Today we’d like to introduce you to Sonya Rogoobeer & Will Adkison.
Hi Sonya Rogoobeer &, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Will- I was born into the military so it only came natural to do the same as I became of age. My dad was a Master Chief in the Navy so we followed his career around in the Pacific Islands for much of my childhood. I’m Filipino- American and I was raised in the Philippines until about 5th grade.. When I turned 18 I enlisted in the Navy, one of my first duty stations was Japan, which I was happy about because I lived there for my teenage years so it was home. I realized after a while being away from home I missed my moms cooking.. everyday I’d find myself calling her and asking for recipes. Soon i was cooking on my own without any help.. I realized food was my escape or happy place I should say. After working hours, or on the weekends all my guys from work would have me cooking up a storm for the entire crew. It just became a cool vibe and I loved seeing the looks on their faces when they had my food. Just happy! Fast forward through my Navy Career, I get sent to Hawaii several times for detachments. I learned the culture over time, I realized it was like home for me. I perfected my cuisine with the help of many locals, and really resonated with the island. I retired at 20 years in the Navy, then moved to Orlando with my other half. We couldn’t find much Island food that really hit it on the mark for us..I realized it was time to follow my passion of cooking and open Sweet & Salty Island Grindz.
Sonya-
Hi! So I’m of Guyanese and Surinamese decent. I was born and raised in Queens, NY. My family are all migrants from Guyana/Suriname. I was the first in my family to join the Military and make them proud. I excelled through school at an early age, and was expected to do the same in college. I realized I needed to do something more than college to fulfill that space for me. I just knew I wanted to serve my country and enlist. Have that life experience. It was by far the best decision I ever made. I was able to live in different places, meet so many people from all over the country, learn about different cultures and more! I was deployed to Japan for a while, where I fell in love with the culture. I realized that maybe the similarities could be just the “island ways of life”. Today I’m an owner and operator of Sweet & Salty. I’m the main boss, I set the schedules, do the logistics, the marketing person, the overall creative director you could say.
Will and I met , and we hit it off immediately! Just off of our cultures, sharing the experiences, and our love of people and serving.
We were both stationed and living in Jacksonville, upon us finishing our contracts and obligations with the military in 2018, we moved to Orlando.
In January 2020 we saved up and made the leap to follow Wills passion for cooking, and my creativity at play. We purchased our very own Food Truck..
By March 2020 the build was complete and ready to hit the road… then COVID was announced.. it was tough and slow, very slow. Some days we saw no customers at all. We didn’t give up because well we have 2 little ones at home, one 6 and 1, plus the Navy never allowed us to quit. We stayed on track running up to 7 days a week sometimes, all over Orlando. Luckily we made it through quite possibly one of the toughest times in our country of a pandemic, at this point we are just more pumped and motivated to keep bringing our Island flavors to our customers and the city.
Our business functions on us both working together. Ying and yang you could say. We complement each other in every way and use our best assets to help our business thrive in this difficult time.
We try our best every month to make a trip downtown and give back to our community in a small way with some hot tasty food. Community is huge for us as we know the struggles, both of our families came from third world countries. It’s just natural to us as we receive to give back. We bring our kids and show them, and teach them kindness and equality from small.
Ohana is huge for us. Without them we wouldn’t have the courage and motivation to keep working hard like we do everyday. We hope to continue serving our community with our food, and spread as much kindness as we can along the journey.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Definitely not a smooth road. We have been navigating the waters of “COVID”. The difficulty is all the changes with rules, CDC, community and more. It seemed like for a while there would not be any normalcy in the food industry with all of our limitations.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We make Authentic Hawaiian BBQ. All of our ingredients are either locally sourced and shipped directly from Hawaii every month. We hand cut and wash fresh banana leaves every day to be used in our plates on the truck. We are most proud of our consistency in the community, and our ability to bring the most authentic to the islands flavors to Orlando
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Humbleness. Being humble comes naturally for us. We are real, and genuine people. Throughout our journey so far we have been nothing but thankful for anyone that has crossed our path or given us an opportunity to work. We try to give back and much as we receive, and everything with work the way it should in the end. With our hard work, perseverance, and humbleness, we have no doubt we will be even more successful.
Contact Info:
- Email: Sweet.saltygrindz@gmail.com
- Website: SweetandSaltygrindz.com
- Instagram: @sweetandsalty.ig
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/sweetandsalty.ig
Image Credits
@gratefulsoulphotography Adriana Ospina
