Big Man Ting: How a family trip sparked a food business

When you hear “Big Man Ting” (BMT) in colloquial language, it means serious business that only an adult can handle.

With that in mind, BMT is the signature food of Irie Dawgz Grillmasters: burgers and hot dog meals.

Irie Dawgz Grillmasters is a fusion of grilled food that caters to the taste buds of loyal customers, established by Keshav Shaun Ramdeen.

It was a simple family trip to Margarita that opened his eyes to bringing the “wow factor, keeping in line with a vision to bring bang for your buck to street food.”

He established a small business in South Trinidad that now provides a paycheck to two other relatives and a family friend.

Much sought, BMT caught on with customers who would wait in line ahead of their 7 pm opening at the Cross Crossing Food Strip in San Fernando.

Twelve years ago, Ramdeen juggled two jobs, at Direct TV as a contracted installation technician and at the San Fernando Yacht Club as a bartender, but felt there was more to him than settling in these roles.

He conceptualised the name Irie Dawgz Grillmasters, as the name speaks for itself; Irie is the popular Caribbean expression that emphasises happiness and satisfaction, and the street expression “dawgz” to mean hot dogs. Ramdeen then applied his vision from his experience after he visited Margarita, Venezuela, and returned to Trinidad with a unique combination of flavours that entices, for a taste that just keeps you coming back for more.

With no prior culinary training, Ramdeen, through months of trial and error, certified himself in food handling, acquired a loan and, together with his cousin Dev Steele, constructed the Irie Dawgz food trailer in 2014. Acknowledging that quality for money in Trinidad is lacking, Ramdeen said he was driven to supply customers with good taste at an affordable cost.

Ramdeen said, “I created the Big Man Ting burger and Hotdawg. It is double patties and double hot dogs with all the bells and whistles. It is an adventurous combination in a single bun with all the popular toppings, including our secret meat sauce, ‘d come back sauce’, parmesan cheese, crushed nachos, onions and pineapples. Looking around at that time at the street food scene in Trinidad, I realized that the portions being sold were getting smaller and more expensive and also at the time there was a lack of variety, so, I decided to create my own take on what was popular at the time, using what I learnt in Venezuela and after months of trail and error, with the help of friends and family, my unique style to hotdogs and burgers was created. There was definitely a hole in the local street food market at the time for something new and unique, blending new flavours, presentation and value for money.”

He said many food outlets attempted to copy his style, but he has the original with a special secret that sets him apart from the rest, with the popular pork sausage hot dogs and burgers, respectively. Ramdeen said he feels proud to know that they started “a cultural movement for quality street food here in Trinidad and Tobago,” which paved the way for others to follow.

“Customer service, value for money, and taste, in my view, are the secret to our success,” he said.

One loyal customer, Kadeem Callendar, said he visited the strip and tried the food outlet and ever since then, for the past five years, “they are my people.”

Callendar said he tried the hot dog, and because he has a big appetite, he usually eats one and a half to two grilled hot dog burgers when he visits, three times a month.

Ramdeen said that over the years, they faced many challenges that posed serious considerations to continuing the business, including the slow import of goods, lack of forex, the frequent hikes in product prices of raw materials/ingredients, coupled with the decreasing spending power of customers, which are affecting the street foods and other small businesses in Trinidad.