THE TRENDSETTER.

Scene: Outside the French embassy on Hillcrest Road, uptown Kingston, Jamaica one early morning, 2011. Quizz, on her way to work spots Dancehall/Culture mega superstar, Capleton aka King Shango. She stops.
Quizz: Greetings Shango!

Capleton: Greetings Empress

Quizz: Have you been to my restaurant yet? (points across the road) We have nuff vegetarian items on the menu!

Capleton: Eeh? Like wah kinda food?

Quizz: Mostly crêpes!

Capleton: So, hol' on. Yuh sell food and shoes?

In Jamaican Patois, "crep" is an old school slang for sneakers or trainers. I've told that story no less than a million times :D The idea of opening a crêperie in Jamaica in 2011 even in the midst of a foodie boom was completely unheard of! That's the kind of challenge I love.

When I was offered a 600 sq. ft. space at 8 Hillcrest Avenue in Kingston 6, Jamaica in the Summer of 2011, I thought of all the things I could do with it. My first thought was a recording studio. YUSH was at it's peak in Kingston and Dream Weekend was all the rage which kept Quizz buzzing in the industry. There was no shortage of sponsors, artists and hype to back and boost this venture so I felt that was the time to take my career to the next level: music production and artist management.

Then, my friend's mother who owned the joint suggested a "tea room". Tea room? Lol. What? Me? Well, I have always half wanted to open a restaurant! Setting up a studio will come with insane expenses. Maybe it IS a great idea.

I told my mother, Cordon Blue Chef Maree about this new idea. I couldn't do it without her, after all. She likes tea. We could sell tea alongside her amazing hors d'oeuvres. "Small plates" was a thing in 2011, wasn't it? For sure, being a foodie was the latest craze in Jamaica and the restaurant industry was just starting to boom. Yes, this was a great idea. I even had the name already: Tea Tree. "But, not a tea room!" My mother said. She was in Greece at the time for the Special Olympics World games and raved about the crêperies on every corner. I thought fondly of every Christmas of my life having her Crêpes Suzette for breakfast. She said she'd think on it and call me back.

My mother called me at midnight while I was in Negril for Dream Weekend actually AT YUSH! I answered and yelled over the music into the phone that I was working and couldn't talk. "I got it I got it!!" She yelled back. "TEA TREE CRÊPERIE!! We'll talk about it tomorrow!!" And that was that.

The very first thing we did to put this brand together was decide on the colour scheme. Cherry red, lime green, chocolate brown and cappuccino. Then the logo. This was the first major logo I'd created that wasn't sans serif in all caps. It had to be dainty. We were going to be selling tea and crêpes, for goodness sake. I've been drawing and painting trees since my 1st year in art college so I picked up a Sharpie and got to work. Done. What brand logo isn't the greatest when it's hand drawn by the brand creator? And it wasn't just the logo. I drew everything and on everything that would hold a mark. The walls, the mugs, the menus, anything. We opened a total of 5 Tea Trees in Kingston & Montego Bay and each one was a work of art.

The day we opened the very first Tea Tree Crêperie on Hillcrest Ave. there was a line down the stairs for most of the day. My mother was a caterer for large diplomatic functions so was somewhat familiar with this kind of pressure. Me? I was spinning crêpes that day and just like they shoved a mic in my hand and pushed me front & centre on makeshift stages in Seaview Gardens when I was a teenager, I got the hang of it "quick an' fast".

When the opening day was winding down and we were cleaning up and celebrating a successful launch, reknowned painter Nancy Burke, a long time friend of my mother's was studying my paint marker scribbles and stories of crêpes and tea on the walls. She was like "pass me one of those markers". Then she signed her name. Her sister, top chef Virginia Burke signed her name too and added a short, glowing review. After that, all day every day, everybody signed their name. It was really cool :D

Between the crêpes and the guest walls, Tea Tree was a breath of fresh air on the hyped up food scene in Kingston, Jamaica in 2011 and it's remained that way all the way to Summit in New Kingston in 2025.

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