Hoover International Restaurant Week set for Feb. 17-26

By JON ANDERSON

Sam Muchiri moved to the United States from Kenya in 2006 when he was 22 to get a better education.

He went to work as a nurse at UAB Hospital and travel nurse and, while working in cities such as Atlanta and San Francisco, noticed those cities had restaurants that served the African food he loves. But there was little in that regard in the Birmingham-Hoover area, he said.

That motivated him and a partner, Tamba Tali from Liberia, to start their own restaurant in Hoover. The two men opened an Afro-Caribbean restaurant called Jambo Grill in The Plaza at Riverchase in July. It specializes in food from different parts of Africa as well as Caribbean islands such as Jamaica and Tobago, but also serves some “local food,” Muchiri said.

Jambo Grill is a prime example of the many international restaurants that the Hoover Restaurant Alliance hopes to highlight with its second Hoover International Restaurant Week, which will be held Feb. 17-26 to cover two weekends.

The alliance has identified more than 70 restaurants in Hoover that it considers to be “international restaurants,” including restaurants that serve Mexican, Chinese, Indian, Mediterranean, Korean, Japanese, African, Caribbean, Thai, Pakistani and Italian food. However, restaurants that specialize in pizza were not included on the list.

During Hoover International Restaurant Week, the alliance is encouraging people to branch out and try food from some of these restaurants that maybe they’ve never tried before, said David Cohen, founder of the alliance.

They want to share the rich cultural food heritage of many locally owned and family-owned businesses, Cohen said. Many of these international restaurants in Hoover are mom-and-pop businesses owned by immigrants working hard to provide a service, share their culture and provide for their families, he said.

The alliance is asking these restaurants to run specials during the 10-day period and will advertise those specials on its website at hooverrestaurantweek.com. The goal is to get at least 20 restaurants to participate, Cohen said.

Muchiri and Tali said business at Jambo Grill has been good so far.

“We didn’t know there was such a big demand,” Muchiri said. “People want to try it because they’ve never had it before. … They always come back.”

One of the favorites among customers is the Kenyan beef samosa, which is labeled as an appetizer but sometimes ordered as a main dish, Muchiri said. It’s seasoned beef inside a deep-fried triangle-shaped breading.

Another African favorite is fufu and egusi.

Fufu is a dough-like food, and the egusi is a dish made from pumpkin-seed flour that Jambo Grill mixes with spinach, mint and other seasoning, Muchiri said. Their customers also like the jerk chicken (a Caribbean dish) and jollof rice (African fried rice), he said.

Muchiri, who is 38 and lives in Helena and also owns several medical staffing businesses, said some people told him they should go to Atlanta to open the restaurant, but he decided to do it in Hoover. “That’s how a community grows,” he said.

His wife, Josephine Kimani, helps out in the restaurant, and his sister, Naomi Muchiri, is the manager and one of the chefs.

Tali, 42, came to the United States in 2001 to get an education and be with his girlfriend. He started at Jefferson State Community College but ended up getting an associate’s degree in industrial engineering technology from Lawson State Community College in 2009 and another associate’s degree in auto mechanics from Lawson State in 2015.

He has worked as a mechanic for Sterilite Corp., a plastics fabrication company, in Birmingham ever since he got to the United States and now lives in Pinson.

He met Muchiri while he was working a part-time job at the Walmart in Center Point around 2004, he said. Both of them are disc jockeys as a hobby and have done some DJ work together, he said. At first, they were thinking about opening a place that does Afro-Caribbean parties, but they ended up doing a restaurant instead, he said.

So far, business is growing and better than expected, he said.

Find out more about Jambo Grill on its Facebook page and more about Hoover International Restaurant Week at hooverrestaurantweek.com.