Douglas also owns two Jamaican restaurants, one on Washington Avenue in Albany, and the other in downtown Troy.
The new grocery store will carry Jamaican goods and products, including many of the ingredients Douglas uses in his own popular recipes.
For Douglas, who has made not just a living, but a life, on his cooking, a grocery seems like a natural next step. But Douglas admits that he wasn’t always willing to share the secrets of his success. He took a number of different positions when he first arrived in this country, including auto mechanic, truck driving, before his "sweet hands" finally got him a job cooking at Kenneth's Tastebud, a popular Jamaican restaurant on Henry Johnson Blvd. in Albany.
He worked for years in the kitchen there, honing his craft, but he always held something back, hoping that one day, he'd open a restaurant of his own. "I was cooking but I wouldn't share my recipes, and there are certain seasonings I would use that he don't know about," Douglas says.
In 2010, he opened Hot Spot Jamaican American Cuisine and finally got the chance to share those recipes with customers. Two years later, he opened another restaurant in Troy, and this summer, he opened Hot Spot Caribbean Bodega. The store will offer customers authentic Jamaican and Caribbean products, many of which Douglas uses in his own recipes. Take a walk through the store, and you get an education in Caribbean cuisine, and to some extent, popular culture. Many of the brands Douglas carries in the new store are familiar in Jamaican households, but hard to find in America. That’s what Douglas is most excited about, bringing a taste of home to his fellow Jamaicans. He’s also excited to showcase the foods that make Jamaican cuisine so distinct. Ackee and saltfish, curry goat, mannish water, coconut milk, jerk spices, rum cake, coco bread, Blue Mountain coffee--it’s all there.
Douglas will also carry a line of homemade juices, with flavors--Peanut, Carrot, and Irish Moss--that pay homage to his homeland. All this delicious success--and it all started with just two sweet hands and a dream. "Anything is possible. In America, anything you want to be, you can be," says Douglas.
Hot Spot Caribbean Bodega is located at 36 Central Avenue in Albany. For more information, please call
