LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Inspired by his late grandmother, Naomi, Brian Dalyrimple and his partner in business and love Sheraine “Raine” Carter serve an array of Caribbean cuisine at Naomi’s Island Cafe located inside the Downtown Cinemas in Downtown Las Vegas.
“My grandmother was an amazing person,” Dalyrimple said. “She loved cooking. That was the way to everyone’s heart. Growing up, all of our friends would come over they’d ask, ‘Does your grandmother have anything?’ So we’d always say, ‘Grandma, we’re going to open up a restaurant in your name and here it is.”
Jerk chicken, oxtails, curry shrimp and Bake & Jack burgers are just a few of the dishes on the menu. They also serve a variety of breakfast food during Sunday brunch.
“Our brunch menu is for Sunday, but our customers have turned are turning it into a Saturday brunch too,” Carter said.
Located inside a movie theater, Naomi’s Island Cafe also serves visitors going to a showing. Their food and drinks menu is offered during showtimes within kitchen hours. However, their most recent attraction is the live bands performing every Wednesday night and comedy nights every other Thursday.
“It’s hilarious,” Carter said. “You can have fun, drink drinks, eat food. You don’t want to miss it.”
Naomi’s Island Cafe is one of the featured restaurants during Black Restaurant Week Southwest, a nationwide tour that highlights African American and Caribbean cuisine. The campaign was developed to shine a light on minority businesses – aiding them in building community awareness to increase their bottom line. It’s the 4th annual tour across the Southwest region, celebrating black-owned restaurants in Las Vegas, Austin, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix and other surrounding metro areas. The 2024 campaign is focused on restimulating local economies within the Black community by promoting Black-owned culinary businesses and professionals who cannot afford costly marketing campaigns. In nine years, the organization has supported more than 3000 restauranteurs, bartenders, chefs, caterers, and food trucks.
Black Restaurant Week was founded in 2016 in Houston as a one-city food experience where diners could order from a variety of Black-owned establishments in the city. In an effort to provide complimentary marketing and PR services for the businesses, BRW also educated consumers on the variety of cultural cuisines within their neighborhood that shared the disparities that many minority-owned businesses faced. In a 2020 study by the University of California, Santa Cruz, researchers found that Black restaurant owners face systematic barriers such as disproportionate access to business loans. These disparities were exasperated during the COVID-19 pandemic where 41% of Black-owned businesses shuttered since February compared to 17% of their white-owned counterparts.
With a mission to feed and fuel the “cultural famine,” while emphasizing the revival and the saving of the black restaurant industry, BRW founder Warren Luckett, now based in Atlanta, launched the campaign with his partners Falayn Ferrell and Derek Robinson, who are both based in Houston.
Black Restaurant Week, Southwest is fired up March 15-24.
