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KINGSTON’S 11 SERVING UP FINE JAMAICAN AND CALIFORNIA CUISINE

Kingston 11 has become both an electric and eclectic venue, using local and organic ingredients in its environmentally-friendly, and community-oriented restaurant. Its delicacies, as well as other dishes Nigel call ‘street foods,’ come from different cultures.

Published

5 years ago

July 2, 2021

Christy Price

Jerk Chicken/Bethanie Hines

Taste Jamaica! That’s the theme chef and owner Nigel Jones, who along with business partner Adrian Henderson, used when they opened their Kingston 11 Jamaican restaurant on 2270 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, in 2013 after working as a pop-up diner spot at other cafes and community-kitchens throughout the East Bay.

A native of Jamaica, Nigel was born in Kingston 11, next to Bob Marley’s neighboring district of Kingston 12. His mother gave birth to him at age 15; although he was raised by his grandparents after his mother moved to the U.S., and his father went to England where many Jamaicans migrated at the time.

“I migrated to the U.S. in 1973 to be with my mother for the first time,” said Nigel. “When I came to California in 1989, I worked for Levi Strauss in San Francisco where I was Director of Operations for the Docker’s brand. I came to realize that San Francisco was labeled as one of the highest-rated cities per capita for restaurants in the U.S. However there were very few Jamaican restaurants in the City.”

“Although I was making good money at Strauss, I yearned to do something that would reflect my own community back to me. That’s when I decided to open a Jamaican restaurant.”

“With my Jamaican background, as it relates to food, and from what I learned from my grandmother who was a strong influence on me, it was time to gather my recipes, marry them together with French-cooking technical skills. That was the basic foundation of me becoming a self-taught chef. So I went to cooking camps to get some technical background in terms of culinary arts,” added Nigel.

“During my tenure at Strauss, it was fruitful and lucrative, but it really wasn’t my passion, and because of that, I needed to do something different. When you have passion, you have an opportunity to succeed no matter what you do in life. It’s hard to succeed if you don’t have passion which will help you to get through tough times and bumps in the road.”

The restaurant’s signature dishes include its infamous jerk chicken and oxtails. The oxtails are served with Jasmine brown rice, coconut milk and red beans, resulting in a very healthy dish. Nigel takes a healthy approach in preparing meals, while taking into consideration the health issues of people of color who have compromised health conditions.

Throughout the pandemic, Kingston continued to operate, along with other food establishments to help feed people of color in the community. When schools closed down, Kingston teamed up with other restaurants to feed those kids who normally relied on school lunch programs.

“We have partnered with Ayesha and Steph Curry with their Eat, Learn and Play Foundation,” said Nigel. “Their foundation helps to ensure that kids and families are provided balance nutritional foods, as well as a good learning and playful environment.”

“Our association with the foundation has resulted in us providing meals every week to low-income families, and here it is a year later, and we are still providing meals for them. Instead of focusing on ourselves to survive the pandemic, we’ve focused on our community to help it survive.”

The Eat, Learn and Play Foundation produce 3,000 meals per week for children and low-income families. Kingston, along with other local restaurants, provides at least 1,000 of those meals.

“As we transition further in our reopening, we will continue to provide takeout service as well as dine-in,” said Nigel. “We have tables outside in front of the restaurant and a rear patio for dining as well. The middle section of the restaurant will remain closed until we are able to maintain control of the flow of people, while also keeping them safe.”

Kingston will continue to follow health and CDC guidelines as it begins to receive customers for indoor dining again. Staff is required to wear masks but patrons have the option to wear a mask or not based on their comfort level.

“Kingston offers opportunities for people of color, as well as white folks, to use our facilities for gathering such as graduations, private parties and special events so they can have access to Uptown Oakland, which sometimes can be very expensive.”

“Kingston reverberates with gaiety and laughter,” said Nigel. “It’s a major contribution to Oakland’s huge entertainment community and for us. We have space available for the artist community to share their arts and creativity.”

“On Thursday nights, we pay local bands come in and perform, but we don’t charge our customers to enjoy the music. We are creating a network for local artists to be in front of the community so they can showcase their talents and afford them the opportunity to help get bookings at other locations.”

Kingston II is “One Love,” as noted on its south interior wall. It’s a prominent community-oriented restaurant that serves people of all nationalities and cultures. For more information on Kingston 11, visit www.kingston11eats.com and Taste Jamaica!

Christy Price

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#NNPA BlackPress

Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

4 days ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

5 days ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

7 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke