One of L.A.'s best pop-ups opens a Caribbean restaurant 'making waves'

Rashida Holmes first tasted a buttery, almost scallion-pancake-like roti during a trip to Barbados when she was 10 years old, and while the bread can take many forms, that paratha-style, laminated, flat and flaky variety stayed with her for decades. It became the backbone of her celebrated pan-Caribbean pop-up , and now, in East Hollywood, a signature item in her first bricks-and-mortar restaurant.

At the new Bridgetown Roti, which Holmes describes as Caribbean American, the former Rustic Canyon and Botanica chef takes multiple days to make her roti, then wraps it around a rainbow of fillings, such as her mom’s chicken curry with turmeric slaw; curried shrimp in house-made green seasoning; and pumpkin with fried cauliflower.

Patties, yellowed with turmeric and house-made curry powder, burst with oxtail, eggplant, sweet potatoes or shrimp. A new “Caribbean Tings” section of the menu points guests toward codfish cakes, curried channa doubles and a new coco bread sandwich, with some menu items leaning traditional, but most representing what Holmes and business partner Malique Smith see as a modern and personal reflection of Caribbean food in L.A. and their own stories.

“For us that means taking things that are traditional and making them our own, and that means bringing new ideas into what ‘traditional’ means,” Holmes said. “It's what home means to me because we moved around a lot as a kid, so I don't have any regional loyalty. My loyalty’s in terms of what food I loved, and the food I loved was the stuff my mom made — like fried fish and curry chicken — and my Aunt Vie’s codfish cakes.”

The pop-up, founded in 2020 and run out of Holmes’s house with her wife, Shanika, was always a means to open a bricks-and-mortar restaurant. The process took years longer than expected, but Holmes has always picked up help along the way — often with brokers and investors tasting her food, then immediately wanting to help.

After a long search she and Smith found a space in East Hollywood, and while they waited for the opening of their restaurant, withdrew from pop-ups and weekly food pickups, and turned more toward catering.

That longer incubation period has allowed Holmes to find new staff to help run and maintain the kitchen, as well as tinker and ready new items for the menu. The stable of signature roti and patties remain, while items such as the thick wedges of curry- and ghost-pepper-laced mac and cheese pie, usually only available around the holidays and for catering, are also now available at the restaurant.

Entirely new items include sizable whole chicken wings marinated in jerk brine and sweetened with honey, as well as the fried-fish cutter sandwich, served on fresh coco bread baked at Silver Lake’s revived Cafe Tropical , and nonalcoholic drinks one might find at a picnic, like a fresh-coconut mint limeade or a passion fruit and guava tea.

Holmes’ mom had always helped the venture with entrepreneurial advice but now is a more formal part of the team, as is her father. The family opened the casual, colorful restaurant in a roughly 1,800-square-foot space with just less than 10 tables with a small patio. Bright blocks of magenta, yellow and blue in the design are meant to replicate the colorful hues of the painted houses in the Caribbean.

Holmes hopes that the welcoming, familiar aesthetic and menu — and Bridgetown Roti’s success — will encourage others to follow suit, setting off a chain reaction of Caribbean cuisine in L.A.

“I hope that by this time next year there are more Caribbean restaurant spots popping up in Los Angeles, because I think that the market is ripe and people want to have it,” Holmes said. “We need more of us. L.A. is too big to not have there be more of us here, really making waves.” Bridgetown Roti is open Wednesday to Monday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

858 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, (747) 221-9026, bridgetownroti.com

Smack Burgers

Bay Area-founded smashburger operation Smack Burgers began humbly in a backyard in 2021, but quickly went viral for its pressed-thin patties smashed with thin ribbons of onions, and specialties such as the Hellapeño, a spicy bacon cheeseburger drizzled with hot honey. While its pop-ups and food trucks still roam Northern California, Smack Burgers just opened a bricks-and-mortar here — its first L.A. outpost — taking over the former Taco Chabelita space in Harvard Heights. Find a range of smashburgers, onion rings, burger bowls and beef-tallow-fried waffle fries at this eye-catching yellow-and-black burger joint just off the freeway. Smack Burgers is open Sunday to Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

2001 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles, instagram.com/smackburgers

Wax on Hi-Fi

A new downtown vinyl bar is blending Japanese and Creole flavors to the tune of soul, funk, pop, R&B, hip-hop and jazz. Wax on Hi-Fi is the first restaurant for Atlanta-born chef-owner TJ Johnson, who is also a DJ; she traveled to Tokyo for inspiration in designing her own Japanese-inspired hi-fi bar, which regularly hosts DJ sets in addition to other live programming such as comedy nights. Dishes draw from Japanese classics as well as Creole and other iconic Southern food, for options such as fried chicken with Japanese curry that’s studded with andouille; nori-topped mac and cheese rich with miso; and shrimp po’boys crowned with yuzu-and-Kewpie slaw. From the bar, look for sake, wine and beer alongside sake and soju cocktails such as lemon, orgeat, strawberry and nigori sake, or sake with lime, basil and cucumber. Wax on Hi-Fi is open Wednesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to midnight.

212 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, (213) 332-1697, waxonhifi.com

Topped

Those looking for a briny bite have a new destination with Topped, an unusual stand in the Original Farmers Market from the team behind Kaylin + Kaylin Pickles. The local pickle company known for its range of flavors like honey mustard and spicy garlic — and, at its original stall in the market, its pickle tasting bar — recently expanded with a second stall. Topped specializes in pickle “boats” and pickle chips loaded with toppings in sweet and savory options, hollowing out half-spears or piling trays of pickle chips with Takis and nacho cheese; smoked salmon with capers and cream cheese; Nutella with peanut butter and pretzels, and more. Topped is open Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and all other days from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

6333 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, kaylinandkaylin.com

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .