WORDS Natilee McGruder PHOTO Weston Markwell
As an Air Force transplant who moved with my family from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio to Maxwell AFB here in Montgomery, I have a long-standing connection with the military way of life and an affinity for travel and different cultures. I was nine when this life changing move to Alabama occurred and, in part because of my age, easily melded into to the “Southern Way of Life.” While my move consisted of a paltry 600 odd miles and a change in (albeit very different) US cultures, Melissa Smith of Manchester, Jamaica moved 1,230 miles to Montgomery and a world of difference in culture and temperature with her active duty husband and her two young sons.
When she arrived it was winter—January 2000 in Montgomery seemed cold and unforgiving as well as incredibly foreign. Melissa is soft spoken with a lyrical nature to her speech, common of people who are native to the Caribbean seas. She notes that the first few months, “we went to Atlanta every weekend to help me adjust, to eat Jamaican food and buy spices. I was depressed and in culture shock.” Things might have been harder had her family not lived on base because as Melissa explains, “the military is big on family and that was a blessing.”
Things took a turn for the better when Melissa and her husband Richard, high school sweethearts, attended an office party where he had volunteered her services to make jerk chicken. The dish was a roaring success and they were encouraged to open a restaurant to provide a taste of Jamaica to Montgomery, something that Melissa had already been contemplating. After almost 11 years of business, Island Delight has become a part of the fabric of Montgomery, as have Melissa and her family. Located on Air Base Boulevard just a stone’s throw away from the Day Street entrance of the base, Island Delight has resulted in many happy military personnel who leave on assignment and tell people on bases in Japan and Germany the gem that can be found in Montgomery, Alabama.
Melissa explained that throwing herself into the daunting task of restaurant ownership as the chef, busboy, cashier and wait staff all rolled into one while caring for her sons allowed her to shake her depression and introduced to her Caribbean people in the area, Jamaican food enthusiasts, and island culture neophytes who all became a part of her new family. Through the restaurant she has made life-long friends who made her transition a lot easier.
Melissa’s biggest challenge used to be that people were not familiar with Caribbean cuisine and were hesitant to try it, but after 11 years she has gathered a reputation for fall-off-the bone tender ox tails, delicious jerk chicken, whole red snapper, king fish and tilapia to order as well as the ubiquitous Jamaican beef patties and rice and beans. One question customers often ask “is it real goat meat?” makes her laugh. Her rotating menu features curry goat and chicken and she always has a great selection of natural sodas like ginger beer as well as fruit juices. At this point what she really needs is reliable help, which according to Melissa and other small business owners she has consulted with, is a problem around town. She is looking for someone ideally who knows how to prepare the cuisine, but who at least is willing to learn and be trained. With her eye on expansion to another location where she can do lunch and dinner, reliable help is a must.
Melissa has made Montgomery her home and doesn’t plan on leaving it any time soon, but one thing she would like see is more activities for young people and families. She feels that when you don’t have things for kids to do, they get in trouble, which is one reason why she has started a youth program at her church, Montgomery First Seventh-Day Adventist which features music, drama and discussion classes for young people. She was inspired by the dynamic churches she was a part of in Jamaica that would host bonfires, sing-alongs and socials in the evenings for the whole family to attend.
Looking back on how far she has come, from not having a drivers license and feeling miserable in a foreign land to providing a place of love and cultural sharing for her new Montgomery family - as well as her parents who now live here - Melissa says, “I am happy I actually did [open Island Delight] because I have met some amazing people who I can now call friends. They have watched my children grow up, I have been there for the birth of theirs and now we are almost like family. I especially enjoy the looks on my military family faces after they have left for other bases for a few years and return to find me. It makes me feel really good when they say they were praying I was still here.”
Stop by and see Melissa at Island Delight at 323 Air Base Blvd, Montgomery, AL 36108. Phone: 334 264-0041. Hours of operation are Monday-Friday 11am – 4pm.