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WILKES-BARRE — Hartman Jerk Center is about more than just food; it’s about culture. At least that’s what one of the owners, Carleen Hartman, said.
Carleen, 44, of Wilkes-Barre, celebrated the grand opening of the restaurant on Saturday with her husband, Garfield, 52.
The couple both hale from Caribbean nations, with Carleen originally coming from Jamaica and Garfield from Guyana, and the restaurant serves, as Carleen says, “anything Caribbean,” ranging from things like curry goat, oxtail and, of course, jerk chicken.
“We didn’t have an authentic Caribbean place,” Carleen said, explaining why they wanted to open the restaurant. “We just wanted a place where we could meet and greet and talk with other people in the community.”
The Hartmans say that the restaurant was busy in its first few hours of business. The Jerk Center, set up in a similar manner to other quick-service restaurants, where workers prepare your meal in front of you, had over 50 patrons in its first three hours. This rush caused the cooks to do two complete cookings of all food.
But, Carleen said, the amount of people caused a real sense of community to develop.
“You get to meet so many people from your own country here, and some you didn’t even know were from there,” Carleen said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, you’re Jamaican too?’”
The Hartmans said that opening the restaurant had been a dream of theirs for a long time, with Garfield, the restaurant’s chef, especially looking forward to it. They previously sold their jerk chicken on Main Street, but they didn’t have an established place for seating.
Now that they have that space, they are very glad to be in the community.
“We are very, very happy to be in downtown Wilkes-Barre,” Carleen said.
Members of the couple’s family came out in support, including Carleen’s brother, Ian Gayle, 44, of New York City.
“We came here in support,” Gayle said. “The food was great, and now we’re just hanging out, enjoying Wilkes-Barre.”
One patron, Supreme Bey, 42, of Scranton, had just finished a dinner of curry goat, saying that the food was delicious.
“I had to come to support the community,” Bey said.