Golden Krust facts for kids
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| Private | |
| Industry | Restaurant |
| Founded | 1989 The Bronx, New York City, United States |
| Founders | Lowell Hawthorne and family |
| Headquarters | 3958 Park Avenue, Bronx NY 10457 |
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Number of locations
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120+ |
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Area served
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United States |
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Key people
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Jacqueline Hawthorne (CEO) |
| Products | Jamaican food, Jamaican patty, Caribbean cuisine, Baked goods, Jerk chicken, Oxtail |
Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery, Inc. is a popular Caribbean restaurant chain. It makes and sells delicious Caribbean cuisine, including Jamaican food like the famous Jamaican patty and other baked goods.
The company is owned by the Hawthorne family. Many of its restaurants are run by people who buy a franchise, which means they get to use the Golden Krust name and recipes. There are over 100 Golden Krust restaurants in nine U.S. states. Most of these are in New York. It is the biggest restaurant chain in New York City that is owned by local people.
Golden Krust also sells its food products to stores, schools, and even prisons. It is known as a very important Jamaican business in the U.S. In 2016, the company was even featured on the TV show Undercover Boss.
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Golden Krust's Story
The idea for Golden Krust started with a bakery in Saint Andrew, Jamaica. This bakery was owned by Ephraim Hawthorne, and it used special family recipes for over 50 years. Ephraim's son, Lowell Hawthorne, later became the President and CEO of Golden Krust.
In 1989, Lowell Hawthorne opened the very first Golden Krust restaurant in the U.S. It was located on Gun Hill Road in the Bronx, New York. To get enough money to open this first restaurant, the Hawthorne family used a Jamaican tradition called "susu." This is where everyone in a group regularly contributes a small amount of money to help someone reach a goal. The family pooled about $107,000 this way, after banks would not give them a loan.
As the company grew, Jamaica's ambassador to the United States even attended the opening of the fifth Golden Krust store in Atlanta, Georgia in 2009. Lowell Hawthorne moved to New York in 1981 and studied at Bronx Community College. Before starting Golden Krust, he worked as an accountant for the New York Police Department. By 2005, nine of his brothers and sisters were also working in the family business.
Lowell Hawthorne, the founder who helped build Golden Krust, passed away in 2017. His vision and hard work helped Golden Krust grow into the successful company it is today. He had also appeared on the CBS TV show Undercover Boss in 2016.
Delicious Menu Items
Golden Krust restaurants serve many tasty dishes. Their most famous items are Jamaican patties, which come in mildly spicy and hot flavors. They also offer jerk chicken and fish, dumplings, steamed yams, and different curried meat dishes. You can also find traditional Caribbean foods like callaloo (Caribbean greens) and ackee.
In 1998, the company was making 25 million flaky, orange-colored patties each year at its main factory. Many customers buy food to take out because the patties are easy to carry. Golden Krust also sells its products to supermarkets in 30 states. Some popular menu items include beef patty, vegetable patty, spicy beef and cheese patty, soy patty, oxtail, curried goat, brown stew chicken, roti (a flatbread) filled with curried meat or vegetables, and "coco" bread.
Connecting with the Community
Golden Krust restaurants are very popular with the West Indian community. Many of the first Golden Krust franchises were opened by nurses, and many stores are located near hospitals. This is because many hospital workers have Caribbean heritage. The main customers come from countries like Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Haiti, The Bahamas, St. Lucia, and Grenada.
While the chain first served Caribbean immigrants, its customers now include Americans and people from all different backgrounds. Caribbean food is becoming more and more familiar to everyone. This is thanks to people traveling to places like Aruba, Jamaica, or Trinidad and Tobago, or meeting people from these islands at work. By 2009, Golden Krust had plans to open 250 more stores in the U.S., Europe, Canada, and the Caribbean.
How Golden Krust Works
Most Golden Krust restaurants focus on take-out orders and have limited seating. The inside of the restaurants is often decorated with bright, sunny yellow and orange colors.
The Hawthornes hope that the Jamaican patty will become as popular as the Italian pizza slice, the Jewish bagel, or the Chinese noodle as an American fast food. The company uses a rising sun as its logo. Golden Krust also has contracts to provide lunches to schoolchildren and prison inmates.
