant Started Accidentally from a Health Food Cart — Dining on a Dime
- Everybody, welcome!
We are in Little Haiti, whichis a neighborhood in Miami.
Where we're going to rightnow is one of the best Haitian
restaurants in the entire city.
It's called Naomi's Garden.
It opened originally asa catering company owned
by an Israeli family, buthas since become a really
indispensable part of LittleHaiti and Haitian culture
due to the outstanding work and cooking
from Haitian women who havebeen working there for decades.
People come every day.
People have been comingsince they were children.
- Naomi's! Naomi's!
- So it's a really interestingstory at this place.
It's a really importantplace in the community
and for the Haitian people.
The food is supposed to be delicious.
So let's head over there now,and I can't wait to try it.
(upbeat music)
I understand that you and your brother
were actually born in the building?
- Yeah.
- Tell me the story abouthow this place started?
- Okay, so my parents,they had a food truck
selling healthy food all over town.
The city said, "Hey, you guysneed a commercial kitchen.
"That's how this works."
They go, "Okay, fine, we'll do that."
They find this place through a friend.
They took it, cleaned it up,built some rooms back there,
had a big tent, and that's where we lived.
We were conceived here,born here, (laughing)
and started working here.
These ladies were hired, someof them before I was born.
Melissane was here when I was born.
Janine was also herewhen my brother was born.
When my mom was gonna have us,
and they'd come out withtea and stuff like that.
It was just kind of part of the family.
They were cooking with my parents.
The people in theneighborhood were noticing
that something's going on.
We have Haitian employees,we see them coming to work.
Haitian people, so wefocused on Haitian food.
(upbeat music)
- We eat here every day since 1980.
I've been coming here, the food is great.
- You've been coming hereevery day since 1980?
- Yes, they have the perfect seasoning,
the perfect ingredients that
I'm familiar with back home in my country.
So every time I come here,
it makes me feel likeI'm actually in Haiti.
- We're very thankfulbecause there's not a lot
of restaurants in the area that even have
vegan varieties orvegetarian varieties, so.
- Are there a lot ofvegetarians and vegans in Haiti?
- Yes, there's a lot of Rastas.
There's a lot of Rastas,a lot of us, yeah.
- If you're a Rastafarian,what does that mean
as far as what you can eat?
- Rasta only sticks to all-natural foods,
which is the earth, fruits, vegetables.
- Ground provision.
- Did you grow up in Haiti?
Did you grow up in Miami?
- I grew up here in Miami.
I came here when I waseight, going on nine.
So basically I've been here since then.
I'm 39 years old.
- You look great for being 39!
- That's what being avegan does (laughing).
That's what Naomi will do to you!
- Yes, exactly.
- Yeah, this is Janine Mack.
- Janine?
- Mack.
- Mack, and your name?
- Melissane Kan.
- Lucas.
- Enchante.
- Enchante (laughing).- Enchante.
- Hi, Betty?
- Yes, Betty.
- I'm Lucas.
- Nice meeting you, Lucas.
- Nice to meet you.
- At first, when therestaurant first started,
it was one lady here, butit was from their church,
and that lady was working here by herself.
So Yawan, at the time, askedthe lady if she knows anybody
that would like to work here.
So the lady went to thechurch and asked her,
and then when she camehere she brought her.
And then she brought me here (laughing).
- Now you're here, soeverybody just keeps bringing.
- Exactly, it's just one fam, yeah.
Because of this area,they came up with the idea
they should cook Haitian foods because
they will sell that a lot.
- Did that make peoplein the community happy?
- Yes, til today.
- Yes.
- Yeah?
- Yeah, very happy.
(mumbling)
(laughing)
- What did she say?
I feel like she's saying things.
- Very, very, very happy (laughing)
(upbeat tropical house music)
- Why don't we dig in to the fried fish?
This is an entire red snapperthat has been deep-fried.
Oh yeah, that's good.
It's got a little bit of aspice in the fry batter mixture,
and so it gives it a littlebit of a peppery kick.
