Jamaican café adds Latin and vegan fare

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Hours: Mon.-Thurs. 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.;. Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Entrées: $6-$8; sandwiches start at less than $4, beef patties at less than $2

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www.antonios-café.com

Fans of Jamaican food developed strong ties to the restaurant Negril during the past 16 years. So it’s no surprise they had some concerns when owner Beverley Baynes handed over the location to a new owner earlier this year.

Byron Martinez, who bought the restaurant in June and renamed it Antonio’s Café after his oldest of three children, reassures long-time customers that they have nothing to fear. He has retained Negril’s menu, chef and most of the kitchen prep staff.

Antonio’s added fare from the Caribbean as well as Latin and Central America.

‘We already had an established clientele, but with such diversity in the area, we decided to add a little extra,” Martinez says.

After receiving input from the lunch crowd, he opted to add new vegetarian and vegan menu items, too.

When Josh Balk, Humane Society outreach coordinator, called to place a lunch order, Martinez chatted with him about vegetarian food. Like several other Humane Society employees, Balk eats no meat. Martinez agreed to offer vegetarian dishes, using mock meats in some regular menu selections.

On a recent Wednesday morning, Martinez fills a tabletop with vegetarian dishes for Balk and five of his co-workers to gauge their reactions to the new items – among them, mock chicken drumettes in barbecue sauce, curried mock shrimp, orange mock chicken and mock ham salad with mangoes.

The food is ‘‘fantastic, really, really good” is the Humane Society consensus. Balk likes the mock chicken best.

Before these additions, Balk stopped by about once a week for a veggie burger. ‘‘Now I could eat here every day and have something different,” he says.

With the Humane Society stance against factory farming, many of its workers swear off meat for ethical reasons. But Balk points out that vegetarian dishes are great for people battling obesity, heart disease and hypertension as well.

Like the new menu additions, much about Antonio’s is a work in progress. Martinez plans more changes for the interior, including Spanish ceramic tile floors, a double-door entryway and a steam table lunch buffet.

He has replaced the stove to accommodate a new Latin specialty, carne asada, or charbroiled steak. And this past summer, two wide-screen TVs with satellite television feeds were added. Martinez says the World Cup soccer matches drew customers from all over the world.

Sturdier new models have taken the place of the old chairs. But Martinez has no intention of replacing the tables that past owner Beverley Baynes painted with colorful island scenes.

‘‘They’re works of art,” Martinez said. ‘‘We wouldn’t dream of changing them; they’re a signature for the restaurant.”

Martinez and his wife, who had dreamed of opening their own restaurant for eight years, lucked into the location, he says, when his business attorney mentioned that another client might be looking to sell her café in order to retire.

Martinez came to Maryland from El Salvador with his family 28 years ago, just as the country’s civil war broke out, he says. Today he and his wife, an American he met at work 11 years ago, and their three young children, live in Boyds.

He learned to cook from his ‘‘old-fashioned” grandmother, who believed all young men should know the skill. In El Salvador, his parents owned food markets with restaurant sections.

Martinez expects to pass on the tradition to his children. He says his son Antonio already asks when he can start working in ‘‘his” restaurant. Martinez says that’s likely to happen during middle or high school.

His son already talks up the restaurant to his schoolmates.

‘‘He tells his friends, ‘Daddy sells spicy food,’” Martinez says. ‘‘I say, ‘Tell them we sell chicken nuggets and french fries, too!’”

Down the road, Martinez hopes to open a second location.

‘‘We get customers from the Frederick and Hagerstown area begging us to open a location in Frederick.”