 SEPTEMBER 26 • 2019 | 85

Business

Starting a Business

New book offers advice from someone 
who’
s been there.
A

fter seven years of work-
ing for a real estate com-
pany, Matthew Fenster 
decided it was time to become 
his own boss.
So, in 1998, he founded his 
own company, Paragon. Based 
in Royal Oak, it 
has grown into 
more than just real 
estate in the last 
20 years.
Now with 
Paragon’
s suc-
cess, Fenster is 
releasing a book with plenty of 
entrepreneurial advice called 
How To Start A Business.
Fenster, 51, describes his 
book as an “
easy, step-by-step 
guide for budding entrepre-
neurs.” The West Bloomfield 
native hopes the 
book can help 
people start a 
business like he 
did, without 
having to go 
through as much 
adversity.
He began his 
career in real 
estate during 
college. “My 
cousin was a 
home builder, 
and during the summer when 
I was in college, he offered me 
a job as a laborer,” Fenster says. 
“I was looking at the sites and 
I thought it would be really 
interesting to learn how to put 
this whole thing together.”
He pursued a career as 
a real estate broker after 
graduating from Eastern 
Michigan University in 1991. 
Throughout his time as a bro-
ker, he learned the ins-and-outs 
of the real estate business. As 
his own boss, he had to learn 

about business ownership as 
well, which came with some 
growing pains.
“The challenges were fig-
uring out where am I going 
to work from? Where will my 
office be? How will I retain my 
clients?” Fenster says. “I had 
to figure out how I was going 
to keep this going and not lose 
income.”
The plan to grow his busi-
ness took a few years to formu-
late, and once it got started, he 
learned how to operate through 
trial-and-error.
Fenster has kept notes of 
things he learned as an entre-
preneur since 2011 when he 
began the book, working on it 
intermittently and eventually 
consulting with writer Sabrina 
Must to help him 
finish it.
“The book 
is a good guide 
that walks people 
through not only 
the process, but 
also my experi-
ence, advice and 
anecdotes as well,” 
Fenster says. 
Fenster’
s mother 
died five years 
ago, but he and 
his father, Irwin, remain close. 
Throughout his business 
endeavors, Fenster makes sure 
his father has an office space so 
he can come and go as he pleas-
es. They also attend services at 
Temple Israel together. 

Join Fenster on Thursday, Oct. 3, 

for a launch party for How to Start 

a Business at Bistro 82 in Royal 

Oak starting at 6:30 p.m. The book 

can be purchased on Amazon 

starting Oct. 3.

MICHAEL PEARCE STAFF WRITER

Matthew 
Fenster

COURTESY MATTHEW FENSTER

Nosh
dining around the D

Jamaica
Fenton’s 
Jerk Chicken
I 

came to know Fenton 
Brown’
s delicious Jamaican 
and Caribbean specialties 
during the five years he operated 
Jamaica Fenton’
s Jerk Chicken 
on Northwestern 
Highway, below 
12 Mile Road, 
in Southfield. 
Things are 
looking up since 
Brown opened a 
larger restaurant 
last year. Brown’
s 
new Southfield 
location is in a 
shopping strip on the other side 
of Northwestern, above 12 Mile.
The tropical feeling at 
Fenton’
s starts with the tiki 
thatch awning over the service 
counter, where 
Brown waits 
on customers. 
Adorning deep 
green walls are a 
map and a flag 
of Jamaica and 
mural of Dunn’
s 
River Falls. 
Fresh-cut flowers 
grace the tables. 
Brown is a 
down-to-earth 
man raised in a small village 
in Jamaica. While a teenager 
cooking in his grandparents’
 
restaurant, he became close 
friends with customers from 
West Bloomfield. The couple 
sponsored him to enter the U.S. 
in 1977.
Brown earned a degree in culi-
nary arts at Schoolcraft College 
in Livonia. He did catering and 
then ran a restaurant inside 
Barton Malow Company in 
Southfield before becoming an 
entrepreneur. 
Speaking about his house 
specialty, Brown said, “Our jerk 
chicken is 100 percent authentic 

and has no chemicals or preser-
vatives.” He serves halal chicken 
purchased at Saad Wholesale 
Meats in Detroit’
s Eastern 
Market. 
The most important ingre-
dient in making jerk chicken 
is what Brown called “Jamaica 
pimento.” Its better-known 
name, allspice, came from 
Europeans who discovered the 
unripe berries of the Jamaican 
bayberry tree in the 1500s. 
Brown cooks from scratch 
using “fine, fresh herbs,” such 
as thyme, rosemary, basil, garlic 
and onion. 
I typically order jerk chick-
en wings from the restaurant’
s 
menu board although jerk chick-
en breasts and thighs are other 
options. Caesar salads 
can be topped with 
jerk or grilled chick-
en breast, as well as 
blackened salmon.
Fenton’
s jerk 
chicken is flavorful 
and not overly sea-
soned. Each plate 
comes with two 
sides. I almost always 
choose fried plantains 
(bananas) for one. 
Black beans are in the rice and 
beans. 
My sautéed cabbage side dish 
had bits of carrot. Jamaican 
chicken stew and curried goat 
are other popular entrees. “I do 
red snapper, Jamaican-style,” 
said Brown. After pan-frying the 
snapper, he marinates it for at 
least an hour in a boiled, then 
cooled-off mixture that includes 
Jamaica pimento (allspice). The 
fish is typically served at break-
fast with a type of cassava bread 
called bammies. 
Fenton’
s is open daily at 11 
a.m., except Sunday, when it 
opens at noon. 

Esther Allweiss 
Ingber
Contributing Writer

Jamaica Fenton’s 
Jerk Chicken

29540 Northwestern Hwy
Southfield, MI 48034
(248) 739-2558
jamaica-fentons-
jerk-chicken-southfield.
sites.tablehero.com
$$½ out of $$$$

