Naala Royale-Holder’s journey from corporate America to restaurateur is a story of passion, vision, and cultural pride. As a former Vice President of Marketing for a Fortune 500 company, Naala spent years crafting restaurant brands for college campuses, but her dream was to build something of her own. That dream came to life with the opening of Dunns River Lounge, a Jamaican-inspired restaurant in Rockville Centre, Long Island. Now celebrating 20 years of success, Naala reflects on the challenges, triumphs, and the deep connection she’s cultivated with the community through her love of food, hospitality, and her Jamaican heritage.
What inspired you to open Dunns River Lounge?
I worked for ARAMARK Corporation (one of the largest contract food service companies in the US) as the VP of Marketing. I was responsible for creating and marketing restaurant brands on college campuses. I loved the process of market research, concept development, branding & menu design to create popular food concepts in high demand for millennials. This led me to want to apply that same skill set to building my own brand… my own restaurant that would reflect my Jamaican heritage.
What does it mean to you to have reached this 20-year milestone?
I’m humbled and grateful for the tremendous support I’ve received from the Jamaican community and beyond over the years. Through food and entertainment, it’s nice to be able to share a bit of Jamaican culture.
What do you believe has been the key to building such a strong connection with the community?
Growing up, I loved watching the show Cheers which was based on a bar where everyone was treated like family and everyone at the bar knew the customers’ names. I always had a dream of opening a little café with that kind of vibe. Regrettably, Jamaican restaurants are often labeled as having poor service. I wanted to break that stereotype with a restaurant of my own. At Dunns, we strive every day to live up to our motto “Good Food. Happy People.” This means we aim to serve quality food, and warm, friendly and memorable service. I firmly believe that keeps us connected to the community.
Can you tell us about the evolution of the restaurant over the past two decades?
I started Dunns as a lounge hence the name Dunns River Lounge. I was still working for ARAMARK and the lounge was only open on the weekends. We served small bites and had a full bar and a reggae band and DJ on the weekends. Eventually I left my professional career at ARAMARK and decided to put all my time into the business. That is when we really started growing exponentially. We expanded our service to full sit-down dining, offered nightly entertainment and stayed open until 4:00AM so customers could party after dining with us. When COVID hit, I had to quickly change my business model. We switched to takeout and delivery and did very well. We also started doing a lot of catering-to-go business around the holidays. People couldn’t go out so we just made it easy for families to enjoy Jamaican food at home without having to do all the cooking. That family size catering model became very popular. Once the world opened back up, we reintroduced dining, opened up for lunch and expanded our catering business even more.
What were some of the toughest challenges you faced as a business owner?
The toughest challenge by far was COVID. The other tough challenge was when we had a few years under our belt. I wanted to find the right Jamaican chef who would really see and embrace our vision, be a leader in the kitchen and grow with us. I found that with Chef Bobby who has been with us now for over 14 years.
How do you ensure that the food and atmosphere remain true to your heritage while also appealing to a diverse customer base?
Our menu pays homage to the rich history of authentic Jamaican food, but we also introduce some fusion dishes. For example, we just introduced a new appetizer called the “oxtail toast” which is deboned oxtail and mozzarella served on small slices of Italian bread similar to the Italian appetizer the bruschetta. We posted it on Instagram, and it went viral with over 250K views and saw a surge of diverse customers coming to the restaurant for the first time because of that dish. We also serve Caribbean inspired cocktails and mocktails. For example, our Rum Punch is made the original Jamaican way, but we have introduced other flavors like a Pineapple & Organic Ginger Rum Punch with Appleton Rum which is a twist on the original flavor. We have live entertainment on the weekends featuring reggae, calypso as well as other genres of music.
How do you feel Dunns River contributes to preserving and promoting Jamaican culture in Rockville Centre?
It’s easy to do that because Jamaican food, music and culture has become very popular all over the US and New York is at the heart of it. We are located in Rockville Centre which is not in the heart of where the Jamaican community resides, but many of the residents of Rockville Centre and beyond have visited Jamaica and enjoyed the food and culture. Our presence piques their curiosity and once they come in, the realize that we truly offer a little slice of Jamaica and often customers say Dunns reminds them of their vacation on the island.
What qualities do you look for in your staff and how do you maintain a strong and loyal team?
I have always believed in “hiring the smile and teaching the skill” Of course, having a great, experienced, talented authentic Jamaican Chef is key to the restaurant’s success but it is also important to have naturally outgoing, happy, friendly, people with a passion for service. That is hard to teach so I look for those qualities in the people we hire. We always aim to create an environment where you are supported, you understand what’s expected of you and you are rewarded when you excel for our customers. My staff work really hard so it’s nice to have a little fun too. We do a nice end of year Holiday party where they can invite their family and friends to celebrate the holidays and we hand out awards and bonuses to the team. Recently I purchased four tickets to the upcoming USHER concert at Barclay because I heard some of them talking about how much they love Usher. So, I will be treating them to a nice night on the town. As the saying goes… take care of your team and they will take care of the customers.
How has Chef Bobby’s contribution shaped the menu and the overall experience?
Chef Bobby is super talented. We make a great team. No matter how crazy of an idea I propose to him for the menu, he makes it happen and puts an even better twist on it that I would not have thought of on my own. He is honest, he tells it like it is, he is a no-nonsense kind of guy, hardworking and very well respected by our team and customers alike. Chef Bobby has my back and I have his. Dunns would not be Dunns without him.
As someone with a marketing background, how has this experience influenced your approach?
Marketing is everything. No matter how good the food is, if people don’t know about it you won’t succeed. Applying basic marketing principles like loyalty programs, maximizing social media to further your brand, capturing data about your customers so you can communicate with them often even when they aren’t in your dining room, truly listening to them with focus groups before you introduce something new… all of these are invaluable gems that I learned from my marketing career and apply to what we do at Dunns.
What are the plans for the future?
We are expanding. We just acquired the store next door to us. It’s perfect timing because our takeout and catering has more than doubled and we badly needed a bigger kitchen to be able grow. We have lots of new menu options coming for our new takeout space which will be open in a few months.
What advice would you give to aspiring restauranters?
Only do it if you have (1) a sincere passion for food, (2) you love making people happy, (3) you are a great listener and (4) you enjoy paying attention to the operational and financial details. Those four qualities are equally important and combined, they are the winning formula for a successful restaurant business.
