A new restaurant that will showcase the cuisine of the Black diaspora is set to open in Oak Bluffs later this year. 

Chef Ting, a prominent Island chef, plans to open the year-round Black Joy Kitchen this spring in the former Bombay Indian Cuisine building on Oakland avenue.

“Something that I’m very passionate about is bringing a concept…which is following the way that food has traveled throughout the Black diaspora and to serve food that shows that journey,” Chef Ting said at the Oak Bluffs select board meeting on Tuesday. 

The restaurant will open in the former Bombay Indian restaurant.

Jeanna Shepard

The restaurant will open in the former Bombay Indian restaurant.

Jeanna Shepard

The board approved the new business application and entertainment license, which will allow for background music during dining.

Chef Ting said she will serve “food journeys” that will explore the history of specific foods connected to the African diaspora. For example, a rice food journey would begin with thieboudienne, a Senegalese rice dish, then turn to by a dish from Brazil following the path of enslaved people brought to the country. Other dishes would then showcase how rice has been served in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and the southern United States.

“We’re really excited to highlight the food of melanated people,” Chef Ting said in a subsequent interview with the Gazette. “We’re really excited about doing several journeys.”

Starting in February, Chef Ting plans to open the restaurant twice a month for family meals.

“It will be for families, at least one adult and at least one child, and you come and pay what you can afford. It’s a way to get the community to gather over peaceful things,” she said.

Chef Ting will continue to use the downstairs of the restaurant for The Black Joy Commercial Kitchen, a catering company.

“The ability to produce large amounts of fresh food has been just incredible, storage space for all the things we use, having a huge griddle so I can caramelize a hundred onions at a time,” she said.

Chef Ting is also excited to use the location as a gathering space for the BIPOC (Black and Indigenous People of Color) Chef Collective, a group she founded with Lacey Williams and Jennelle Gadowski. The collective provides education and a place of community for members of the group. The collective meets at the kitchen for classes and to gather, but do not use the commercial kitchen for their own catering.

Chef Ting said that she plans to have a soft opening for the restaurant in April and to fully launch Black Joy Kitchen in May.

“I’m most excited to be creating conversation about food and community,” Chef Ting said.