- November 29, 2024
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Residents have been looking forward to the opening.
Wayne Grant
News Editor
There was a busy lunch-time crowd recently at Kale Café Juice Bar and Vegan Cuisine, as if all the regulars were there.
But it was the first visit for many of the diners. The restaurant at 48 E. Granada Blvd., in the Gaslamp Shoppes, has only been open about a week.
Owners Omar and Camille Brown are not surprised at the amount of business.
“There’s been a lot of anticipation,” Omar Brown said.
Their main reason for opening a new restaurant here is that many customers at their Daytona Beach location were from Ormond Beach, and kept asking them to open a restaurant here. Camille Brown said they were a little afraid business would go down in Daytona after opening here, but it has not.
During the recent lunch hour, the Browns were answering questions from staff, helping customers and cooking. Their attention was also occupied by three of their five children who are ages 10, 9, 6, 2 and newborn.
They say their food is made with love and you get a sense of it amid the fun chaos. There is Omar, easy going and wearing a Rasta hat, and Camille, with cheerful smile.
‘They love our food and it happens to be vegan.’
One of the “new regulars” enjoying lunch was Gretchen Neal, who leads an art camp at nearby St. James Episcopal Church. She said the meals at the Daytona Beach location are “consistently delicious” and the new place has the same menu.
“Just look at it,” she said, pointing to a plate. “It’s colorful. It’s beautiful.”
Some of the diners had just discovered the restaurant. Kristina Harmon, of Plantation Bay, stopped after hearing about it from a vendor at the Ormond Beach Farmers Market.
“It was wonderful,” she said, referring the meal she just enjoyed. “It’s about time we got something like this in Ormond. It’s good to eat healthy. I’m hoping for a Trader Joe’s now.”
The families of both Camille and Omar are from Jamaica, but Camille Brown said the cuisine is Caribbean, with influences from throughout the islands.
Omar was born in Montego Bay, and Camille was born in Brooklyn.
“There are more Jamaicans in Brooklyn than in Jamaica,” Camille said.
Camille said more than half of their customers are not vegetarians.
“They love our food and it happens to be vegan,” she said. Omar said they take any type of food and “veganize” it.
Camille said at the Daytona location, a customer would come in for a smoothie and they would give them a free sample. Later, they came back to eat.
Leaving the corporate world behind
Camille Brown moved to this area as a child, attended Mainland High School, and later returned to Brooklyn. After Omar got laid off from a computer engineer job in Manhattan, they decided to return to this area where her mother still lives.
Omar was also familiar with the area, having attended Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. After being laid off in New York, he said he didn’t want to go back to the corporate world, and that led to starting the restaurant.
He calls being laid off the “best thing that ever happened.” He said he was apprehensive, because he wanted to provide security for his family, but it has all worked out.
Now he has bigger plans.
“I want to open 30 shops in five years,” he said.
He said he was inspired after meeting woman who has a large, successful operation selling juice.
“If she can do it, why can’t I?” he said.
