Within the coronary heart of Queens, a narrative of loss, resilience, and unwavering love unfolds inside Caribbean Cabana—a beloved restaurant, bar, and lounge that has stood agency for 17 years thanks to 2 extraordinary sisters.
Pamela Ramsewack and Angela Singh, co-owners of the institution, by no means deliberate to be restaurateurs. However life, in its unpredictable manner, led them right here.
It started with a imaginative and prescient: Angela’s husband and three brothers began the restaurant, a gathering spot for meals, household, and laughter. At some point, her husband got here house and posed a query that modified all the things: “Would your sister wish to be the proprietor of a restaurant?” Angela mentioned sure with out hesitation. The sisters stepped in, unknowingly getting ready for a journey that might check their energy like by no means earlier than.
Only a yr later, tragedy struck.
Singh remembers that fateful day with piercing readability. She and her husband have been getting ready for a household trip to Mexico. “He left the restaurant that evening and instructed Pamela, ‘Ensure you deal with this place…I assumed he was simply speaking about whereas we have been gone,” she recalled.
However whereas on trip, her husband suffered a coronary heart assault and handed away. Grief gripped the household, and the burden of working a restaurant felt unimaginable. Her husband, Ramesh Singh, was the spine of their household, so that they thought it unthinkable to put on the various hats for his or her household.
“I utterly shut down,” Singh admits. Her sister Pamela, in the meantime, stayed on the helm of the restaurant with the assistance of household and constant workers. “Then one morning, I bought up and mentioned, I’ve to do that. The youngsters have been little. The restaurant gave us goal. It made us survive,” Singh shared.
The sisters leaned on one another, sharing duties and conserving the doorways open by way of sheer grit. Ramsewack took cost of the kitchen, Singh oversaw operations, and their brothers lent serving to fingers. Their bond, strengthened by adversity, grew to become the inspiration on which Caribbean Cabana thrives at this time.
What makes Caribbean Cabana endure is greater than its meals — it’s the sensation of house. From day one, their dynamic sister duo prioritized relationships with their clients, a lot of whom have change into like household.
“Customer support and being family-oriented — that’s what retains us going,” Ramsewack shares. “We stroll the ground, verify on everybody, even decide up plates if wanted. It’s about connection.”
Their workers displays the identical values. A number of staff have been with the restaurant for greater than 15 years, a uncommon testomony to loyalty and belief.
Caribbean Cabana stays a beacon in the neighborhood by way of the highs and lows. From bustling breakfast crowds to evenings stuffed with laughter, it has offered greater than meals—it has given consolation, pleasure, and a reminder of what can occur when love meets resilience.
“When my husband mentioned, ‘Deal with this place,’ we had no concept what that actually meant,” Singh displays. “However this restaurant made us who we’re at this time. It saved us.”
