Business

Black Business Spotlight: Pimento Jamaican Kitchen

MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN-RECORDER — Over the past seven years, Pimento Jamaican Kitchen has become a Twin Cities fixture for Jamaican cuisine with locations on both sides of the river. This includes its flagship Minneapolis’ Eat Street location, as well as a new restaurant that just opened in St. Paul.

Published

7 years ago

May 23, 2019

Chris Juhn

By Chris Juhn

Over the past seven years, Pimento Jamaican Kitchen has become a Twin Cities fixture for Jamaican cuisine with locations on both sides of the river. This includes its flagship Minneapolis’ Eat Street location, as well as a new restaurant that just opened in St. Paul this past weekend.

Armed with a $100 tent, his grandmother’s recipes, and a grill from his backyard, Tomme Beevas got his start in 2012. “We brought [the grill] to the Bryn Mawr garage sale without a clue as to what would happen.”

He served food for free in exchange for customer feedback and social media sign-ups. “From there, we tweaked the menu and built a grassroots network.”

The next year, Beevas won a Food Network reality show that included free restaurant operations for a year at the Burnsville Center. “That’s how we ended up getting our own restaurant,” he said. “Eventually, we were able to open up our Eat Street location and at the TCF Bank Stadium, have our food truck, our rum bar, and our backyard bar. Now we’re pleased to be on the other side of the river in Saint Paul at the Keg and Case Market.”

The MSR sat down with Beevas to learn more about his journey from backyard griller to restaurant boss.

MSR: What inspired you to get into the food business?

Tomme Beevas: The inspiration comes from me being able to share my grandma Baby Lue’s recipes with my neighbors and newly adopted community in Minnesota. Every day, I’d come home from my corporate job tired, stressed out, and I’d fire up the grill to relax. The neighbors would be there every single day. Then one day we were, like, “Let’s test out this concept and see how it goes.”

MSR: What is your main product?

TB: Jerk chicken is our top seller.

MSR: How did you choose the new location in Saint Paul?

TB: Pimento strives to be the global premier provider of Jamaican food experiences. We knew that in order to do that we had to expand beyond Minneapolis. When Keg and Case Market approached us, it made perfect sense because it was an area that was already bringing together the community and other like-minded businesses.

MSR: What’s your vision and goal for where you want to take your business?

TB: After we figure out the Minneapolis and Saint Paul area, then we figure out how do we best take it nationally. Is it a franchise model? Is it owning all of them? Is it taking on other investors?

We do know that we have the opportunity and that we have investors from around the country and, in fact, around the world who have expressed interest. We want to be able to build it smart and grow wisely.

MSR: How does your business impact the community?

TB: Our business impacts the community first and foremost by providing authentic Jamaican culture to those who either don’t know or those who are avid fans. When they come here to Pimentos, they feel safe and know that it is a space that you can come to no matter who you are and follow our mantra: “Don’t worry, eat happy.”

We oﬀer a safe space for guests, we oﬀer healthy food that feeds their body, and we oﬀer a space that feeds their spirit with the Jamaican vibe.

MSR: Besides food, how else are you serving the community?

TB: One of the things that we want to make sure people are aware of this summer is a Jama Market. It’s a principle for collective economics. We’re providing a space in our backyard where small startups can come — like a farmer’s market — and promote their goods and services for free.

Our guests can come, learn about these businesses, and invest in them as well. Whether it’s you selling your perfumes or you selling your art, we want to make the space available for startup entrepreneurs to be able to use the safe space for Pimento to help start their businesses.

MSR: What’s your biggest challenge so far in owning a business?

TB: The biggest challenge so far, without a doubt, has to be access to capital. As a restaurant, let alone as a Black-owned restaurant, access to capital is very limited. Thankfully, we’ve been able to do it very slowly and intentionally. We’ve been able to grow using what little funds we could find. Thanks to groups like MCCD [Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers], MEDA [Metropolitan Economic Development Association], and Sunrise Bank, we’ve been able to get the seed funding to continue to grow.

MSR: Financing has been a major challenge for most of the Black businesses we’ve interviewed. Do you know any Black-owned businesses that have gotten a loan through a bank outside of MCCD, MEDA or Sunrise Bank?

TB: You can quote me: “silence.” I’m literally thinking, and I cannot think of one that has not used, for lack of a better term, “charity funding” through the nonprofit organizations. No, unfortunately, and I know many Black business owners.

MSR: What’s been the most rewarding part of owning a business for you?

TB: The most rewarding part is providing opportunities for those that normally wouldn’t have them. Not just job opportunities, but well-paid job opportunities and well-paid advancement opportunities. Our approach is about taking those [needing such opportunities] from our communities and having them be a part of the ground floor of a startup that is aiming to be global.

MSR: What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

TB: Take your time and do it small. That is not advice that I would have taken when I was starting, but I was forced to take it eventually. When they say, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” that is the truest advice in the entrepreneurial world.

