sf|noir

Meet the Chefs: Nigel Jones - Kingston 11

Nigel Jones is the chef and owner of Kingston 11, a popular pop-up Jamaican restaurant in Berkeley’s “Gourmet Ghetto” that went from packed Friday evenings at Guerilla Cafe to full houses on Saturdays, all in a little over a year. Nigel’s inspiration for opening the well-received venture was the feeling that even though there was a bevy of ethnic food in the Bay Area, there was not very much Jamaican food, let alone an upscale rendering of his cultural cuisine.

Nigel named his pop-up restaurant after Jamaica’s Kingston 11th district, where he was born and raised until he was sixteen, whereupon he joined his mother in New York City. He made his way to the Bay Area in 1989 via Jacksonville, Florida, where he attended college and majored in business and sociology, minored in art. For twelve years he worked at Levi Strauss in their production department, and his last role there was director of productions for the Dockers brand. He left Levi Strauss to open his own manufacturing company that he still operates along with Kingston 11.

Being aware that we live in a special foodie area of the country, where it’s almost a hobby for people to actively search out the best of the best in all cultural food categories, Nigel focused on his passion to deliver the highest quality Jamaican food. Through Kingston 11, he wants to share his joyful experience as a child, where “food was always a big part of my life and socialization.” Kingston 11 is easy-going and fun with Jamaican tunes and flavorfully executed food.

“In Jamaica,” he says, “you can put together a meal just from the food in your yard,” and he brings that same commitment to fresh, local and organic ingredients to Kingston 11. Nigel and his business partners, Adrian Henderson and Andre King, are close to locking down a permanent space for Kingston 11 in the burgeoning culinary mecca of Oakland. Keep an eye out for this anticipated addition to Oakland’s culinary renaissance!