Purple People Eater inspires Jam’It Bistro interview, by Brian Abate

Originally published in Star Revue by Brian Abate

While I was distributing the Star-Revue last month, a purple plant outside of Jam’It Bistro, 367 Columbia Street, caught my eye. After going inside and dropping off papers, I chatted about the plant with Dawn Skeete, who opened up Jam’It in 2019.

I went back later and in addition to finding out about the purple haze, I spoke to Skeete about her experience as a restaurant owner in the neighborhood.

Skeete is Jamaican by birth but grew up in east Brooklyn before moving to Westbury, Long Island.

“Opening up a restaurant wasn’t something I always planned to do,” Skeete said. “I worked for TIAA CREF for 17 years and in my later years there I was a management consultant. The company then made the move to Charlotte, North Carolina and I didn’t want to make that move.

“My family has always been in the restaurant business here in New York. We had a property on Nostrand Avenue and my husband ended up deciding to open up a restaurant there. So when the company moved, rather than looking for another job in corporate America, I decided to get into the restaurant business.”

Jam’It Bistro opened in February of 2019, and while Skeete initially had a lot of support in Red Hook, the restaurant has survived some difficult times in its four years.

“For the first three months there was a lot of support from the community but after that, the love affair began to die, and the support from the community wasn’t there like it was before,” Skeete said. “Then COVID came, and I’m honestly not sure how we made it through the pandemic.”

When Jam’It opened, Skeete relied on customers coming in for meals for about 80 percent of the restaurant’s earnings while the other 20 percent came from catering.

“We had to start looking at some of the factors that caused a decrease in business,” Skeete said. “One thing was some people complained about prices but the prices were comparable to other businesses in the neighborhood when we studied them, especially considering the amount of food we were providing. I think a big part of it is we have Caribbean food and there aren’t many Caribbean people in the neighborhood.

“When things were really difficult during the pandemic, Susan Povich from Lobster Pound came in and asked how she could help me keep my doors open. From that conversation along with talking to local leader Jacqui Painter, I was introduced to World Central Kitchen [a not-for-profit non-governmental organization devoted to providing meals in the wake of natural disasters.] A contract with them has allowed me to provide service as a catering company. I had to re-think the business model and now the restaurant has made a pivot so we’re 80 percent catering and 20 percent foot traffic.”

In addition to relying more on catering, Skeete is planning on making foods like tacos and sandwiches since some customers said they preferred smaller meals. The hope is that more customers will get those smaller meals for lunch.

It’s called Purple Heart

Skeete also told me the backstory to the purple plant which initially caught my attention. Another customer looked up the plant and found out that it’s called a purple heart.

“I was in here one day and my neighbor next door came in and she asked me if it would be ok for her to put her unwanted plants in the flower pot out front,” Skeete said. “I didn’t even know what the heck she was talking about so I just told her ‘Yes, go ahead.’ When I went out and looked, I thought to myself ‘Why would she dump her dying plants in my flower pot.’

“I forgot about it and then maybe a month or two later that unwanted purple plant bloomed and it produced these beautiful pink flowers. She came back and actually transplanted the plant into the rest of the pots. I’ve never seen anything like it before, but I’m hoping it’s a sign of good things to come. We’re still here and we’re just hoping that community will support us and help us stay open.”