Ninth Square Caribbean Keeps Takeout Coming

A global pandemic changed the way Ninth Square Caribbean does business. Now, owners Elisha Hazel and Qulen Wright are looking at how to keep it safe for customers as the world partially reopens—but their physical doors do not.

Ninth Square Caribbean is an all-vegan restaurant nestled on George Street, where Hazel and Wright have been serving up rice and peas, curried vegetables, jerk tofu and vegan mac and cheese since early 2017. Three years after the restaurant originally opened, the two are working to keep the space financially afloat while also keeping their customers safe from COVID-19.

That work comes as the state moves further into the second phase of its reopening, during which restaurants are allowed but not required to invite customers back inside at half capacity. Gov. Ned Lamont has recently put the brakes on allowing bars to reopen this month, as COVID-19 cases explode across the country. 

“We sanitize, triple- sanitize,” Hazel said in a recent interview. But “our restaurant is small, the space for social distancing is… not that great.”

For Hazel, it’s the latest way the restaurant has been pushed to adapt. When Ninth Square Caribbean opened in 2017, Wright’s brother Mark Sinclair was responsible for cooking meat, which was served alongside vegetarian and vegan options. The restaurant also did business through catering, including for local designer Neville Wisdom, the vegan food festival Compassionfest, and New Haven’s LEAP for Kids program.

At some point, meat left the menu. No one seemed to care. Wisdom, who grew up in Jamaica and met the couple when his shop was still in the Ninth Square, praised the restaurant for its diversity of flavors and menu items. When he saw that he could order peanut soup, ackee and fish-less salt fish, and soursop tea, he thought of home. He recalled asking Hazel and Wright if they wanted to have a booth at one of his fashion shows in 2017. He’s been a Ninth Square evangelist ever since.

“The first time I found out there were other Jamaicans in the neighborhood, I was so excited,” he recalled in a phone call Tuesday. “And then I tasted the food. Everything about them is great. The food is great, but they are also some of the sweetest people I’ve met in New Haven.”

For three years, business was steady. Then COVID-19 hit. Even before Lamont officially ordered bars, gyms, and restaurants closed, Hazel and Wright closed the restaurant’s doors, sanitized the space and turned entirely to curbside pickup. It wasn’t a full pivot: Ninth Square has always relied heavily on takeout. Hazel suggested adding new, immune-boosting teas to the menu in March, including more of the soursop that customers like Wisdom have come to love.

But it wasn’t the same, the two discovered quickly. Person-to-person interaction felt different through multiple layers of glass. Business plummeted. Customers could no longer walk in, eat and chat in a small seating area, or look over daily options in a fragrant hot bar filled with bright, spiced vegetables, non-meat proteins in curries and brown sauces, and beans at least three different ways.

Four months after that initial change, customers still aren’t allowed in the restaurant. Instead, Hazel puts a steel cart in a small foyer between the front door and a second inner door, creating a clean chamber where bags of food wait for pickup. A bottle of hand sanitizer sits on the cart for anyone who wants a squirt. When she sees a customer pick up their food, she still waves and smiles from inside.

Hazel said she and Wright continually clean the space, wiping things down after every customer picks up their food. The two ask that customers wear masks if they so much as open the front door, a request that is supported by a municipal order from Mayor Justin Elicker. They use masks and gloves inside the restaurant as well.

Hazel said the restaurant has been lucky to keep going, but has suffered financially. Since March, Ninth Square Caribbean has cut one staff member, and lost 70 to 80 percent of its business. She and Wright have been working while also navigating distance learning for their daughter Marlee, a student at Amistad Academy.

“Faithful customers and new customers have been coming back during the pandemic, which is good because it shows people are willing to support small businesses,” she said.

And yet, Hazel is hopeful, she added. In the long term, she and Wright would like to have a larger space, expand their menu, and teach more New Haveners about the health benefits of veganism. They’ve talked about selling prepared, multi-person meals for regulars on the go, who “might enjoy taking food home, to warm up and eat with their family.” She suggested it is a form of building community through business.

Ninth Square Caribbean is open Wednesday through Saturday from 12 - 6 p.m. They take orders at (203) 787-9703. This piece comes to the Arts Paper through the third annual Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI), a program of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. This year, YAJI has gone virtual. Read more about the program here or by checking out the"YAJI" tag.