CHICOPEE – About five years ago, Orlando Roberts and his wife Alexis Mercure decided to share the food Roberts grew up cooking, and loving, with everyone and opened the Yaad Food Jamaican Restaurant in Indian Orchard. Now, they’re continuing to share Jamaican food with Western Massachusetts and have recently branched out into Chicopee with a second Yaad location.

Roberts said Jamaican food is all he’s ever known, “That’s what I’ve been doing for my whole life.” He began cooking early on in life, learning how to make himself food while his grandmother was away at work. “I’ve been cooking since I was a kid, I lived with my grandmother back in Jamaica, so I had no choice but to cook,” he said. “She was at work at times, so I had to learn.”

He then came to Western Massachusetts as a young man, where he pursued every opportunity he could within the food industry, including working at Baystate Medical Center in various capacities as a teenager.

“I started off at Baystate Medical as a kid, I was like 14-years-old working at Baystate volunteering, doing internships in catering,” he explained. “I worked in the cafeteria, I worked downstairs in the dishroom, I was a guest service ambassador. I did every single job there.”

Roberts said opening a restaurant felt natural to him after all his years of experience, so a little over five years ago he opened the Yaad Food Jamaican Restaurant at 89 Main St. in Indian Orchard. “I’ve been in the kitchen my whole life. It’s one thing I know how to do well, I can set it up and run it,” he said.

Most recently, on July 7, he opened the doors to his Chicopee location at 66 Cabot St. “I was presented an opportunity with the building, I just couldn’t not take advantage of that,” he said.

The Cabot Street location, Roberts said, originally wasn’t planned to be a restaurant though. “At first I was looking to maybe put like a hookah bar here or something,” he said.

However, that plan changed when he was told that the city of Chicopee does not allow for businesses such as hookah bars. “I found out Chicopee doesn’t allow hookah bars, they don’t allow any smoking bars,” he said.

Instead Roberts shifted gears and turned to opening Yaad’s second location, giving more people another chance to try the food he loves. “In the Orchard we’re doing pretty good, I’m pretty busy. So I thought if I opened over here, it would kinda give people another option,” he said. “Instead of going to Indian Orchard and having to wait half an hour just for a plate, they can come here.”

Yaad’s Chicopee location is split in two sections, with half serving as the dining room and bar, while the other half houses their open kitchen and a small grocery section. Roberts said the grocery offerings came about both as a way to fill space within the location he called “huge,” and a way to benefit the community.

“We just figured let’s utilize all the space that we have, put another business in here. And it’d be good for the neighborhood too, because there’s stores around the neighborhood, but I don’t think they carry enough,” he said.

Roberts said opening day at the location was very busy, and since then business has continued to do well. “The first day was ridiculous, it was bananas. It’s been pretty good. I can’t say consistent yet because it’s still new, but we’ve been doing pretty good,” he said. “Not bad for our first week here, we did good numbers.”

While trying a new food can be intimidating, Roberts said people shouldn’t be scared to go to Yaad and try something new. “Don’t be scared, come down, give us a try. Even if you want to try something and you’re scared to try it, we can give you a sample of it just so you kinda know what you’re buying,” he said.

Roberts said some of Yaad’s most popular dishes include jerk chicken, oxtail, curry chicken, beef patties and beef patties with coco bread and cheese. While the restaurant serves their popular staples, they also have a daily special as well. The menu can be found online at yaadfoodma.com. Orders can be placed by calling 331-3231 or visiting either location.