Clouds of pepper-filled smoke entice residents to stop by Irie Jerk seven days a week in Brooklyn, New York. On Nostrand Avenue, the small Jamaican restaurant perfectly fits the no-frills “hole in the wall” aesthetic that locals flock to. Owner and head chef Niki Gordon oversees two sizzling grills all day.
She said her small business is doing so well that she sells an average of about 400 pounds of jerk chicken a day, compared to just a few dozen pounds per day last year. “I have customers from Singapore, California, London,” Gordon said. “I mean, these people flew here just to get my chicken.
” Gordon is just the latest business owner in New York City to become a viral success thanks to content creator Nicolas Nuvan. Nuvan, 29, has built a following of over 2.3 million people on TikTok .
Nuvan posts his travels around New York City’s boroughs and profiles anyone willing to talk to him, with interviewees ranging from small-business owners to street vendors and even just regular pedestrians. “It’s just me and my filmer Jaime, and we almost never have a plan,” Nuvan said. “Sometimes we’ll walk like 30 blocks and nothing will happen.
And sometimes we’ll go out and we’ll walk around and something will happen.” His videos primarily focus on Caribbean communities, mostly in Brooklyn and Queens. “I’m just somebody that’s interested in cultures and communities and sharing with people,” Nuvan said.
That taste for curiosity has even taken Nuvan outside of the country, as he traveled to Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada to expand his interview series. After a short career working in human resources, Nuvan turned to making videos, something he once just considered a hobby. “I’ve been making videos since I was a kid for the last 10 years,” Nuvan said.
His spontaneous street interviews are inspired by his childhood in both New Jersey and New York. “I’m really just trying to re-create what I experienced as a kid,” said Nuvan, who was born in Colombia. “I remember growing up and everybody would just go outside, and whoever was outside that’s who you hang out with.
And I think what was beautiful about that is there’s a spontaneity behind that.” The videos are part of the latest evolution in “FoodTok” trends, following the South Korean mukbang craze and the “Keith Lee-effect ” that went viral in 2022. On TikTok, creators like Lee and now Nuvan have used their clout to highlight mom-and-pop restaurants, holes in the wall and undiscovered gems.
“Growing up, we idolize famous people,” Nuvan said. But it’s Gordon and other everyday people who do extraordinary things, he added, who “are the people that we should be learning from.” Gordon’s spot, Irie Jerk, is in the center of a bustling neighborhood with people from all across the Caribbean diaspora.
“We have every nation you can think of — everyone,” Gordon said. “And the good thing is we all come together. One thing affects the Jamaican, it affects a Guyanese, it affects a Bajan, it affects a Trini.
We just all come together, you know what I mean? Because it’s one Caribbean and that’s what we have here in Brooklyn.” Born in Spanish Town, Jamaica, Gordon said she owes everything to her family and the sacrifices the women in her life made for her. “I think about my grandmother, born 1915,” Gordon said.
“I have two nieces that graduated Howard University. The younger one is summa cum laude, just got her nanotechnology degree from Johns Hopkins. They are descendants of a lady that used to sign her name with the red X because she couldn’t read.
” “Giving up is not an option,” Gordon added. “Had she given up, I wouldn’t be here to tell you her story of how much sugarcane she used to chop. So they have to persevere.
She chopped sugarcane so I wouldn’t.” Once her family immigrated to the U.S.
, Gordon said, her mother saved up enough money to buy all seven of her children’s buildings around the city so they could start their own businesses. Opportunity and entrepreneurship are two of the main ingredients that make up the so-called American dream, but there are critical barriers to entry and challenges for many Black and brown business owners. Immigrant-owned small businesses comprise nearly half of New York City’s roughly 220,000 small businesses, according to the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development in New York City.
And while they contribute almost $200 billion to the city’s gross domestic product annually, an ANHD survey said challenges such as high rents, barriers to loans, and harassment tend to threaten their survival. While owning and running a small business has its ups and downs, Gordon said Nuvan’s viral video made a huge difference in the profitability of her restaurant as it continues to fight against New York’s growing waves of gentrification. “Miracles happen every day.
And they do exist,” Gordon said. For more from NBC BLK, sign up for our weekly newsletter ..
