Help us to upgrade our kitchen extraction system

Cooking has always been my passion, the pandemic was the spark that led me to starting this business. I studied engineering in school, but somehow I knew that the food business was the thing for me. Learning how to cook from my mother, and how to run a restaurant from my father, I guess you can say Jerk Bay was always meant to be.

My name is Damion Rosegreen I have been living in the Netherlands for the past 6 years.

I would like to tell you a bit about my story. I live in Amsterdam with my wife and kids. We moved to the Netherlands from Jamaica in 2017. We were living in England but due to some immigration challenges, I was sent back to Jamaica, after living in the UK for more than 15 years.

I was separated from my wife and kids, and I didn't want to be away from my family, I could not stand the idea of seeing my children grow without being present.

After being in Jamaica for a few months, my wife and I decided to move to the Netherlands, but it was quite difficult in the beginning, especially with the housing situation, we had to stay in hotels for the first year. Finally, we got a place to rent, and I got a job as a chef in a hotel, things were finally looking good but then, in 2020 Covid happened and with the lockdown, unfortunately, I lost my job.

With bills to pay and a family to support, I decided that I had to step up my game, in January 2021 Jerk Bay was born, and after just 2 years, I am proud to say that Jerk Bay authentic Jamaican jerk chicken, is ready for its next step!

What makes us different?

Our technique, of using a Jamaican style jerk drum with charcoal, this gives our jerk chicken that authentic taste from back home. Combined with our homemade sauce and Jamaican spices this is jerk like no other.

What are the funds for

We are currently operating in a temporary location at Kitchen Republic in which we are producing our meals. It’s a shared kitchen space on the outskirts of Amsterdam, which has helped us a lot, but it presents a challenge for quick delivery to most neighbourhoods. We’ve encountered delivery distance limitations due to 3.5 km radius restriction, given to us by the various platforms. Unfortunately this has created a limitation with who we can serve you! As every customer is valuable to us, I sometimes find myself having to do deliveries as well which has caused a increase in delivery time.

With your support, we would love to open our own restaurant, making it possible for more efficient delivery and for you to have the option of dine in. It is our vision to give a unique Jamaican experience, offering more authentic dishes and a wonderful atmosphere that at this moment we unable provide.

There is an unique opportunity to take over an existing business, this requires work, mainly investment. Luckily this option is cheaper than starting from scratch as we can adapt easily to the existing facilities.

Given our unique cooking technique, a strong extraction system will be required to manage our BBQ. We’ll also build our own custom made jerk drum to be able to serve more people at the same time and bigger groups. The cost to install this and other equipment necessary to maintain the quality of our food, will be the focus on how we'll use your donation.