At Pimento, we started oﬀ with a $100 tent and the grill from my backyard. We grew and invested $3,000 at the end of the summer into buying our first box truck to move our grill and tent around town. From that, we grew incrementally day after day after day.

The other piece of advice would be to start where you are right now and be gentle with yourself. Don’t take it personally when you’re given advice. You’ll get there one day at a time.

MSR: Is there a legacy you want to leave?

TB: I’m building from my grandmother Baby Lue’s legacy — she was a legend. She was able to become the first Black millionaire woman out of West Kingston, Jamaica. She was very community-minded, and she helped other businesses grow within that community.

I was able to watch her grow her empire. I was able to see that and use it as the inspiration to start to my own.

MSR: Are there any deals that readers can take advantage of?

TB: We have deals going on all the time. To find out about the deals, you can follow us on Facebook at Pimento Kitchen.

Pimento Jamaican Kitchen is located at 2524 Nicollet Ave. in Mpls. and at Keg and Case West 7th Market, located at 928 West Seventh Street in St. Paul.

This article originally appeared in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.

Chris Juhn

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Activism

At the event, 16 entities signed the EIP pledge, vowing to take steps to increase public contracting opportunities in their spheres for small and historically underutilized businesses. The pledge signees included Hub International, the Port of San Francisco, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, California High-Speed Rail Authority, the Port of Oakland, Robert Graham of Webcor Builders, Holder Construction, the Weitz Company, Sky Blue Builders, Hornblower, Swinerton, Luster National, Talson Solutions, Center for Community Wealth Building, and the Construction Contractors Alliance.

Published

1 week ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Toks Omishakin, secretary of the California State Transportation Agency, was one of the speakers at the event. Photo by Shellee Fisher Photography and Design.

By Calvin Naito, Special to The Post

On June 4, a national nonprofit named the Equity in Infrastructure Project (EIP) – which aims to increase public construction contracting opportunities for small and historically underutilized businesses – held a day-long event in downtown San Francisco to rally supporters and build momentum to its cause.

It was attended by more than 100 individuals from public agencies, private firms, and other organizations committed to increasing contracting opportunities with governmental agencies, thereby creating more competition and lowering public costs.

The EIP event was held the Hyatt Regency San Francisco in conjunction with BuildIT, which aims to increase contracting opportunities for LGBT-owned businesses.

At the event, 16 entities signed the EIP pledge, vowing to take steps to increase public contracting opportunities in their spheres for small and historically underutilized businesses.

The pledge signees included Hub International, the Port of San Francisco, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, California High-Speed Rail Authority, the Port of Oakland, Robert Graham of Webcor Builders, Holder Construction, the Weitz Company, Sky Blue Builders, Hornblower, Swinerton, Luster National, Talson Solutions, Center for Community Wealth Building, and the Construction Contractors Alliance.

Following the workshop, BuildIT hosted a VIP evening reception honoring EIP, whose principals – Phil Washington, John Procari, and Rick Jacobs – accepted the award.

The event also set in motion the coalition’s efforts to implement recommendations from EIP’s “Procurement for Prosperity: A Playbook.”

The Playbook is a practical guide for public agency leaders and procurement and contracting practitioners to grow the capacity of small and first-time contractors, strengthen competition, and deliver better value for taxpayers.

Toks Omishakin, Secretary of the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), a long-time EIP supporter, also told attendees, “This is about commitment. This has been a life’s work. This is a tailwind moment.”

The event’s presenting sponsor was Hub International, one of the largest insurance brokerages in the nation, which was joined by partners Travelers Insurance and the State Compensation Insurance Fund.

After the pledge-signing ceremony, attendees participated in a workshop in which they examined the policies, practices, and programs needed to meet EIP goals, learned from practitioners, and identified next steps toward utilizing the Playbook.

Ingrid Meriwether, formerly of Merriwether & Williams Insurance Services (MWIS) and current president of Hub International’s Aligned Risk Management, MWIS, described the hard-fought lessons she and her MWIS team have learned over the last three decades administering contractor development programs (CDPs) for the City and County of San Francisco, Alameda County, City of Los Angeles, LA Metro, and other municipalities.

The CDPs help small and local construction firms win public infrastructure contracts with these government agencies. The program provides bonding assistance, contract financing, technical support, training, and other services to underrepresented businesses funded by public agencies who seek greater contracting participation with these firms.

Merriwether said programs like these “break down systemic barriers, create greater fairness, and save taxpayers money by enabling more competition. The contractor development programs have, cumulatively, over two decades, helped contractors access over $1 billion in bonding, supporting over $380 million in awarded contracts, and maintaining a loss ratio 250 times lower than the industry average – while saving participating municipalities more than $27 million in contracting costs as a result of enabling more competition.”

Rick Jacobs, EIP co-founder and co-chair urged attendees make plans to meet again in the near future “to continue building on this work, share progress on organizational commitments, and discuss how we can collectively advance the goals of the EIP pledge.”

