Experimentation helped build Seabrook restaurant

Thursday, Dec. 14, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Brenda Ahearn⁄The Gazette Rod O’Savio, owner of the Muffin Man Caribbean Café in Seabrook, says the secret to his success is giving the customers what they want. That has led to the mix of muffins with foods from his native Jamaica.

O’Savio says he has had various jobs working in restaurants since he came to the U.S. in the 1970s and that prior to starting his own business, he worked in sales. This mix of experience has proved useful, just as his notion to combine muffins with his native cuisine has resulted in a Lanham favorite.

At one point, O’Savio worked for a supermarket chain that was starting to open in-store bakeries, and this gave him the opportunity to learn about baking on a large scale. His first eatery was a sandwich shop in Baltimore where he would bake muffins on the side. Sandwich sales were not what he’d hoped, so he started making jerk and curry chicken as well.

Later, when he moved his business to Prince George’s County, he ran a full-scale bakery. He realized that the muffins and the Jamaican food were his bestsellers. So he eliminated the bakery but kept the muffins, along with the Caribbean food.

The café has counter space with stools for those who want to dine there, although many customers get their orders to go. The bright pink walls tell the story behind the Muffin Man Caribbean Café. The wall’s colors are reminiscent of the colors used to paint buildings in Jamaica. And the pictures of tropical foods are also a tribute to O’Savio’s heritage.

The photos of local radio personalities showcase some of the café’s high profile clientele. A few years ago the café got a boost after O’Savio gave muffins to WPGC on-air personality Donnie Simpson. O’Savio also says that Radio One owner Kathy Hughes was a fan of his sandwich shop in Baltimore.

The portraits of Bob and Ziggy Marley on the wall pay homage to these Jamaican musicians, and are clues to what you’ll see on the menu. Longtime customers know that ordering ‘‘Bob Marley” means your boneless chicken comes in a ginger-garlic sauce, while ordering ‘‘Ziggy” will get you wings in a honey-glazed sauce. For each sauce you can choose a small ($8.99) or large entrée ($10.25-$10.75) that comes with veggies and rice and peas.

There is also curry chicken ($8.99 small) or curried goat ($9.25 small), and ox tail ($10.25). You also can choose meat (chicken, goat, ox) prepared in two different sauces (Ziggy, jerk, curry, combo) for a combo ($12.50-$13.99).

The food tastes very fresh. Portions are generous, but if you can, leave room for sides like the coco bread (95 cents) or the plantains ($2) that are just right, not too dry and not too greasy.

The gourmet muffins ($2.35 each; $24.99 a dozen) burst in a display case at the front of the restaurant. They come in a wide variety of flavors, from the expected (banana walnut, chocolate chip, blueberry, lemon poppy, cranberry nut) to the unexpected (mango, guava, tropical lime, pistachio, pineapple orange).

Customers do not mind mixing muffins with their roti. Many of the people who come to the restaurant are repeat customers and have menu favorites. Aaron Bradley of Bowie likes the strawberry streusel muffins and the Ziggy roti ($14.99).

Pinkie Peterson, who lives nearby in Lanham, stopped in to place her family’s favorite orders: A beef patty ($2.10) for her daughter, fish ($15.99) for herself, and jerk chicken for her husband.

‘‘We always come here. The food is good,” she said.

‘‘My mom told me about it, and I started coming, I always get the Ziggy,” said Tiffany Taliaferro of Clinton, as she sat down at a counter with her meal.

O’Savio, his wife, and their two children worked for many years to build their business.

‘‘The sacrifices we made really worked out,” O’Savio says, noting that this running an eatery was always one of his goals.

Eventually, he wants to double his space and package his format into a franchise operation.