Celebrating BIPOC Business Owners

THIS SERIES EDITED BY GRACE CAMERON, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER OF JAMAICANEATS MAGAZINE PHOTOS BY: SELINA MCCALLUM (@SHOTBYSELINA)

Celebrating BIPOC Business Owners

Annie Cao Owner, Queens Fruit Market and Plants, 564 Queen St. W.

I am one of the lucky ones. I have a supportive husband, four sweet kids, amazing parents and a business where everybody knows our names. My father Li Cao came to Canada first as a refugee from Canton province, China. It was the late 1980s and I remember that I was in grade 2. It would be another eight years before I would see him again when my mother Ying Yee, my younger brother and I joined him in Toronto in 1996.

We got the shop in 2003 – back then it was just a convenience store where we sold grocery items and candy along with fruits and a few plants. Our family also lived in the small apartment above the shop.

In 2005 my husband (to be) Fay Zhu came in to buy lottery tickets. He didn’t win but kept coming every day to buy stuff. He would hang out for long periods and tried talking to me when there were few or no customers around. He talked about different topics, trying to get to know me. I thought he was a nice guy who worked hard at his job as a roofer, plus he was Chinese and we spoke the same language.

I appreciated this because when you work in a convenience store, there is no time to go out. We were open from 8 a.m. to midnight and sometimes until 2 a.m. (back then) because Queen is a night street where people like to hang out, so I could only meet people through the store.

Fay and I dated for six months and then got married. We had our son Casey in 2006, followed by another son Justin in 2007. We also have two daughters, Tiffany and Moon, the youngest. The shop is very much a family affair as all our memories are here. During my four pregnancies I worked, with my big belly, up to and including the days I gave birth. All the neighbours know the names of my kids, which creates a feeling of family. I love that.

I also remember when Casey was about two or three and would ‘help’ us to close the shop at nights, grabbing and bringing in fruits and other items that were on display outside. When Casey was born my parents were so happy and started to plan their retirement because they were getting old and wanted to take care of their grandson. I took over running the shop in 2007 and they moved to Markham. Fay and I, along with our two kids, followed soon after when a building across the road caught fire. It got us thinking that because the buildings on Queen Street are so close together, if one went up in flames, others might too. Plus, the apartment above the store was getting cramped for a family of four. We moved in with my parents until we got our own place, also in Markham. It was convenient because the boys stayed with their grandparents while I went to work at the shop with my brother and my husband did his roofing job…and also helped out at the store.

Things got tough about 10 years ago when the Loblaws supermarket opened. It was a challenge meeting the rent and I thought about giving up. My husband persuaded me to hang in there because, after all, it was the place where our sons were born. Instead, he promised to work harder at his roofing job to earn extra money to make up the rent. In the meantime, we had to figure out how to remain in business. We decided to focus on flowers and plants along with a small number of items like fruits, candy, drinks and cigarettes. We now sell more than a hundred different plants, our business is stable and we’ve been able to remain open during COVID.

A lot has changed over 20 years and many businesses have changed owners. The older ones who’ve remained are like aunts and uncles to us. We’re like a family who look out for each other. We call when we don’t see each other.

Jason Bogle Lawyer and owner, FAM (Food, Art, Music), 566 Queen St. W.

My story started on the dance floor.

My mother Yvonne loved to dance, and every time she touched the dance floor, she electrified it.

My father Keith, a cook who worked on cruise ships traveling between the Caribbean islands, first spotted her at a party (where his brothers were the DJs) in Kingston, Jamaica, dancing the night away.

He was mesmerized.

Still, they didn’t meet until Yvonne, accompanied by Keith’s sisters, moved to Los Angeles in the early 1970s. By then Keith was living in LA and eagerly sought her out. They got married in April 1975 and then decided to move to Toronto where my brother Keith-Gregory was born in 1976. I came three years later, followed by my younger brother Geoffrey.

My mother worked at the old Bell Canada centre on Scarborough Road. Although we spoke patois (creole English) at home, she had an uncanny ability to mask her Jamaican accent at work. The diction of her Queen’s English was perfect.

My father was the family cook, and so my mother never wanted for anything. He taught all three of his sons to cook so that we would be independent. Although my chosen profession is law, cooking has served me well. I put myself through Carlton University working at the underground Glengarry restaurant the Oasis as a short order cook. Now, of course, I own FAM (Food, Art, Music) at Queen and Bathurst.

The pride I take in my Jamaican roots stems from my close relationship with my parents and the lessons they taught me. I remember my mother waking me up to watch Eyes on the Prize, a documentary series about the civil rights movement in America that aired in 1987. We also had discussions about Paul Bogle, my renowned ancestor and one of Jamaica’s national heroes. Bogle, a landowner and activist, famously led the Morant Bay rebellion in 1865, seeking justice for all Jamaicans. He was captured and hung later that year. My parents always told me that he was hung, not because of the sensationalized destruction of the Morant Bay courthouse, but because he was an educated man who dared to write to the Queen of England to protest the ill treatment of Black people on the island.

The legacy of Paul Bogle inspired me to embark on a law career. I was moved by his ability to influence a government due to his diction and education. When he spoke, he was powerful and impactful. That’s what got me into law.

FAM (Food, Art, Music) is a labour of love. I wanted to create a space where the music, food and energy would reflect the community and the culture that inspired me. The food is a fusion of Caribbean flavours with other cuisines…Italian, Chinese, etc. For example, our fried chicken sandwich is made with (Jamaican) coco bread and chicken in BBQ jerk molasses. The seafood sandwich is infused with wasabi mayonnaise and served in warmed coco bread, and the jerk chicken linguini is a game changer due to the jerk seasoning.

Music is prevalent in the restaurant because my mother loved to dance. She used to play recordings of her favourite band FAB 5 and would let the music wash over her. The restaurant also has strong images of people of colour, partially a result of the African history lessons I learned attending Saturday classes as a boy in Scarborough. And, as a welcoming space, the artwork also has Canadian influences to celebrate the community and country that has given me so much.

While I’m the face of the restaurant, Richard Delprat works his magic in the kitchen. A creative chef, he has owned and managed several high profile restaurants and is well known in the Toronto Caribbean community. He also knew my mother, who passed away in 2019, and my father, who passed in 2017.

FAM opened in February 2020, and then COVID hit. We went into lockdown in March and have been struggling to keep the lights on. This summer we have to make a go of it.

I still practise law at Sack QC and Bogle Law. These days a lot of my time is taken up still seeking justice and representing those who need me the most. One example is the family of Regis Korchinski-Paquet (who fell to her death from a balcony while Toronto police officers were inside her home in May 2020).

I genuinely believe in investments like these. It’s why I was moved to enter law and the community is so important to me, I have to use my time and energy to be influential and to be of consequence.