Manhattan’s newest Haitian restaurant owner speaks on challenges opening during the pandemic
Originally written in February 2021 for Columbia Journalism School
On the corner of Clinton Street and Stanton Street in Lower East Side, the rhythmic pulse of Haitian kompa and more Caribbean music invites customers to explore Rebel Restaurant and Bar’s colorful interior.
It’s been one week since Rebel opened its doors to diners who were eager to get the full sit-down experience while enjoying the restaurant’s Haitian cuisine. Waiters balanced plates of black mushroom rice, fried plantains, chicken stewed in rich tomato gravy, and malanga fritters on their forearms as they hustled over to the tables to serve the steaming dishes.
Although the dinner rush began around 5pm, Fred Raphael finds himself scanning the restaurant to make sure everything is aligned with New York City’s latest pandemic regulations for eateries like his.
“Folks can’t sit at the bar. You have to have disclosures on the windows to remind people to wear masks, and the papers ready for people to sign in a put down their address,” said Raphael.
Raphael stays on high alert to make sure customers are following the rules because the last thing he wants is someone getting sick while eating at Rebel, and he never knows when the city auditor will pop in for their weekly visit.
“You have to stay very current with what’s happening. You don’t get a pass just because you didn’t get to read the paper or go online,” said Raphael.
Fred knew that opening a new restaurant months into the pandemic would come with challenges, but couldn’t resist once he found the perfect spot by chance. On a warm evening in August 2020, Fred was having dinner with a friend in the area when he noticed a ‘For Sale’ sign on the then-empty restaurant’s window, a common sight in the Lower East Side during a time when New York’s indoor dining ban left restaurants struggling to break even. Despite the risks, Raphael saw an opportunity.
“Most of the restaurants in that area where also closed, but that location just spoke to me. I saw it and said ‘This is exactly where I want to be,” he said.
Rebel is Raphael’s second restaurant. His first foray into the food industry was First Republic, an 8-year-old Haitian restaurant based in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he currently lives. This new location would allow him to introduce something new to Manhattan’s culinary scene, an upscale Haitian restaurant that serves traditional dishes with well-crafted plating and fully stocked bar of liquors. The majority of the 160,000 New York City’s Haitian residents live in Brooklyn and Queens, where such restaurants are more commonplace. Until Rebel’s creation, Le Soleil, a takeout spot located on the northern edge of Hell’s Kitchen, had been the only Haitian restaurant in the borough since 2013.
“I’ve always been told that we don’t have a place in Manhattan to take coworkers or friends to have dinner and experience our culture. Some people may never go to Haiti, so I want to bring it to them,” he said.
Raphael called the phone number listed on the sign, got in touch with the property’s owner, and negotiated a deal within two days of first seeing the vacant space. He was hoping to purchase the restaurant at a lower price than he paid, but he figured the return on his investment would be worth it long-term. He and his business partner rolled up their sleeves and started a rapid renovation project to get the restaurant up and running by the start of fall.
“From the day we got the place, we started cleaning and painting. It was just the two of us mopping, changing furniture, painting, scrubbing. It was two weeks of doing that every day,” he said.
Raphael relied on recommendations from friends to start building Rebel’s staff of servers and cooks. He started with takeout service and a modest outdoor dining setup with a goal to open indoors when the city would allow seating at 25 percent capacity after September 30.
He said, “I thought, if I could survive towards the end of the year by doing small things, I could keep the business alive.”
Rebel Restaurant and Bar hosted small groups of customers and started to generate buzz in the community, but Raphael believes its growth was stunted when a spike in coronavirus cases prompted city leaders to shut down indoor dining again in mid-December. Due to a decline in takeout orders and non-eligibility for a loan from the Paycheck Protection Program, he decided to close the restaurant for the next two months.
“We weren’t in business for long enough, so we didn’t qualify,” Raphael explained.
On February 12, New York City’s restaurants were permitted to resume indoor dining at 50 percent capacity. The restaurant hosted a series of Valentine’s Day-themed events and did promotion through local news programs to celebrate its reopening.
Despite an ever-changing list of rules to enforce, Raphael was excited to welcome more customers than he had been allowed to since he launched Rebel last August. Running the restaurant for however the pandemic lasts will be a delicate balance of giving diners an enjoyable experience while continuing to exercise caution.
“I think it’s upon us to still be very responsible because it’s not just about compliance with the rules, this is about making sure lives are being protected,” he said. “It’s been hard but I was driven more by knowing the value of the Haitian food the culture, and knowing that folks will rally behind us. So far, it’s taking the shape that we want it to.”