By Ebony L. Morman 

Curry goat with boiled plantains and cabbage. Photo courtesy

While starting a business in the restaurant industry is no easy feat these days, chef and owner Carlos Abrahams’ Crav’n Caribbean is rising in popularity and selling out of inventory each week. Abrahams serves traditional Jamaican cuisine with a twist three days a week from the restaurant’s home in The City Kitch. The menu, a nod to his Kingston, Jamaica roots, is inspired by Abrahams’ mother, who he witnessed preparing countless meals when he was younger. He didn’t realize his own passion for cooking until he got older. 

After feeling a void while pursuing a career in the automobile industry, he and his family decided to take a chance by moving from New Bern to Charlotte in 2019 to start Crav’n. Charlotte’s growth and culinary scene was a draw. 

“I felt like it was more growth [in Charlotte] and more opportunities,” he says. 

Abrahams admits he had cold feet at first but he took the leap and in early 2020, he committed to doing what he loved for a living: cooking. What started as creating, selling, and delivering plates to local businesses, barbershops, and salons evolved into a commercial space within a year and a half of opening due to an increase in demand. 

As Abrahams and his team continue to meet the demand, his passion is evident in the menu’s creativity. He’s intentional about menu offerings, which change regularly with the exception of a few favorites. 

The restaurant’s most popular menu item, oxtail cheesesteak with plantain fries, rose in popularity after garnering millions of views on TikTok and Instagram. The first video of the top-seller is at 2.3 million views on TikTok and a recent Instagram video of the oxtail cheesesteak currently has 3.7 million views. It’s a menu staple and evidence of Abrahams’ resourcefulness and innovation, because the sandwich encompasses leftover oxtail meat from other dishes and then repurposed. 

“One of the biggest things in the food industry is reducing food costs,” he says. “So, a lot of creations in the food industry are stuff that chefs have to figure out ways to create something out of leftovers.” 

The restaurant’s popular oxtail cheesesteak. Photo courtesy

Abrahams and a local food blogger put their heads together to create the oxtail cheesesteak — inspired by the Philly cheesesteak — from the remainder of oxtail meat that had been cooked down and couldn’t be used for other dishes.  

By combining his native cuisine with other styles of cooking, he’s found imaginative ways for diners to experience Caribbean ingredients. 

“I’ve always tried to think about different ways to add different cultures to food,” he says. “A lot of my inspiration comes from different places I’ve been and just trying to be different and create something that will kind of shock the food scene a little bit that most people wouldn’t normally try.” 

The jerk chicken and oxtail platter are also popular menu staples. Between the top three menu items and a host of rotating dishes, Crav’n typically sells out of inventory by 3 p.m. on Saturdays and 5 p.m. Thursday through Friday. Abrahams credits high-quality ingredients, consistency and quality customer service, which he says is sometimes thought to be atypical for Jamaican restaurants. 

“You can expect good flavor,” he says. “It’s food that’s not only going to look good, but lives up to what you expect when you hear about us.” 

The restaurant was recently nominated as an UPPY Award Ghost Kitchen of the Year finalist, a recognition that surprised Abrahams. 

“I was really overjoyed, especially being mentioned only being in business for a year in Charlotte and also with a chef that I look up to, chef Sam [Diminich] from Your Farms Your Table,” he says. “Just to be mentioned in the same thing as him is an honor.”