Brighter world of Bamboula (restaurant in London).

When I arrive at Bamboula, London's pioneering Caribbean restaurant, manager Paulette Pryce is deep in conference with chef Obrie Blasse. This gives me time to admire the decor. The idea, Pryce explains later, is that someone looking in on a cold winter's day should be drawn into the warmer brighter world of the Caribbean.

Opening Bamboula--the name comes from an African street-dance--in 1997 was something of a risk for Walkerswood Europe and its partner Island Grill (Jamaica's spicy answer to Kentucky Fried Chicken). Eighty per cent of new restaurants go bust in their first year. But three and a half years on, the venture is beginning to pay off. The restaurant is `95 per cent' self-sufficient, its turnover has quadrupled and it now serves as many people a night as it used to in a week.

Time Out, London's weekly entertainment guide, describes it as a `fantastic Caribbean restaurant' and the menu is mouthwatering and exotic--flamed jerk chicken, escoveitch fish, callaloo lasagne and chicken rundown. To Blasse's chagrin, there is only table space for 22 customers at a time. `If we had bigger premises,' he says, `we'd really be doing good.'

Caribbean food is becoming increasingly popular in Britain, but it's usually only available as a takeaway. Pryce is used to customers telling her what a relief it is to find a Caribbean restaurant where they can sit down and talk. She was working for Walkerswood Europe, promoting the products of Walkerswood Caribbean Foods at food shows, when she spotted the gap in the market. `We'd have a pot with small pieces of chicken with jerk seasoning on it. The smell would attract people. They kept on asking us, "Where can we find a really good Caribbean restaurant?"'

It's unusual for a small company to `bring the food from the field to the plate' in the way Walkerswood does at Bamboula, says Ian Cook, a lecturer in Cultural Geography at the University of Birmingham. `It seems incredibly ambitious for a company that small, that young and from that far away to even consider opening a restaurant in London. Grace Kennedy, a long established and much larger Jamaica-based competitor, has just one UK-based employee working from a small office in the City.'

The restaurant works well on a number of levels: not least as a showcase for Walkerswood products. `They bring the buyers for supermarket chains to Bamboula, rather than just waving a bottle under their noses in an office,' says Cook. `They get the smell, the music, the decor and then they taste the food. Walkerswood are canny, they know what attracts people.'

Walkerswood Europe chose Brixton as the venue because of its large Caribbean community. `The customers who had helped us get where we were at the time were the people of our own community,' Pryce says. `We wanted to put something back.' She gets a kick out of the fact that the community come to Bamboula to celebrate their birthdays, weddings and promotions.

Wherever possible, Bamboula employs local people. Obrie Blasse is a case in point. After 27 years as head chef at the University of London Union, he has been working at Bamboula for three years and doesn't miss the commuting. He enjoys the interaction with customers--`People come right into the kitchen and say thank you'--and is getting used to apparent strangers recognizing him in the street.

The biggest challenge, both agree, has been finding staff. `The people we have now are very good, they actually "own" Bamboula,' says Pryce. `But I remember thinking that one year had been the longest of my life because of the things that happened: we had people who didn't turn up or just left without saying they were going.' After disappointing experiences with government employment schemes and the local job centre, Pryce now recruits through word of mouth and a sign in the window--and has a waiting list of people interested.

The restaurant now employs ten people. The staff's sense of ownership is encouraged by monthly staff meetings, where issues--such as how often to offer Sunday brunch--can be discussed.

Like all small businesses, Bamboula has faced constant challenges. `We were lucky that the manager of the local HSBC bank caught Paulette's vision and stuck with us,' says Roddy Edwards of Walkerswood. `The VAT people and Inland Revenue have been very patient with us too, as we attempted to honour all our debts. For small businesses to survive they need banks and officials with that sort of attitude.'

Bamboula tries to do its bit too. `We were late in paying one builder because of our cash flow problems,' says Edwards. `Later, when we were doing better, we added interest in recognition of the problems we had caused him.'

Although she jokes that she `must have been ill' when she came up with idea of Bamboula, Pryce was so convinced by the venture that she put in her own money. Friends tell her that if she could bottle her determination, she'd be a rich woman. `When things are not working I say, "Dear Lord, give me the answer"--and I think he does, often without me even realizing it.'

Pryce is proud of the celebrities who have eaten at Bamboula, including the West Indian cricket team. She believes the restaurant has given the community something to brag about. `Brixton should be proud that we have a Caribbean restaurant that's been around now for three and a half years. And it's going to be around a lot longer if I have anything to do with it.'