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Lester was born in Trinidad and Tobago, a small island about seven miles off of the coast of Venezuela at the closest point. He grew up in Brooklyn and keeps his New York accent to this day. Lester moved to Detroit 21 years ago, the same year he lost his mother, Norma G.<\/p>\n
His mother is not only the inspiration, but also the namesake of his food truck and soon-to-open restaurant: Norma G\u2019s Fine Caribbean Cuisine. Lester sees his restaurant as a way to share the culture and flavor of his birthplace. \u201cWhen you… enter(ed) houses in the Caribbean, it wasn\u2019t fancy, but you were served… You were treated with a level of respect, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to bring across.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lester\u2019s restaurant will be part of the revitalization of the Jefferson East neighborhood of Detroit. The new bike lanes and redeveloped sidewalks are all part of the effort to create more foot traffic and bring people into the neighborhood. \u201cMy job is to make this a restaurant\/bar, which is what they wanted in the neighborhood. I\u2019m hoping to make it a destination. And that\u2019s been my dream and goal for a while so it kind of matches well with what Jefferson East wants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lester has been developing this concept for years. His food truck was a way to test the market. His business and flavors were well received, but he kept running into one problem: \u201cPeople kept asking me \u201cWhere are you?\u201d I\u2019m not anywhere: I\u2019m a truck! Come find me! They started asking for a brick and mortar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aiming to meet his customers\u2019 demands, Lester started to reach out to banks to fund the creation of his restaurant. His excitement turned to frustration when he realized the lenders he was speaking with did not share his vision. \u201cI did a full two-hour presentation; they never even called me back,\u201d he said of one bank.<\/p>\n
Knowing the challenges Lester was facing to obtain financing, one of his mentors introduced him to Matthew from ProsperUS Detroit. \u201cWhen you get turned down, it hurts. But then you get up and do it again. And you meet people like Matthew. He gets it,\u201d he says with a smile.<\/p>\n
ProsperUS Detroit\u2019s Lending Program provides access to capital for start-up and existing small businesses that otherwise might not have access with traditional sources. \u201cI was lucky when I met Matthew. We probably talked for an hour and 45 minutes and at the end of the conversation he said \u201cI get this, this makes sense,\u201d Lester recalled of their initial conversation. He believes that Matthew could sense his passion, and that convinced him to lend to him.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s true! ProsperUS Detroit focuses on the character of its borrowers, rather than credit score or collateral, to assess credit worthiness. Through this program, they have closed over $500,000 in loans to neighborhood entrepreneurs from $5,000 to $25,000 since 2014.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when you look at something like ProsperUS, the comfort level I had with Matthew was just about the two of us sitting down and having that level of understanding. It\u2019s more about the relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lester stands in his future restaurant, currently in the early stages of the former bank\u2019s deconstruction. He points at the debris-covered floor and describes where the hostess station will go, the kitchen, the sliding doors and outdoor seating. He smiles as he looks up at the ceiling and says the electricity will be cut this week and they can start taking down the web of hanging wires. One cannot help but smile at his vision, at his passion, and of course, at the idea that anything is possible with the right ingredients.<\/p>\n
For more information about ProsperUS Detroit, visit www.prosperusdetroit.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lester was born in Trinidad and Tobago, a small island about seven miles off of the coast of Venezuela at the closest point. He grew up in Brooklyn and keeps his New York accent to this day. Lester moved to Detroit 21 years ago, the same year he lost his mother, Norma G. His mother […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}