Off Menu: Bridgetown Roti filters Bajan flavors through an L.A. lens
LA TimesIf you’ve never had Rashida Holmes’ curry chicken roti — flaky, buttery paratha roti wrapped around a warmly spiced stew of dark-meat chicken, crunchy slaw and crispy skinned potatoes — you’re missing out. Holmes, chef-owner of Bridgetown Roti, a Caribbean food pop-up in downtown L.A., spent plenty of time navigating professional kitchens before realizing that the direction she’d been searching for, she’d had all along: the familiar and complex flavors of her Barbadian heritage. “COVID provided a lot of those people, including myself, with the opportunity to do something that’s much smaller, that has less overhead, that didn’t need as much seed money to start,” Holmes said. This latest episode of “Off Menu” focuses on the origins of Bridgetown Roti, Holmes’ experience navigating white-male-dominated spaces as a queer Black woman, the state of the restaurant industry and what needs fixing, and, of course, Caribbean food and what makes it so special.
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