South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
A world of cuisines at Sunrise center
Sunrise shopping center houses Indian, Pakistani, Haitian, Jamaican, Guyanese, Trinidadian and German restaurants
Foods from around the world can be found in one unassuming Sunrise shopping center where ethnically diverse cuisine is being served for dinner. And lunch. And in some cases, breakfast.
At Oakland Village Square you can order food from much of the Caribbean’s diaspora: Griot and black rice from Haiti, roti from India, biryani from Pakistan, vegan Jamaican dishes, chicken and rice from Trinidad/Tobago and Guyana, and, in a bit of a foodie left turn, schnitzel from Germany.
This ethnic stew is cooking at the busy intersection of West Oakland
Park Boulevard and University Drive, where the Square is outshined by the bigger and brassier Walmart Supercenter, Lowe’s Home Improvement and Sunrise Town Center.
But the new owners, Plaza Sunrise Management, maintain that it is the international mix of cuisines from mom and pop operations that will keep them in the game against such corporate goliaths.
“This is a plaza that can fill a void,” insists Kevin Baqai, who, along with his commercial realtor wife Zainab Jafri, leads a group of private investors who took over the strip mall in August 2018. “No plaza has marketed itself as multicultural. Here [in South Florida] you got your Latin flavor and maybe some Caribbean flavor. That’s pretty much it.”
In two years the strip mall went from 52% occupancy to 82%. While the coronavirus pandemic dealt a blow, none of the restaurants went out business, partially because they all have well-established take-out service.
“That’s one of the reasons that a lot of [restaurants] in major shopping plazas went out of business, because their overheads were so high,” Baqai says. “You’re not going to find the unique eateries or establishments [like this], the cost of business is so much they can’t afford these prices. I mean you’re talking about an average meal of $12 to $15 here where you have enough to eat and take [home] to go for one more person in that $15. Because their rents and the cost of business is reasonable, they can establish themselves.”
COVID-19 did scuttle plans for CurryFest954, a festival that has been tentatively postponed until October 2021, with the restaurants setting up pop-ups outside and arts, culture and entertainment. In a grassy lot on the south end of the plaza they hope to stage cricket tournaments or demonstrations.
There’s also talk of changing the name, but until then Oakland Village Square is being billed as a one-stop-shopping-center for a variety of ethnic flavors.
The address is 8250-8354 W. Oakland Park Blvd. in Sunrise. For more information, go to PlazaSunrise. com.
Here’s a breakdown of the world of food available.
The Hibiscus Restaurant Sports Bar
Flavors: Guyana, Trinidad/Tobago, West Indian, Chinese and Caribbean
On weekends Hibiscus is busy with a steady stream of loyal customers who
followed the 23-year-old restaurant when it moved to Oakland Village Square just before Thanksgiving last year.
When they moved from a location that was three times bigger (with a nightclub, bar and restaurant) than the current spot, they had to throw out a lot of cricket trophies because there just wasn’t room. Owner Jasmine Punsamy doesn’t know exactly how many, but there were 22 years of trophies in the collection. “It was a lot, especially if you have to clean them,” she adds.
Still, cricket fans come to watch matches on the flatscreen TVs.
Popular dish: Chicken in de Ruff for $10.20.
“It’s vegetable with fried rice with Chinese style chicken,” Punsamy says.
Contact: 954-587-1238, email TheHibiscusFlorida@Yahoo.com.
Suzie’s Cuisine
Flavors: Haiti and Caribbean
The glamorous Suzie Ysmera (check out her personal Instragram account) was catering before opening her own brick-and-mortar restaurant just when the pandemic started in the spring. “I wasn’t scared,” she says. “I was ready to get it.”
The Creole cuisine includes a lot of seafood such as mixed seafood boil, snapper and other grilled fish dishes as well as curry dishes. Griot, the citrus-marinated pork that is the national dish of Haiti, is the specialty of the house. “I do have a griot that everyone knows,” Ysmera adds. “When they say ‘Haitian’.... the first thing they heard was griot, and the black rice.”
Popular dish: Seafood Platter. Market prices, but usually starts around $38 to $45 (that can feed two to four people) and goes up to around $85 and higher (20 and more people).
Contact: 954-990-8677, 305-942-5338 (there is a Miami location), email SuziesCuisine@gmail. com, Instagram.com/ suziescuisine, Facebook.com/Suzies-Cuisine-2412826518996919.
Chef Rose Jamaican Cuisine
Flavor: Jamaica
Chef Anthony Rose needed a change after a series of four cafes and a popular catering business in Miami-Dade. So a little over a year ago, he moved to Broward County and opened his own takeout business with a menu that features organic and health-friendly options (also halal-friendly).
“After researching
Jamaican restaurants I realized that all Jamaican restaurants do exactly the same thing,” Rose says.
“So we want to ... infuse a little bit more healthier [options]. It’s 2020, everybody wants to eat healthier. Jamaican food traditionally don’t cook to order. This is the first Jamaican restaurant where you have the option of going vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian and everything is cooked to order ... it’s completely different than any [other] kind of Jamaican cuisine, guarantee it. I guarantee it.”
