When I moved to Los Angeles from the East Coast, I knew what I would miss the most: random road trips from my alma mater, Temple University, to my hometown Bridgeport, Conn., for home-cooked meals. I knew once I transitioned to my new life in graduate school at USC, I would no longer get to eat my families’ Caribbean meals. My father’s family is from Haiti and my mother’s family is from Barbados—both have mouth-watering foods.
I’d be missing the warm and chewy baked mac and cheese, and the curry chicken my mom can stew to perfection. Sometimes I still dream about the Haitian rice and bean sauce my aunt could make that tastes like heaven.
So, my first instinct once I made the move was to find a Caribbean restaurant that gave me a little taste of home. I picked up my phone, went to Google, and then I found Ackee Bamboo.
Ackee Bamboo is a Jamaican cuisine restaurant located at 4305 Degnan Blvd. in Leimert Park. The owner, Marlene Sinclair-Beckford, hails from Kingston, Jamaica, but she spent her middle school and high school years growing up in Leimert Park.
“A lot of who I am and who I’ve become is attributed to my mom. She was a cook,” Sinclair-Beckford said.
The Jamaican native’s passion for cooking was inspired by her mother who moved to California in 1977. Sinclair-Beckford attended Dorsey High School and went on to become an audio visual technician for 16 years. But still, she knew she wanted something more.
Although the restaurant is successful, Sinclair-Beckford started from humble beginnings. When the establishment first opened, they had specials, selling food for a little under $4 to promote the restaurant and gain more customers.
“Every day we offered something for that same price,” she said. “Just sacrificing ourselves for the betterment of our business.”
In 2001, Sinclair-Beckford opened her first storefront on Adams Boulevard, with only three chairs.
“The day we opened.. Oh my god.. It was such an awakening. This place was just jammed packed with people,” she said. “The community was welcoming.”
When you walk into the restaurant you will likely be warmly greeted with reggae music, the smell of brown stew, jerk and curry chicken being cooked in the back, and a smile by one of her daughters, Melissa or Lauren, who sometimes work at the register. Various families and friend groups of multiple ethnic backgrounds are eating, talking and laughing together over mouth-watering platters.
Jamaican cuisine has something for everyone though. The restaurant serves a wide variety of Jamaican-style food. Some of the large portioned, traditional plates include: ackee and saltfish with dumplings, festival bread, and boiled plantain, oxtails with the meat falling off the bone, rice with fried plantains and jerk chicken baked to a juicy, delectable meat.
They offer an alternative menu with less traditional meals like wraps, sandwiches, and salads with a Caribbean twist. These meals can be sided with traditional, homemade juices like sorrel, soursop, carrot juice, ginger beer, passion fruit, or some of the refreshing smoothies they make. Another traditional drink is a lime-flavored soda called Ting, which is a very popular drink in the Jamaican culture.
Describing her restaurant as a “hub for the community”, she has donated food to an after-school program and sometimes offers food or a drink to homeless people that come to her restaurant. She also makes an effort to hire within the community, giving job opportunities to those in need, as well as students who need part-time jobs.
Sinclair-Beckford explained her passion to make a difference in the lives of other is what helped her to push growing her business. Although, financially, she may not have it all, her greatest rewards are making a difference in the community she grew up in and being in a position to give her children jobs.