The Work We Do: Shane Hope, Shadees Jamaican Restaurant
My name is Shane Hope. I’m the owner of Shadees Jamaican Restaurant in Riverhead. Shadees has been around from May 2017. Our cuisine is Jamaican food, basically for everybody because I cook to entertain everyone.
It’s three of us running the business right now: me, my wife and my daughter-in-law. My role is the owner, the chef, the cook, and my wife is like the organizer for everything. My daughter-in-law comes in. She helps out wherever we need her to.
When I came to America in 1990, I came out on the East End about ’91-’92, I got a job in an American restaurant, so I started to develop a lot of techniques from that. I tried to combine American style with the Jamaican style. In Jamaica, I cooked regular, but nothing compared to this. I’m happy and I’m blessed to come here and achieve what I’ve achieved.
My day starts waking up like 5 o’clock, then I have to come here. I work here, then I leave and I have a next job at Southampton Hospital, so I have a long day. I basically work six and seven days a week. Cooking from six until about 1 o’clock. Then I leave, go home, take a shower, go on to Southampton Hospital to 11 o’clock.
At this point, I see the oxtail is expensive, but I think that’s one of the most popular dishes that go out a lot. The curry chicken as well, the jerk chicken. Everything, basically, is popping, is going out. I try to make it taste something different in each one because I’m trying to create my own style. I don’t want when you go to a next Jamaican restaurant, you’re getting the same flavor. I want you to say, ‘OK, I like Shadees’ or ‘I don’t.’ I don’t want you to say, ‘OK, it’s the same like this one over here,’ so I try to create my own little special taste to it.
“The Work We Do” is a News-Review multimedia project profiling workers around Riverhead Town. It is made possible by Peconic Landing.
