Anyone who has ever walked around Brooklyn’s streets has seen a fish store. They showcase large wooden boxes, packed with ice and filled with fresh fish and mollusk which look like they were just harvested that morning.
However, looks can be deceiving. Many people don’t know that the “fresh” fish on display is, in fact, just “thawed” fish which had been frozen hours before.
“All the fish commercially sold in the U.S. is first frozen,” explained Cursy Saint Surin, the owner of the newly opened KF Frozen Seafood Market on Brooklyn’s Church Avenue. “So when you see the stores with apparently fresh fish on display, it’s really just unfrozen fish. We don’t let the frozen fish thaw. We sell it frozen, and it’s therefore cheaper. The stores that unfreeze their fish sell the same thing at a higher price.”
Cursy knows the business of fish and other food. He is the founder and CEO of Kreyol Flavor, a highly successful chain of Haitian restaurants in Brooklyn’s Flatbush and Canarsie neighborhoods.
“Seafood is a big thing for Haitians,” he says. “We know that from our restaurant businees. We wanted to open a store where our community could buy the best fish at the lowest price. And with that fish, we also wanted to cheaply sell in bulk the other dryfoods of Haitian cuisine like rice and beans, in many different varieties, plus millet (pitimi), corn (mayi), and lalo (jute leaves).”
Like the Kreyol Flavor restaurants, the store is clean, brightly lit, and tastefully designed. The glass freezers are well stocked and neatly organized.
KF Frozen Seafood Market also offers all sorts of shellfish. “We sell lanbi (conch), shrimp, and crabs,” Cursy explained. “Haitians especially like the small blue crab (sirik). But the fish, like red snapper, is maybe our best seller.”
The store sources its inventory from around the world. “Most of the red snapper comes from Brazil,” Cursy said. “Lanbi mostly comes from Belize. The blue crab mostly comes from Canada.”
Although KF Frozen Seafood Market just opened in October and hasn’t done much promotion, word of its competitively priced fish and mollusk is already spreading, not just in the Haitian community, but in other Caribbean expat communities.
“Like our restaurants, we mostly cater to and hire in the Haitian community, but other Caribbean nationalities are part of our clientele and staff,” Cursy says.
While he’s not planning to create a chain of frozen seafood stores, Cursy does hope to expand his restaurant empire.
“We’re looking to open more restaurants in communities which are not getting service,” Cursy says. “There is a big demand for them. We’re exploring locations on Long Island in both Nassau and Suffolk, as well as Florida, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. There are growing numbers of Haitians in Philadelphia and Trenton. Wherever there are Haitians, Kreyol Flavor should be there. One day I even hope to be able to put a Kreyol Flavor restaurant in Haiti. And even a seafood store. I hope and pray that one day we can do it there.”
Open daily from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., the KF Frozen Seafood Market is located at 3310 Church Avenue and has the same stylish look of the Kreyol Flavor restaurants. This is part of Cursy’s forward looking strategy.
“A lot of Haitian restaurants are run by older people and look a little shabby,” Cursy said. “So we want the look of our restaurants, just like KF Frozen Seafood Market, to be professional and sharp, so that it appeals to younger people. We want to attract the next generation.”
