Adeline Alexander, a fixture on the food service and cricket scenes in St. Thomas. Photo Credit: WOMEN IN BUSINESS VI & CARIBBEAN INC.
Adeline Alexander, a fixture on the food service and cricket scenes, recently opened up and shared insights into her life as a restaurateur deeply involved in serving her community.
Ms. Alexander was speaking to Laura Forbes, whose latest episode of Live With Laura aired on Sunday on the Consortium's social media platforms. The 34-year St. Thomas resident disclosed that her journey in the food industry began out of necessity.
She was at work one day when hunger struck and Ms. Alexander realized she would have to leave the office and go to either Red Hook or Havensight for lunch. Not wanting to interrupt her work, she realized that “we need to have something nearby where we can get a little something to eat. That was the inspiration for the first location” for the Tuck Shop, next to Caribbean Food Service, where Ms. Alexander works as sales manager.
Her second location came about by chance. “We live downtown, and it so happened that a restaurant right next to where we live became vacant,” Ms. Alexander told Laura. “The landlord approached me and asked if I would be interested in taking over, and I took the leap.”
The two locations each have their own personalities, noted Ms. Alexander. However there is a shared ethos between herself, her son, who runs the downtown Tuck Shop, and her spouse, who runs the Bovoni location as a bar and deli. “We don't settle for mediocrity,” she declared. “My philosophy is, you give people a very good environment. Give them good food and give them good service.”
Despite the fortuitous way in which Ms. Alexander was able to open and expand her food service business, the journey has not been without its challenges. The cost of doing business is daunting, she says. Inflation has taken a bite out of her customers’ spending power. A third stumbling block, Ms. Alexander says, is “a lack of congruency between government agencies.” Because systems and data are not always streamlined and synchronized throughout government departments, agencies and entities, navigating the bureaucracy generates excess friction, she thinks.
Having successfully cleared the aforementioned hurdles, however, Ms. Alexander believes it is now time to give back. She is in the process of developing a masterclass on how to do business on St. Thomas in order to pass her knowledge on to other aspiring entrepreneurs. She is also working on a financial literacy program targeting teenagers and young adults, “to give them a foundation on how to acquire financial freedom.” This is in addition to her over 15 years of service to the cricketing community in the territory as well. “I am always willing to assist the community, any segment of the community,” Ms. Alexander, a transplant from Saint Lucia, declared.
Aside from the restaurants, her aforementioned full time job in food sales and distribution, and her community involvement, Ms. Alexander also owns a cleaning business. She attributes her ability to operate effectively in so many roles to the solid team that surrounds her. Apart from ensuring that their support system is in place, her advice to those pursuing entrepreneurship – whether in the food business or any other industry – is to “do some research, ask questions, never accept no as a final answer, and don't give up.”
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