- Every single day, I'm inspired.
I'm like, wow, this would be great with this,
this will be good with that. - I have to be like oh-
- But then I have her, she's like, no, don't do it. No.
- We're not there yet. - We're not there.
- My name is Pesy Sikyala.
- My name is Babajide Alao.
- And we are the owners of The Cradle NYC.
(upbeat music)
I'm from Nigeria, west Africa.
I am 26 years old.
- I'm 25 years old and I am from Kinshasa, Congo.
We met here in New York city during fashion week.
(Pesy laughing)
That was seven years ago.
We just celebrated our seventh year anniversary.
People will always, always remember you as a person
before they remember your product.
And I think that's very important for us,
for people to know who we are as individuals,
our background, we were models before this.
- The Cradles, it was kind of something
of a spiritual calling.
It's when you feel like you're destined
to do something a little bit more
than what you're currently doing.
I graduated high school
and later on during the fashion industry,
but I knew that there was something in me
that I wanted to do that with just more than being a model.
- We've been open for three years now.
We started as a catering company,
we were just catering to parties.
And then from there we opened a food cart,
right on the beach.
As a way to just introduce the community
to west African food,
something that you don't really find here at Rockaway.
And then from there, God opened the door for us
to have Brick and Mortar, which is where we are right now.
- Yes.
- The biggest challenge for us is running a restaurant
with only four hands.
We are here every single day from the cooking
to opening the restaurant, to cleaning,
all your stuff, to clothing.
We are literally like the dishwasher, the cook, the owners,
HR, the carpenter, the restaurant itself,
as well as a lot of work.
First of all, we're young adults.
We do not have thousands of thousands of dollars.
We have to work with what we had at that moment
and just our knowledge.
So we decided to work on the restaurant ourselves.
And we were here night and day cleaning,
tearing things apart, painting, removing things.
And it was okay, what do we want at the restaurant?
What is this? We can't call someone to come paint it.
Let's go to Home Depot, let's get paint,
let's start painting it ourselves.
That should our country be represented through our food?
To be honest, it's not easy to get customers
or just anyone from a different walk of life
to try something they've never tried before, something new.
And when it comes to west African food
or African food in general,
there's a lot of stereotypes behind it.
- [Babajide] Oh, its spicy.
- [Pesy] It is super spicy?
Is it too oily?
- Some people don't know. I've seen that a lot.
When they try our food, they don't know how to describe it,
or they don't have a necessarily a memory
for something they can compare it to.
And that's because Nigerian food it's different.
- [Pesy] We're okay, we should have that,
we should have that X, Y, and Z.
We tell them like, look,
this is my favorite thing on the menu.
- Or like when customers come by and they're like,
what is jollof?
They say it weird, but I'm just like, it's called jollof.
Maybe you should try it.
And then we have like little sample cups
that I quickly put it in there.
'Cause then it's like the interaction
of having things like pot on the stove and dishing it out
and letting them try it.
Once you open that pot, the steam and aroma really comes out
and they're able to see like,
okay, our food was really cooked.
(singing in foreign language)
- We will sit down with our customers and just talk,
like, oh, your mom made this, my mommy made this.
Oh, this is how my grandma used to make it.
This is all about relationship.
And I think apart from our food,
people do generally come here to talk to us,
to see how the restaurant is going,
or what (indistinct)
They bring their families over.
Instead of people coming in going, "Oh, hi.
I want to order this."
It's more like, "Oh, hi Jane."
You know, "Hey Natalie, like, how are you doing today?"
Good. Oh, you want your usual?
Yeah, I want my usual.
You know how I make it?
Yes, I know how you like it.
(drum beats)
- [Man] This place definitely saved Far Rockaway.
'Cause this food is alright.
- This place hits home in the stomach. I'm telling you.
- I told you. I told you.
It's a distinct taste. That's why I can't even explain it.
- One of my favorite that I come here for often,
it's the puff puff.
- We call it from my country since I'm Congolese, mikate.
The difference is pretty much the names.
Since they're both from different parts of Africa.
In Nigeria, they call it puff puff
because of the puffiness you get
once the dough hits the oil.
It's a common street food that you'll find
when you're walking the streets of Congo.
It brings back so much memories of my childhood in Congo,
going up with my siblings and my cousins and my grandma.
- [Interviewer] What would you say an average
you make every day is?
- on average number we make it,
maybe a hundred or more puff puffs.
Each order contains 3 puff puff balls.
'Cause it depends on the day.
Sometimes I have to make more and then some times,
hey, we just sold out
and you have to come back tomorrow for some.
- Perfect.
- Everything is a trial.
I believe because when you go through that trial,
then it tells you if you are really, you know,
if you're really determined
to do what you want to do
or what you had in your mind to do.
I had to drive from Portland, Oregon,
back to New York with the food cart
in the back of the U-Haul.
- In the middle of your finals.
So he's pulling over to do exams,
to submit like his homework while driving.
And I'm at home, and I can't sleep
because he's in the middle of the country driving.
So it was...
- It was a journey.
And it tested my faith
and I, every moment driving, I thought,
should I take the coffee cart back.
Take it back, take it back.
But then I was just like, no, I'm really determined.
And this is what I really want to do.
And I made it to New York with it.
I didn't think, getting a Brick and Mortar
was gonna be like literally the next year
after the food cart.
As well as getting up, having a farm.
Welcome to the Cradle farm.
We grow our vegetables here locally in a Rockaways.
And it's about three miles away from the restaurant.
We have two different types of kale, we have bell peppers,
we have cherry tomatoes, and we also have plumped tomatoes.
And one species from the odd species of plant from Nigeria
that we call Ewedu, in English, it's called jute leaf.
So with Ewedu we eat it with soup
and the ponded yam or amala,
so which is also part of the okele menu
that we have at the restaurant.
The main goal of the restaurant
is to be fully a hundred percent farm to table.
And knowing where my food come from, it's really important.
Similar to living at home in Nigeria,
having a small garden in the backyard
it was so normal, until I came to the United States
and started living in apartment buildings
and not having access to farms
or even able to grow our own food.
And farm to table really brings me,
brings me closer to home
and closer to how, like my grandparents, did it in Nigeria.
We are people of faith.
We walk by faith and not by sight
because being able to see something
does not really mean that's the end goal.
Because when you walk by faith, it's like, you don't see it,
but you believe.
You should order from my restaurant.
You know I got a restaurant, right?
Yeah. Check it up.
The Cradle NYC, T-H-E C-R-A-D-L-E N-Y-C.
- [Woman] Okay.
- [Babajide] It's on beach 96.
(upbeat music)