He’s already a star with Google reviews, the only 5-star Jamaican restaurant in Broward County. “I say we are the MercedesBenz of Jamaican cuisine,” he adds, laughing. “Most Caribbean restaurants, we have a bad reputation. I’ve been doing a lot of research and I realized that we have a bad reputation of customer service. So, this place is designed [to serve] one person at a time. I want when you eat here, that comfort, you feel like you’re at home. So here’s the design where everybody gets that personal service. That’s more important to me than anything else.”
Popular: The jerk salmon and ackee, with plantain, pumpkin and a quinoa waffle for $17. “It’s not necessarily a traditional dish ... but for us we like to put a little twist on it,” Rose explains. “Not only that, we serve it with a pumpkin/ sweet plantain waffle.”
Contact: 954-999-5371, Facebook.com/cheff.rose, Instagram.com/chefrose. jamaicancuisine.
Kam’s Roti Shop
Flavors: India and Trinidad/Tobago
For the uninitiated, roti is a flatbread wrap from India that is widely found in Indo-Caribbean cuisine from Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad/Tobago and Suriname. “When I was growing up, I looked at my mom cook, and I learned to cook,” recalls owner Kamla Sookhansingh. She turned that avocation into a vocation by doing catering, which became so popular that she expanded to a brick-and-mortar restaurant at Oakland Village Square eight years ago.
Popular: ”Curry goat is No. 1,” Sookhansingh says. “My food sells, like curry chicken, boneless, curry beef. People never have curry beef. When they come here they taste my curry beef, they love it.” Also very popular are the doubles, which are a Trinidadian street food made of two baras (flat fried dough) usually filled with curry chickpeas and chutneys.
Contact: 954-741-9212, Facebook.com/KamsRotiShop, Kams-roti-shop. poi.place.
Apna Bazaar and BurgeRoom by Chef Nadeem
Flavors: Pakistan, India, United States
Alaa Yousef ’s market features Middle Eastern and Indian groceries. “There’s a big Muslim community here,” Yousef says, noting that it’s sometimes tricky to find halal meat for those who follow the religious criteria of Islamic laws set out by the
Koran. He adds that Caribbean cultures also appreciate his locally sourced lamb and goat.
Three months ago, Pakistani chef Nadeem Qureshi opened a counter near the front door just inside the market for his Pakistan/Indian takeout service — BurgeRoom by Chef Nadeem — that is “like a halal fast food,” Yousef explains.
Qureshi adds, “We have like our country food, Pakistani food and American food. We’re serving like burgers, wraps, like quesadillas. And we have some of our country’s specialties like a biryani (a mixed rice dish).” The market also houses his catering company, Essence by Chef Nadeem. Qureshi worked for the Hotel Intercontinental overseas, specializing in Italian and French cuisine.
Popular: Fresh goat and fresh lamb at market price. “Because of the Jamaicans, Arab, Indian, Pakistani,” Yousef says.
Qureshi says, so far, his burgers (including kebab or Tikka burgers) and wraps/quesadillas are the most popular along with some Pakistani favorites (biryani, masala) that all cost $7-$10.
Contact: Apna Bazaar at 954-742-5757 or Apna-Bazaar-Sunrise.business.site. Essence by Chef Nadeem at 346-252-2600 or ChefNadeemConcetto.com.
René’s Schnitzelhaus
Flavor: Germany Longtime Sunrise residents will recognize this location as the former Uncle Lui’s To-Go, a popular Hungarian diner for about 18 years. The spot was taken over in the spring of 2019 by German-born and trained executive chef René Kostoy. Rebranded as his own Schnitzelhaus, the Bavarian has expanded the menu to reflect German, Austrian and eastern European cuisines.
“I have people they drive up all the way from Delray Beach,” Kostoy says. “I mean that’s the biggest compliment I get, you know? We’re very affordable. We’re nothing fancy, just good affordable food.”
After a career across Europe resort towns, Kostoy was recruited to South Florida’s Beachcomber Hotel in Miami Beach, then the former Mozart Stube in Coral Gables, Bierbrunnen in
Fort Lauderdale and then The Deck on Fort Lauderdale beach.
Popular: “Schnitzels. We got the chicken schnitzel, we got the pork schnitzel and we’ve got the original veal wiener schnitzel,” Kostoy says. “They are the most popular things. Then come the sausages.” Schnitzel prices range from $13.75-$25. Sausage platters are $17.50-$22.75.
Contact: 954-749
1908, email info@renes-schnitzelhaus.com, Renes-Schnitzelhaus.com.
Wetz Pub
Flavor: American bar bites
On the end of the strip mall, the spot now called Wetz Pub has actually been a bar with various names for 40 years, changing hands a few times over the decades and three generations of clientele. For the last 20 years, as Wetz Pub, Michael Krakower has been the owner.
“We are the true hidden gem in Sunrise,” Krakower says. “Pool tables, darts, music and sometimes parties that nobody wants to miss out on.” They also serve White Castle burgers and personal pizzas for $3 and hot dogs for $2.
Popular: Domestic beer buckets for $12. “Our happy hour is 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and all day Sunday,” Krakower adds.
Contact: 954-749-1829, WetzPub.com, Facebook. com/WETZPUB.