Tucked away in the Fulton Faire shopping center in Arden, you’ll find a small piece of The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in a restaurant called The Trini Table. The restaurant serves authentic Caribbean flavors from the Twin islands, the story of culture and community in a shared space featuring an Ethiopian and Jamaican business anda baker who specializes in baking muffins.
White and red checkered tables run down the center of the restaurant, and the air is filled with the aromatics of Caribbean, African and Indian spices. The atmosphere inside provides a sense of comfort, making it feel more like walking into a home than a restaurant. Eda Kendall and Tammi Ifill are co-owners of The Trini Table, which has called Sacramento home since last July.
“When we opened, people were so excited,” Ifill said. “Trinidad is known for bringing cultures together, and food is one of the ways we do that.”
Their recipes have roots in African and Indian flavors that originate from the island’s history of slavery and colonization. Saturday mornings here are known as Doubles Saturdays. Doubles, a popular Trinidad and Tobago street food, consist of seasoned chickpeas sandwiched between two pieces of fried dough known as bara. Individuals can customize the flavor of their double with a sauce of their choice, such as cucumber chutney, tamarind sauce, culantro sauce and pepper sauce.
The recipes behind the cuisine are influenced by Kendall and Ifill’s upbringing, with many of their dishes carried generationally through their families. Kendall says that they intentionally do things as they would at home for their customers to keep their food authentic.
“There are some customers who come and eat, and they actually say it reminds them of their parents’ cooking or grandparents’ cooking,” Kendall said.
Some of Trini Table’s customers have Trinidadian and Tobagonian heritage, but many people of different backgrounds enjoy their food. Ifill explains that their dishes share similarities to other foods outside of Trini culture, but small differences in the recipes provide tasty new flavors for customers while resembling a sense of familiarity.
Sorrel, a Caribbean beverage, is made by boiling dried hibiscus flowers and being left to steep. Cloves, cinnamon and ginger are added and finally topped off with sugar, creating a fusion of sweet, tangy and earthy flavors.
“I think ingrained in each of us is our cultural background, and we use that to enhance our dishes and our food. Even though you’re using more or less one or two same ingredients, you still want that difference,” Ifill said. “When people come, it must be something that they wouldn’t taste somewhere else.”
The couple said that even though they started out small in their first year of business, they hope to one day have their own restaurant space.
“I used to sell all my cakes back on the island, and I did that for five years. But it wasn’t thriving as I wanted to,” Kendall said. “So in my mind, I was like, I’m never going to open my own business again. But as old people say, never say never.”
Kendall said that their restaurant has already gone beyond just the food by building a community united by Caribbean culture.
“Before we started this business, we literally did not know any other Caribbean folks. So I really like to nurture that and develop it with them,” Kendall said.
Ifill said that they have already begun to build a stronger Sacramento Caribbean community and that they hope to keep expanding.
“The ones in Trinidad love to talk and gossip. So they spread the word to everybody, and from that kind of cultural background,” Ifill said. “The reality of that is, it’s easier said than done, you know? And this is a good start.”