The commentator may not be American born, but the topic is relevant — especially to kitchens and other food vendors who put so much of themselves into the culinary creations they build their businesses on. When your kitchen doesn’t have a lot of store front traffic to put additional eyes on your restaurant, business owners are faced with choices that come down to the devil you know versus the devil you don’t. This winter season, we chose to remain in Baltimore rather than travel south to attend culinary events and serve our brand of cuisine. When we decided to partner with delivery apps, we were surprised — no shocked — to find how much of our sales were being used to support the delivery app. Almost to the point where regret set in. We try to live our lives as mindfully and spiritually as we can. But faced with these dilemmas, we regret certain collaborations we’ve entered into. We are well aware that our clientele come from a wide variety of backgrounds and socioeconomic means. We feel that our pricing is empathetic to the majority of the patrons who buy from us. So it is a shock to us when customers complain that their meal is overpriced. Good tasting, but overpriced. That judgement may be fine for some, but not at all to us. We break our backs to make our cuisine accessible to our community. When a delivery app doubles or triples our pricing, we feel that our God given gifts are being wasted. And we, at Paradise Island, hate waste. Wasted potential. Wasted food. Wasted opportunity. Being in bed with this devil is the embodiment of all three kinds of waste. We hate this situation, but we don’t dwell on it because we are people of faith and faith without works is dead. And we are not dying today or tomorrow. We have faith in our cuisine and our brand. We also have faith in our community. One reason why this situation is such a shock to our system is because we normally cater food to large events where we see large numbers of people vibing to our food and to our hospitality. Complaints are seldom expressed in this environment. The feedback is positive and reaffirming and the love goes both ways.

Please know that we will do everything in our power to improve the restaurant experience for our patrons. If you are not comfortable ordering from our website, you are more than welcome to call the number on our contact page. Call us and experience the Paradise Island hospitality we have spent more than a decade growing and nurturing. Our commitment to our people remains as steadfast as ever. Our faith and our works are here to be tested and to be refined through whatever the haters will say or do. Also, we are ever vigilant of any quality people that may join our team. If you or anyone you know needs a work environment that brings out the positive side of living and achievement, please do contact us and we will discuss our vision for this kitchen. It is more than a place of food and sustenance. It is a respite from the messaging that the devils spit at us. Let us continue this discussion. Peace and love.