Most notably known for his role in A Tribe Called Quest, Jarobi White is setting out to merge his musical interests with the culinary arts in his home of Brooklyn, NY. On Tuesday, June 9 he kicked off an ongoing event series affiliated with his “Eats, Rhymes, & Life” movement entitled “Tribe Taco Tuesdays” at Bed-Vyne Cocktail in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.
During an interview with HipHopDX he explains the new venture as a “Hip Hop approach to cooking, because for the most part is I take something that already exists, and I flip it, I remix it. What do you have on your menu, what are your ingredients? And I make my own dishes based on that, with my own flare.”
Jarobi is no stranger to the restaurant scene, having worked as a chef in a Michelin-rated restaurant. He’ll be stepping away from the musical aspect of things to handle the food portion of the event, cooking up different varieties of tacos which will be sold in the venue, which will also be featuring drink specials.
Bed-Vyne Cocktail features an Asian theme in their decor, which Jarobi taps into with his own knowledge of Asian cuisine, fusing the menu with an Asian twist. The venue was carefully chosen, as Jarobi wanted to pay homage to the “old” Brooklyn and the preservation of the borough’s culture, and Bed Vyne Cocktail is part of a a black-owned family of businesses featuring a knowledgable lineup of minority sommeliers which serve the immediate neighborhood with high quality wines, as well as a delivery service which Jarobi happily utilized when he moved back to the neighborhood.
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Tribe Taco Tuesdays not only focuses on the food, but also the overall dining experience. Jacobi enlists the talents of local Brooklyn-based DJ’s to help him set the mood for the night. Each event will feature different DJs, with the first night set to be kicked off by DJ’s Bizarro (a Brooklyn native) and Donwill, of Tanya Morgan, who is a longtime Brooklyn resident.
On choosing the DJ’s featured at the event, he explains, “I wanna show the love for the people that are my friends, but I also wanna pay it forward and give people opportunities. I’m big on paying it forward — to whom much is given, much is required. I’ve been very fortunate in being in Tribe, and I feel so lucky, and I want to give that opportunity to other people. You can go to a lot of places and have good food, but when you have the experience, it’s what makes it. You can get good food anywhere, you can go to Five Guys and get a good ass burger, or you can come to my spot and get the ambience, the service, the music, the vibe.
“I’ve been fortunate with the Tribe shit where I can do things on a whole bunch of levels,” he continues. “Because of who I am as a musician, it’s been an easy path to interact with a lot of the celebrity chefs. But I’m nice with the cooking!”
Jarobi also provides insight into journey into the culinary arts.
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“I’ve been a real chef for three years,” he says. “Grinding, working my way up. A lot of famous people get the easy road with shit, and I chose not to take the easy road. I started in prep, then became a line chef, then sauté, then running my own lunch program. I know for a fact that I personally cooked for the people who came to review and rate the restaurant for Michelin. It’s big for me, I proved myself. I was down in South Carolina and I did well, but coming to New York is a different ball game. If you want to be a big time chef you gotta come here to do it. After a couple years the respect I was getting from the dudes that are here grinding meant a lot to me. It’s the logical progression for me.”
Bed-Vyne Cocktail is located in at 305 Halsey Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216.
