{"id":22412,"date":"2026-09-04T16:30:04","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T16:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/22412\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T16:30:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T16:30:04","slug":"harry-singh-twin-cities-caribbean-food-trailblazer-dies-at-81","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/22412\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Singh, Twin Cities Caribbean food ‘trailblazer,’ dies at 81"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harry Singh, the founder of the popular Trinidadian restaurant Harry Singh\u2019s Original Caribbean Restaurant, died at his Coon Rapids home July 3. He was 81. <\/p>\n

The native of Trinidad and Tobago introduced Minneapolis to his take on Caribbean cuisine in the Eat Street corridor eatery on Nicollet Avenue for over four decades.<\/p>\n

Singh\u2019s friend James Byron said the two first met at the restaurant, shortly after Byron arrived from Trinidad and Tobago in 1989. They soon realized they were from the same area of the twin-island nation: the south.<\/p>\n

“Everybody will tell you that when it comes to Trinidad cooking, this is the guy that they went to first before any of the other cooks came into being,\u201d said Byron, founder of Twin Cities Carifest. <\/p>\n

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. <\/p>\n

Customers came for the chef\u2019s jerk chicken, roti and spicy hot sauce \u2014 and conversation. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere wasn\u2019t a subject that he wouldn\u2019t like speaking about,\u201d Byron said. \u201cEveryday life, politics, things back home, how it’s going, whether it’s going good, going bad \u2014 you know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

Singh\u2019s sister, Marla Jadoonanan, said he was the \u201cgolden child\u201d of the family in their parents\u2019 eyes. Singh was the oldest, and Jadoonanan was the youngest of seven siblings, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat didn\u2019t he want to talk about? He would talk about any and everything. He was just gifted in that,\u201d she said. \u201cYou could just say one word and he will continue the conversation that way.\u201d <\/p>\n

Her brother worked as a social worker and \u201chad that knowledge of how to speak to people,\u201d Jadoonanan said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Restauranteur Harry Singh kneads dough in this file photo from 2010.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Harry Singh’s Original Caribbean Restaurant<\/p>\n

She said their mother, Carmen, played a big role when it came to food and the art of cooking.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a passion for cooking from the age of, you know, very young,\u201d she said. \u201cMy mom taught him a lot of cooking.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says Singh pioneered Trinidadian cuisine in Minneapolis and inspired local chefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was definitely a trailblazer in the food community,\u201d Jadoonanan said. \u201cHe encouraged people to follow their dream and made a pathway for all of us that came after him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anissa Channa, co-founder of Channa Kitchen in Uptown, posted on Instagram about what Singh meant to her Trinidadian cuisine business.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis restaurant was a neighborhood staple for decades, and most of Channa Kitchen\u2019s customers only know about curry chicken, roti or doubles because of Harry Singh,\u201d she wrote. \u201cLooking for home-cooked food, his restaurant was also a source of comfort by Minneapolis\u2019 transplants like myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byron called Singh \u201cvery open and straightforward.\u201d He says the chef and entrepreneur will be missed. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Restauranteur Harry Singh (left) poses with an award for “The Best of the Twin Cities” in 2010 with his late son, Robyn. <\/p>\n

Courtesy of Harry Singh’s Original Caribbean Restaurant<\/p>\n

Singh\u2019s legacy will be long-lasting \u201cand create a great void all in the same breath,\u201d he said. He was \u201ca gentleman that you could go and sit down and talk to and get advice [and] an insight to things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Singh is survived by his son, David, and five siblings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harry Singh, the founder of the popular Trinidadian restaurant Harry Singh\u2019s Original Caribbean Restaurant, died at his Coon Rapids home July 3. He was 81. The native of Trinidad and Tobago introduced Minneapolis to his take on Caribbean cuisine in the Eat Street corridor eatery on Nicollet Avenue for over four decades. Singh\u2019s friend James<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[564,565,566,567],"class_list":["post-22412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-caribbean-restaurants","tag-caribbean-cafe","tag-caribbean-cafes","tag-caribbean-restaurant","tag-caribbean-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117213722339683759","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}