Irie Jerk in Brooklyn, New York is a place where residents drop in daily, lured by the wafts of peppery smoke. This small Jamaican restaurant on Nostrand Street fits the bill for a no-frills, “hole-in-the-wall” vibe that draws locals to the spot.
Owner and head chef Niki Gordon, who oversees two grills that sizzle all day, says her little place has been a big success, averaging about 400 pounds of jerk chicken a day in sales, up from a few dozen pounds a day last year.
“I have customers from Singapore, California, London,” Gordon says, “I mean, they fly out here just to buy my chicken.”
Gordon is the latest business owner to achieve viral success in New York City, thanks to content creator Nicholas Nuvin.
Nuvan, 29, has amassed more than 2.3 million followers on TikTok, where he posts about his travels through New York City boroughs and profiles people he wants to talk to, from small business owners to street vendors to everyday pedestrians.
“It’s just me and my cinematographer Jamie, so we don’t do a lot of planning,” Nuvan says. “Sometimes you walk 30 blocks and nothing happens, but sometimes you go out and walk around and something happens.”
His videos primarily focus on the Caribbean community in Brooklyn and Queens.
“I’m just a person who is interested in culture and community and sharing it with people,” Nuvan said.
That curiosity has even taken Nuvan abroad, traveling to Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada to expand his interview series.
After a short stint in human resources, Nuvan turned to video production, something he once considered just a hobby.
“I’ve been making videos for the last 10 years, since I was a kid,” says Nuvin, whose impromptu street interviews were inspired by his childhood in New Jersey and New York.
“I’m really just trying to recreate the experiences I had as a kid,” says Nuban, who was born in Colombia. “I remember as a kid, everyone would go outside and hang out with whoever was outside, and I thought there was a beautiful spontaneity behind it.”
The videos are part of the latest evolution of the “foodtok” trend, following on from South Korea’s mukbang craze and the “Keith Lee effect” of 2022. On TikTok, creators like Lee and Nouveau use their influence to highlight mom-and-pop restaurants, hidden gems and hidden gems.
“As we grow up, we idolize celebrities,” Nuban said, but Gordon and other ordinary people who achieve extraordinary things “are the people we should learn from,” he added.
Gordon’s restaurant, Eyrie Jerk, is located in the heart of a bustling Caribbean neighborhood.
“We have people from every country you can think of in our country. Everybody,” Gordon said. “And the good thing is we all come together. One thing affects Jamaicans, one affects Guyanese, one affects Bahamians, one affects Trinidad and Tobagoans. We just come together, you know what I mean? Because here in Brooklyn, we have one Caribbean country.”
Gordon, who was born in Spanish Town, Jamaica, said he owes everything to his family and the women in his life who sacrificed for him.
“I think of my grandmother, who was born in 1915,” Gordon says. “I have two nieces who graduated from Howard University, and the youngest just got her degree in nanotechnology at the top of her class at Johns Hopkins. They are the descendants of a woman who had a red X through her name because she couldn’t read.”
“Giving up is not an option,” Gordon added. “If she had given up, I wouldn’t be here telling you how much cane she cut. So they have to hang in there. She cut the cane, so I didn’t.”
Gordon said that after the family immigrated to the United States, his mother saved enough money to buy all seven buildings in the city so that her children could start their own businesses.
Opportunity and entrepreneurship are two key components of the so-called American Dream, but for many Black and Brown business owners, barriers to entry and challenges exist.
According to the New York City Neighborhood Development Association, immigrant-owned small businesses make up nearly half of the city’s roughly 220,000 small businesses. They contribute roughly $200 billion annually to the city’s gross domestic product, but issues like high rents, barriers to financing, and harassment tend to threaten their survival, according to the ANHD study.
While owning and running a small business has its pros and cons, Gordon said Nuvin’s viral video has made a big difference in the profitability of her restaurant as it continues to battle the growing trend of gentrification in New York.
“Miracles happen every day, and miracles do exist,” Gordon said.
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