TASTE OF JAMAICA IN HEART OF CITY
Aroma brings in customers to Top Taste Restaurant
“I am a happy guy when I am in the kitchen. In the kitchen, everything is alright.” — Albert “Sammy” Bartley, owner of Top Taste Restaurante
KINGSTON, N.Y. » A pungent aroma of sizzling spiced jerked chicken drifted around outside the hole-in-the-wall eatery at a Midtown corner.
Its owner, Albert Bartley, said the tempting smell signals to neighborhood folks that his Jamaican-style cuisine is making its way to a flavorful finish.
“I am a happy guy when I am in the kitchen,” said Bartley, known to frequent customers as Sammy. “In the kitchen, everything is alright.”
Bartley, 56, who grew up in Clarendon, Jamaica, and came to the U.S. in 1980, along with his wife, Malenda, are proprietors of the Top Taste Restaurant at 446448 Hasbrouck Ave., near Kingston City Hall and the Kingston Fire Department headquarters.
In 2002, Bartley bought the corner building with an eye on creating restaurant there inside a space of about 800 square feet.
At the time, he had been living in the Bronx. Now he lives in Kingston.
For a while, Bartley – a retired chemical company worker - rented out the building and did not immediately start up the Jamaican-style eatery, boasting a lime green and yellow façade, until 2015.
But he knew one thing: people working in neighborhood government buildings, including the nearby Department of Public Works, “needed a place to eat.”
The Top Taste Restaurant
is opened from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day except Sunday.
Outside, a flashing neon “Open” sign hangs in a small window. Inside, light blue painted walls surround only two seating areas; one table, and another a booth.
A Jamaican Internet radio station plays assorted Reggae tunes, with sporadic talk by island hosts.
Candy and snack counters as well as an ice cream freezer round out the indoors which also features a poster or two of the legendary Reggae artist Bob Marley.
When the gregarious chef – normally outfitted in a double-breasted cotton chef jacket – speaks of his cooking, he gets animated and wears a wide smile.
Bartley honed his cooking skills while hanging out with his grandmother as she cooked up Jamaican delicacies in her island kitchen.
“I could make a million things,” says Bartley, waving his arms about while describing all manner of spices that flavor his creations.
The featured dishes he does make will not cost Top Taste Restaurant customers more than $10.50 a serving, according to the menu.
Besides the popular jerk chicken, Bartley and his wife serve up such Jamaican fare as curry chicken and goat, oxtail, fried or steamed fish, boiled shrimp, brown stew chicken and hard dough bread.
All meals are served with the option of white rice and peas, steam cabbage and plantains.
Bartley also offers up a beef patty. They go for $2 each.
One day, perhaps, Bartley says the couple will open a second eatery in Kingston.
“People like food full of flavor,” Bartley said. “People
are so loving. Everybody is so kind. Everybody is so welcoming in this neighborhood.”