Liner notes
From Kingston to a standing ovation at the Opera House. Every quote is sourced, and every source is linked.
Concept imageryTrack 01 - Origin
Born in Kingston, Jamaica. In Canada as a young teenager - Brampton first, then a small town in the Headwaters hills where very little tasted like home.
That gap is the whole story. Everything after it is one man closing it.
“When I moved to Orangeville as a high school student some 20 years ago, there was nowhere to go to get Caribbean food locally.”
Concept imageryTrack 02 - The turn
Toronto Caribbean News tells it straight: "His principal sent him to work in the cafeteria to teach him a lesson." It did the opposite, "becoming a blessing in disguise." A teacher saw what he had and urged him toward a culinary career.
Read that, and "Educator" on the business card makes sense. He was once the kid who needed someone to say it.
“There's this idea that young people need to go somewhere to find themselves. No. It's here and now. You have to discover the gift that's already within you.”
Concept imageryTrack 03 - The craft
Two years in the kitchen at Hockley Valley Resort, just outside town. Then the culinary arts program at Humber College.
Then he pointed all of it home. The result has a name - Carib-fusion - and In The Hills described it as the work of "a man who has embraced the traditions of his birthplace and used them to enrich his adopted home."
“I take traditional island flavours and ingredients and give them a contemporary presentation”
Concept imageryTrack 04 - The restaurant
Four years of catering first. Then, in 2009, Soulyve Caribbean Kitchen opened on Mill Street and grew from 30 seats to over 100 - a destination restaurant in a town where, by his own account, there had been nowhere to get Caribbean food.
In 2012, for the third anniversary, he got Mill Street closed for a party. In The Hills later called him "a driving force behind Mill Street's transformation into a happening downtown hub."
“It was the third anniversary of the restaurant, and we wanted to have a street party”
Concept imageryTrack 05 - National television
March 22, 2013. Season two, episode twelve. Host John Catucci comes to Orangeville, and the episode guide records what happened next: "the kitchen truly heats up when John tries the enormous jerk chicken Reggae Wrap."
One sandwich, invented on Mill Street, on national television.
“The reason we only had reggae wraps was because they are specific to Soulyve.”
Concept imageryTrack 06 - The festival
CaribFest was inspired by two men from town, Phil and Donald Hochoy, who wanted to bring the Caribbean to the main street. Held alongside Founder's Day, In The Hills reported it "attracted an estimated 14,000 people."
Add Taste of Orangeville, and later In Good Spirits. The pattern is always the same: he feeds people until a street becomes a place.
“It's our duty to do it as people who want to see successful events happen”
Concept imageryTrack 07 - Tourism Champion of the Year
Headwaters Tourism Awards, 2018. In The Hills: "The theatre full of local entrepreneurs in the Town Hall Opera House rises to its feet, cheering Phil DeWar of Soulyve in Orangeville."
"The 2018 Headwaters Tourism Champion of the Year is a man of few words," the magazine wrote. He used eleven of them.
“I really love this community. This will always be my home.”
Concept imageryTrack 08 - The second act
Then he closed the restaurant, on purpose. "I'd spent so much time on the other side, doing the cooking and not enjoying my time with the guests." When a one-day pop-up planned 100 Reggae Wraps the following summer, it sold well over 300.
Now it is private dinners, catering, LyvePatty at the kitchen door, and a chef who is finally at the table with the people he cooks for.
“I wanted to create. I wanted to be a culinary artist”
Credits
The published pieces this story is drawn from.
The desk
Tell the desk the date, the guests and the town.