And then we've got the riz colle.
So you can have rice and beans separately,
or you can have the riceand beans is going to be
integral to any Haitian meal.
(rooster crowing)
Sorry, I do have to talkbriefly about roosters.
This is what we're taught as kids,
that the cock crows at sunrise.
This is not true (laughing).
They do it all the time.
(rooster crowing)
All the time.
I learned this the hard timewhen I lived in El Salvador,
and there were a lot ofchickens and roosters around.
And I thought they only did it
to wake you up in the morning.
I was like, okay, cool, I can handle that.
I can wake up at sunrise.
(rooster crowing)
But they don't let you sleep.
They go all night.
It sort of drives you crazyuntil a few months go by
and you sort of get used to it.
Anyways, let's have some of the mayi kole.
This is cornmeal, essentially.
It's got a warm, herbal flavor.
It's comforting.
Over here we have someof the chicken curry.
It's gonna be a little bit sweet,
a little bit earthy, a little bit nutty.
And then this is gonna becooked with some vegetables
with some onions, some celery.
That's very good.
We've got some spinach here.
It's sort of been cooked in fat.
Nice and soft, I lovethe taste of spinach.
So we have our legume,which is essentially
a hardy vegetable stew.
I mean, this is somethingyou could eat every day.
I really appreciate thistomato-y, onion-y concoction.
I have nothing bad tosay about any of this.
This is a hearty cuisine.
- What is a business, right?
Because if a business is just a name,
a legal entity, I really think
that a business is only about its people.
Its people is what makes it what it is.
People come here and theygo, "This is my restaurant."
And I'm like, "It's myrestaurant, what are you doing?"
(laughing)
No, no, no, but they feel connected.
- And they feel possession of it.
- And they feel possessionof the restaurant.
And we closed for six months
to do renovations two years ago.
People would come here everyday for those six months
like, "When are you gonna open again?"
Somebody said to me, he said,"My grandmother would not
"eat for four days because wecouldn't bring her this food."
- Went on a hunger strike.
- I was like, whoa.
We didn't realize to thatextent, where somebody would
just be like, "I'm not gonna eat
"because I can't get that food."
So it's a huge need.
After the hurricane, so manypeople didn't have power.
We didn't have power.
And the ladies said, "We have to open."
I was like, how? Right?
They're like, "Well, we'll cook outside.
"We'll do whatever."
If people had money or didn't have money,
they'd come here and they'd get hot food.
You know what I mean?
So it really is part of the community.
(light music)
- If you've learned nothingfrom Dining on a Dime,
it's that food is more than food.
There's more to foodthan what it tastes like,
than how you make it,and what it looks like.
A lot of people don't like it when I start
talking about other shit on this show,
but I do it anyway becauseit's important to know
how food brings peopletogether, to know how food
in restaurants can affect a community
positively or negatively.
This neighborhood is changedand is changing a lot.
It's not quite Wynwood Design District
realm of gentrification, butit's happening around here.
And so it's important to remember
that businesses like this are still here
and have really beenholding things together
in the community in LittleHaiti for many, many years.
The fact that this place and these women
that cook the food here arereally able to fill this need
and to serve the community,
and the way that theyhave for so many years
really says a lot.
So I think this is a really special place.
You can obviously see how much it means
to the people who live here.
So that's all I'm gonna say.
The food's great.
Come here, come here and eat it.
Thank you.
I really hope you enjoyed thisepisode of Dining on a Dime
from Naomi's Garden in Miami, Florida.
If you'd like to watch more,
please click here.
Naomi's Garden, in Miami, Florida, started as a health food depot in the 1980s. Soon after opening, the Haitian staff of Naomi's began cooking Haitian food out of the store. Eater is the one-stop-shop for food and restaurant obsessives across the country. With features, explainers, animations, recipes, and more — it’s the most indulgent food content around. So get hungry. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel now! http://goo.gl/hGwtF0 Our Video Crew: https://www.eater.com/pages/masthead-video