Friday, June 11, 2021
The Tribune | Weekend | 07
food
Tin Ferl heads up new ‘pop-up park’ By ALESHA CADET | Tribune Features Writer | acadet@tribunemedia.net
T
he popular Tin Ferl pop-up food service has graduated to a new venue, which the team hopes will turn into a “pop-up park” that provides Bahamians with all their favourite eats and treats. Now located in the former Phil’s Food Service building on Gladstone Road, the Tin Ferl team said they finally have space where they can really grow alongside other vendors. “The Small Business Development Centre heard of our need for a new location and welcomed us to join them at the site of their future headquarters and partner with us to make the old Phil’s grocery store lot an all-encompassing venue for small business growth,” said Brandon Kemp, one of Tin Ferl’s founders. “We have a core team of vendors who are working with us to help make that location what we aspire it to be, a pop-up park of top quality and welcoming to our visitors. Some of this team includes Jessie and Neka’s Kitchen, KKM Gyros, TT’s Tasty Touch, Coconuts Handcrafted Cocktails, Nad’s Lemon Bursts, J’s Smoking, and especially Island Pops and Chop’s Conchy Conch Fritters, who have been with us since the Nassau Night Market.” Tin Ferl (a play on the Bahamian pronunciation of ‘tin foil’) was founded in 2019. Beyond being a food stand, Brandon describes the business as a “small business incubator with the goal to improve the ease of doing business for pop-up vendors, primarily in food and beverage.” He said they’ve been happy to support other local vendors with marketing, business development, creating and sourcing pop-up opportunities, and advocating on behalf of the pop-up industry. Their first “pop-up park” was the Nassau Night Market, which started in December 2018 next to the Straw Market. Due to the pandemic, they had to temporarily move to the grounds of the Dundas Performing Arts Centre, before now finding their new home on Gladstone Road. Brandon said it is important for pop-up vendors to support one another, because then everyone benefits. “Vendors with Tin Ferl continue to blow patrons away with their delicious flavours. A visitor to the Junkanoo Fest in Marina Village, a location where Tin Ferl pops up at every week, brought her entire family back to The New Duff’s cart to try what she described as ‘the best thing I’ve had in a long time.’ It is extremely important for the development of our country’s economy to have Bahamian-owned businesses spearheading the way,” he said. “Unfortunately, the Bahamas ranks very low in the ease of doing business and many fail in the initial stages of their entrepreneurial journey.
Platforms like ours are designed to help overcome the hurdles that many small businesses face, and provide the support needed for us rise together and see Bahamian products at the forefront.” At the new headquarters of the Small Business Development Centre, Brandon said they hope to host up to 40 businesses weekly. “By popular demand, we anticipate our return to the east with a secret location that will soon be announced…Also, with the end of curfew hopefully approaching, the Nassau Night Market will return,” he said.
