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
$$½ out of $$$$