Karubees brings the flavors to the Jewel City.
By Dawn Nolan
HQ 133 | Spring 2026
Adding to an already strong lineup of local food vendors that includes Austin’s Homemade Ice Cream, Butter It Up, Fuel Counter, Gyro King and Taqueria 84, Karubees Jamaican Restaurant has comfortably settled in at The Market in downtown Huntington.
A large sign bearing the business name and stylized Scotch bonnet peppers — a staple of Caribbean cuisine — welcomes customers to the stand. Here, owners Kerry and Bina Martin are serving dishes inspired by the island where Kerry was born and the recipes he learned in his grandmother’s kitchen as a child.
“Kerry was the last of his siblings to come to the States, so he spent a lot of time with his grandparents in Jamaica while his mother was setting things up for their family in the U.S.,” Bina said. “He started doing small tasks in the kitchen — stirring, chopping, cleaning vegetables — with his grandmother, and that’s where he developed his passion for cooking and feeding people. His grandmother wouldn’t just cook for herself or her family, but for those in the neighborhood who needed a meal.”
After his grandmother’s death, Kerry helped his family bring his grandfather to the States, joining his mother in the Bronx and caring for him until his passing. It was a formative moment for Kerry, further instilling in him a deep devotion to family and a passion for preserving his heritage through food. However, he would not act on it professionally for many years, instead working in technology.
Still, the dream of owning a restaurant — including naming it Karubees — had existed for a long time.
“He had this vision, but he didn’t fully know what he wanted to do with it or how to get started,” Bina said. “The name was something that Kerry and a family member came up with a million years ago. He knew he wanted Karubees to be the name because it made you feel like you were in the Caribbean.”
Kerry and Bina met through mutual friends.
As they built a life together, the couple spent a lot of time visiting Bina’s family in Philadelphia, where cooking was central to every gathering. Sometimes, Kerry would help out in the kitchen.
“My family really enjoyed his cooking when he’d come,” Bina recalled. “They were so impressed with his food.”
On one visit, Kerry accompanied Bina’s stepfather to a barbershop. While they were there, a man walked in carrying a warming bag and selling plates of food.
“That just lit a fire under Kerry,” Bina remembered.
When they returned home, Kerry began cooking and delivering meals one day a week for family, close friends and acquaintances who reached out through social media.
“It was a very simple menu,” Bina said. “Curry chicken, white rice and cabbage — that was it.”
As demand grew, so did the menu.
“We added oxtails, jerk chicken, rice and peas, fried plantains and beef patties,” she said. “We also went from one day of deliveries to delivering all weekend. You had to contact him directly through text or social media, and he would bring you your food. That’s how we started developing this warm, close-knit relationship with our customers.”
Everything, however, was still being made in their home.
“We grew so fast we couldn’t contain it,” Bina said. “We had to find a brick-and-mortar.”
Because both Kerry and Bina had family living in Charleston, West Virginia, they moved to the area in 2019 and opened their first physical location in Dunbar. Business was strong, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. After closing for a few weeks to regroup, Karubees reopened with precautions in place for carryout only.
“We made it through, which is still so surreal, because there were a lot of businesses that had been around a lot longer that didn’t,” Bina said.
In 2022, the Martins decided to move Karubees to downtown Charleston.
“The funny thing about the Lee Street location is that it was the first place we looked at before we decided to open in Dunbar,” Bina said. “It didn’t work out initially, but we ended up there after all.”
With an established customer base and increased foot traffic, the restaurant flourished, drawing not only support from the local community but also visitors from Huntington, Beckley and out of state. Karubees remained in Charleston until June 2025.
Three months later, it reopened at The Market, taking over the space formerly occupied by Mo Betta BBQ.
“I actually wanted to open in Huntington before we ever opened in Charleston,” Bina revealed. “People from Huntington had been supporting us since our inception, and they’d always beg us to open here.”
The menu at The Market remains a reflection of Kerry’s roots. Offerings include curry goat, oxtails, curry shrimp, jerk shrimp, brown stew, curry chicken, jerk chicken, rice (plain or paired with peas or beans), collard greens, steamed cabbage, fried plantains and macaroni and cheese. Jerk chicken, with its signature heat, stands out as the most popular dish and is one of Bina’s favorites.
“I get the jerk chicken and oxtail combo with rice and peas and plantains,” she said.
Spices and seasonings are sourced through family connections, and Kerry personally selects and picks up fresh ingredients. The preparation is just as intentional. Karubees’ food meets kosher and halal guidelines, uses no seed oils — only coconut or olive oil — and uses chicken raised without antibiotics.
Leaving the Kanawha Valley after several years was a difficult decision, Bina admitted, but also an exciting — and so far, successful — opportunity.
“We’re not from West Virginia; my family isn’t here,” Bina explained. “Charleston had become my family and my community, so leaving was scary. I knew people would still support us, but I worried about losing that sense of community. The lovely part about Huntington was realizing we already had that here. We made the right decision.”
Along with the restaurant’s longtime regulars, the Huntington location has been steadily growing its following. That includes Marshall University athletes, students and employees from across the country and around the world.
“They support us so heavily, and a lot of them come from other communities, where they’re familiar with Caribbean food,” Bina said. “And some young adults here for work are of different ethnicities, so this is something familiar for them.”
For those less familiar with the cuisine, Bina offered gentle encouragement to try something new.
“I’d remind them, very kindly, that it’s just food,” she said. “If you like it, great. If you don’t, that’s OK, but at least then you’ll know.”
It seems that Bina’s earlier anxieties have eased.
“I haven’t had to operate from a place of less,” she said. “I’m operating from a state of abundance, and that’s because of the support we’re receiving from the community here.”
Karubees Jamaican Restaurant
Monday – Tuesday Closed
Wednesday – Friday 11:30 A.M. – 5 P.M.
Saturday 12 P.M. – 5 P.M.
740-307-3348
