Popular Afro-Caribbean restaurant 'at a crossroads' to find new Windsor home

A popular restaurant specialising in Caribbean and African food is fundraising for a new home in the Royal Borough.

Harvest Afro Caribbean on Thames Street opened in 2020 to bring ‘the vibrant cultures of Africa and the Caribbean’ to Windsor.

Founder Rachel Olatoke said the restaurant has ‘always been more than a business to me’, having never drawn a salary from the business in the past four and a half years.

“I’ve not paid myself, not because I don’t want to, but because this is a passion. We know we need something in Windsor,” she told the Express.

Harvest Afro Caribbean closed its doors in September during ongoing discussions with the landlord but the restaurant closed for good earlier this month.

Rachel is now at a ‘crossroads’ and wants to reopen in a new location.

“As the only Black-owned independent restaurant in Windsor, we’ve worked hard to create more than just a place to eat,” she said.

“Harvest has always been about more than just a restaurant; it’s about creating a space for community, connection, and celebration.”

Rachel and her husband spent more than £200,000 in savings to renovate the ‘rundown’ premises during lockdown in 2020.

“I know some people would look at that and think why would you have to spend so much?

“But whatever it took for us to move in – we did that.”

Rachel originally launched her business from her kitchen, so the appearance of the new premises needed to be fixed when opening the ‘first restaurant of this sort’ in Windsor, said Rachel.

The team was met with constant repair work including a basement toilet that constantly flooded and customers had to use toilet facilities at the restaurant next door or even the nearby McDonalds.

“We don’t have any more funding,” Rachel said.

“We’ve run out of capital to do anything else and move anywhere else because we’ve pumped everything into doing up this place.”

Rachel launched a £50,000 GoFundMe campaign on Sunday (December 15) to ‘start the next chapter’ of Harvest Afro Caribbean.

This will cover the deposit and initial costs of new premises, renovations, kitchen equipment, supplies and staffing.

“From our perspective, Windsor ideally needs a Caribbean and an African restaurant,” said Rachel, a resident of nearly 15 years.

“You can’t have representation in Windsor where you don’t have one of those – it’s about time for a change.”

However, the high rent costs present an obstacle for individuals like Rachel who don’t have the ‘financial backing needed to run’ an independent restaurant.

“We need to find a new location – ideally in Windsor because there’s a need for diversity in that area,” she added.

“Maidenhead is fine for us – it’s not an issue. We have a lot of customers within a five to ten-mile radius of Windsor.

“Wherever we move to, we’ll need capital.”

Currently, the team is 'considering all avenues to keep Harvest alive' such as pubs seeking new restaurant managers, but their long-term vision is to reopen a dedicated restaurant to 'restore the restaurant’s mission and identity'.

Rachel said she feels ‘blessed’ with the community support, adding: “Everyone rallies around to keep the business going.”

Since closing eight weeks ago, Harvest Afro Caribbean has received more than 200 calls saying, ‘Anything you need, we can help’.

“I think we need help now,” Rachel said.

Visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-harvest-afro-caribbean?attribution_id=sl:0e80fd49-09ee-47b2-8a2a-e75e4609c3d2&utm_campaign=man_sharesheet_dash&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link to read more about the fundraiser.