For more information on the EIP and to access a copy of the Playbook, go online to https://equityininfrastructure.org/

Calvin Naito is communications manager for Equity in Infrastructure Project.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland Museum Presents Landmark Retrospective Celebrating Beloved Bay Area Artist Mildred Howard

“Poetics of Memory” coincides with a year of major recognition for Howard. In 2026, she received the California Arts Council’s 50th Anniversary Award, honoring artists whose work has shaped California’s cultural and civic life, as well as the Museum of the African Diaspora’s Artist Impact Award. In 2025, she was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in recognition of her transformative contributions to American cultural life.

Published

1 week ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Mildred Howard. Photo by Christine Cueto for the Oakland Museum of California, 2025.

Special to The Post

The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) opened “Mildred Howard: Poetics of Memory,” the first major museum survey of Bay Area artist Mildred Howard, on June 12.

The exhibition spans five decades of Howard’s influential work, bringing together immersive installations, found-object sculptures, archival materials, and new commissions that explore memory, identity, and power in American life.

Howard was born in San Francisco in 1945 and raised in the East Bay, where she went on to study Afro-Haitian dance, make and sell clothing, and experiment with collage and sculpture.

Her multimedia art practice emerged from these experiences, later becoming associated with West Coast conceptual art, San Francisco funk, and a vibrant community of artists like Oliver Jackson, Betye Saar, and Raymond Saunders. Since the 1970s, she has used found materials and family stories to explore memory—both individual and collective.

At OMCA, visitors enter “Poetics of Memory” through a series of intimate galleries featuring Howard’s early mixed-media pieces and sculptures, along with a large video projection of a number of her public artworks.

Together, they emphasize Howard’s interest in everyday objects as powerful carriers of individual and shared stories. Highlights include collages that remix images of the artist herself; found-object sculptures like The History of the United States with a few Parts Missing (2007) that address omissions in dominant narratives; and public works like “Locks and Keys for Harry Bridges” (2001) that transform urban space into a meditation on access and labor.

This culminates in a richly detailed “studio” environment, where works in progress, archival exhibition flyers, historic photographs of Howard and her community, postcards from fellow artists, and other materials offer insight into her creative process and daily life.

The exhibition then opens into a high-ceilinged, dramatically lit space that brings together Howard’s signature immersive installations. On one end, “Crossings” (1997/2026) – a field of hundreds of ceramic eggs leading to an ornate mirror – suggests cycles of birth, motherhood, and transition, while drawing on the emotional echoes of the Middle Passage. On the other end, “Blackbird in a Red Sky” (a.k.a. “Fall of the Blood House”) (2002) – a red glass shack bordered by a pond – also uses reflection and transparency to draw viewers into the work and prompt consideration of themes of identity and home.

Howard’s newest video installation, “Moving Stills” (2026), repurposes never-before-seen family footage she took as a teenager on a train trip to the American South. Projected onto cascading layers of translucent fabric that stretch across an entire gallery wall, the piece immerses viewers in a layered meditation on memory, migration, and time.

The “Mildred Howard: Poetics of Memory” exhibit will be on display through Oct. 11 at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland, CA 94612. Museum hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended hours on Fridays to 9 p.m.

This story is sourced from the Oakland Museum of California press office.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Ferry Fares to Increase July 1 as Ridership Hits Record Highs

The Oakland and Alameda routes will increase from $4.90 to $5.10, the South San Francisco route will go up from $7.40 to $7.60, and the Vallejo route will increase from $9.90 to $10.

Published

1 week ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Courtesy photo.

By Mike Aldax, The Richmond Standard

Starting July 1, the standard adult fare for the San Francisco Bay Ferry route between Richmond and San Francisco will increase to $5.20, up from the current $4.90.

Discounted fares for eligible passengers, including youth, seniors, people with disabilities, and Clipper START users, will rise to $2.60 from the current $2.40. Children under 5 will continue to ride for free.

The Oakland and Alameda routes will increase from $4.90 to $5.10, the South San Francisco route will go up from $7.40 to $7.60, and the Vallejo route will increase from $9.90 to $10.

The adjustments are part of a systemwide fare update approved by the agency’s Board of Directors, which is moving away from a flat 3% annual increase to route-specific pricing for the 2027 and 2028 fiscal years.

This fare update arrives as San Francisco Bay Ferry celebrates a historic May, transporting 301,270 passengers. The record-breaking figure represents an 8% increase over May 2025 and marks the third consecutive month of record-setting ridership.

Furthermore, it is the sixth month in a row that passenger numbers have exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Weekend travel has been a primary driver of this growth, with average weekend ridership seeing a 56% increase compared to pre-pandemic trends.

The agency states that the fare adjustments are necessary to ensure the long-term fiscal sustainability of public ferry services. By shifting to route-specific adjustments, the agency aims to offset rising operating costs while maintaining the high levels of service frequency and reliability.