{"id":212629,"date":"2026-04-28T14:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/212629\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T14:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:13:09","slug":"tnt-pineapple-brings-experimental-jerk-style-dishes-in-hollowed-out-fruit-to-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/212629\/","title":{"rendered":"TNT Pineapple brings experimental jerk-style dishes in hollowed-out fruit to NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a moment at a New York City street fair when the air shifts\u2013 smoke curls upward, music cuts through the crowd, and suddenly, everyone is looking for the same thing. Not just food, but a feeling. For TNT Pineapple, that feeling comes served in a hollowed-out pineapple, overflowing with jerk-spiced flavor, color, and a kind of energy that feels unmistakably New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do pineapple jerk-inspired dishes at street fairs and festivals,\u201d said founder Chef Tonay. \u201cAnd I just opened up a grand location at 100 Pearl Street.\u201d<\/p>\n

What started as a pivot \u2013 born out of necessity, experimentation, and a surplus of fruit \u2013 has become one of the city\u2019s most visually striking and culturally resonant street food concepts. But TNT Pineapple isn\u2019t just about presentation. It\u2019s about solving a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love jerk chicken so much,\u201d Chef Tonay said. \u201cAnd lately, it\u2019s been dry. They know everybody\u2019s coming to get it, so they\u2019re just cooking and leaving it on the smoke until it\u2019s bone dry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of accepting that standard, he reimagined it. The result\u2013 juicy, flavorful jerk meats paired with rice, grilled pineapple, and bold Caribbean seasoning, served inside the fruit itself. A dish that doesn\u2019t just taste good, but feels intentional.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to create something different that still has that jerk chicken taste, but a new, inspired way to eat it,\u201d he said.
\n\"Chef<\/a>Chef Tonay.\n<\/p>\n

The concept wasn\u2019t originally the plan. Chef Tonay\u2019s first venture, TNT Waffle Shacks, focused on chicken and waffles. But when a liquor sponsor pushed for a separation between food and drinks, and a series of events left him with \u201clike 70 cases of pineapples\u201d, everything changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like the pineapples chose me,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

That accidental abundance turned into a signature. Today, the pineapple bowl is more than a dish, it\u2019s a statement. Bright, overflowing, and unmistakable in a crowd, it pulls people in before they even know what they\u2019re ordering.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s everything,\u201d Chef Tonay said of the presentation. \u201cWith the sauce, the drizzle, people in line watching, and someone next to you eating out of a pineapple, it makes you think, \u2018I want that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

And once they get it, they stay.\n<\/p>\n

Some come for the jerk chicken, others for the steak, Chef Tonay\u2019s personal favorite, but many end up surprised by what they didn\u2019t expect. \u201cPeople sleep on the stuffed salmon,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s unlike any other salmon. It\u2019s plump, juicy, and flavorful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, at its core, TNT Pineapple is about more than individual menu items. It\u2019s about recreating a full sensory experience, something rooted in Caribbean culture but shaped by New York\u2019s pace and personality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say it\u2019s Jamaican-style cuisine with an island twist,\u201d Chef Tonay said. \u201cThe pineapple helps to take you to a place where you want to be. Everybody wants to do something with a pineapple and be on the beach. That\u2019s living life.\u201d<\/p>\n

That vision is deeply tied to the environments that inspired him growing up, especially the kind of large-scale, high-energy gatherings that define summer in the city.<\/p>\n

\"Chef<\/a>Chef Tonay cooking on the grill.Photo courtesy of Chef Tonay<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had to say, it would be the Labor Day Parade,\u201d he said. \u201cYou could see, I believe, 70 to 80 vendors are selling jerk chicken. Everyone just loves jerk chicken.\u201d<\/p>\n

But where others replicate, Chef Tonay innovates. He sees food not just as tradition, but as an opportunity.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw it more as a problem that I was solving rather than something I wanted to do,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

That mindset, equal parts creative and entrepreneurial, has shaped every part of the brand, from the menu to the business model. Building in New York hasn\u2019t been easy. Between permits, staffing challenges, and the sheer speed of the city, the stakes are high.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think New York City may be the hardest place to build a brand,\u201d Chef Tonay said. \u201cTomorrow you could be up, the next day you could be down.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also what makes success here meaningful.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cA real New Yorker doesn\u2019t try to fit in,\u201d he added. \u201cWe do what we do, and we stand out.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

That philosophy is embedded in TNT Pineapple\u2019s DNA. Whether it\u2019s a weekday setup downtown, a late-night food truck in Harlem, or a packed festival crowd, the goal remains the same\u2013 consistency, quality, and connection.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want their hunger to be satisfied,\u201d Chef Tonay said. \u201cAnd I want their pockets still to be fat.\u201d
\n\"A<\/a>A dish from TNT Pineapple.Photo courtesy of Chef Tonay\n<\/p>\n

Affordability, for him, isn\u2019t an afterthought, it\u2019s part of the mission. It\u2019s why he dreams of scaling production, owning ingredients, and eventually bringing prices down even further.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is to have happy hour every day,\u201d he said. \u201cLike $5 pineapple bowls.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an ambitious vision, but one grounded in lived experience. From waking up before sunrise to source ingredients, to running multiple locations, to closing out late-night shifts, Chef Tonay\u2019s days are relentless.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing this for too long to give up,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

That persistence is already pushing TNT Pineapple into its next phase. Plans are in motion for expansion beyond New York, including a Texas-based smokehouse concept and a Caribbean-inspired burger spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cTNT is just the most explosive thing known to man,\u201d Chef Tonay said. \u201cAnything you come to me for is gonna be the bomb.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

But even as the brand grows, the core remains the same\u2013 a one-of-a-kind experience rooted in flavor, culture, and the unmistakable rhythm of the city, where it\u2019s never just about what\u2019s in the bowl, but what it represents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a moment at a New York City street fair when the air shifts\u2013 smoke curls upward, music…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,83960,9868,1070,83961,9,24,63,83962,83963],"class_list":{"0":"post-212629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-chef-tonay","12":"tag-cooking","13":"tag-food","14":"tag-jerk-style-cooking","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-pineapple","19":"tag-tnt-pineapple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}