Meet Christian Dominique | Manjay Restaurant Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Christian Dominique and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Christian, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I always knew since i was a kid that i wanted to own my own business. I think that mindset came from watching my parents build their own businesses as well. I’ve alway been creative as a person and never really felt like I could keep doing the same thing over and over day in day out. So I never really saw myself taking a desk job and work from 9-5. when we were starting Manjay, there was a lot of planning done. we started working on the concept in 2014 and ended up opening in 2019 so it took a good 5 years of planning the concept, understanding what we going for, the flavors, the decor, the branding etc..

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We are a Caribbean Fast Casual. What sets us apart is that we take the bold rich flavors of the Caribbean and add our own touch to create beautiful colorful and flavorful dishes. The road was not an easy one, there was a lot of bumps and bruises and still are to this day. We started in February 2019, by October 2019 we had to change our staff completely, right when we started to get accustomed to our new staff and started to create a name for ourselves covid hit, so that was a challenging time where we didn’t know what was going to happen next. somehow we kept on believing that better days were ahead of us and they were.

I’ve learned that every time we have a challenge to overcome, it’s better to attack it with a optimistic state of mind. Making decisions during times of Panic or taking emotional decisions almost alway lead you to bad decisions.
the purpose of our brand is, to shed a light on the riche culture and the richness of the flavors that the Caribbean has to offer.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Monday – Dinner and drinks at Casa Tua in Brickell City Center Tuesday- Lunch at Mandoline, Drinks at Segafredo then dinner at Macchialina

Wednesday- Late lunch/early dinner at Manjay at The Citadel then rooftop for drinks

Thursday- Lunch at la Petite Maison, Dinner at KYU then Sugar for drinks.

Friday- Dinner at Manjay Wynwood then drinks at Dante’s Hifi

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to send a shoutout to Nick Hamann over at The Citadel for giving us an opportunity to showcase what we could do. he took a big gamble with us because we came with no experience in the USA and no prior restaurant ownership and no credentials to be honest. he gave us our big break so i am very thankful for that.

Website: www.manjayrestaurant.com

Instagram: @manjayrestaurant

Twitter: Manjaycaribbean

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ManjayRestaurant

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/manjay-miami