‘Attach love to it.’ Eatery that started in Pines gas station expands in Broward
The scent of jerk seasoning and simmering oxtail once breezed through a place better known for smells of unleaded fumes.
Inside a gas station in Pembroke Pines, customers lined up for intricate dishes such as a salmon burger and oxtail pasta, cooked to order by a Jamaican-born chef who insisted it wasn’t traditional “gas station food,” just a restaurant waiting for the right walls.
For 13 months, that unlikely storefront was home to Chef Reece Kitchen, the Jamaican fusion concept founded by 34-year-old Travis Reece.
As the restaurant prepares to relocate to a larger location in Davie, Reece says the time in Pembroke Pines helped build the foundation for the brand it has today.
“It was an amazing journey,” Reece told the Pembroke Pines News. “It was an open concept, so I got to interact with the majority of the customers, one on one. They saw me cooking right in front of them, so it was a great experience.”
Chef Reece Kitchen opened its location in Pines in February 2023. By March 2024, the business had outgrown the space and moved to 5187 S. University Drive in Davie.
That Chevron gas station, located at 8881 Pembroke Road, served as the first brick-and mortar home for the concept Reece had spent years developing.
“That part of the journey is actually what solidified where we’re at right now,” he said. “We built a trusted brand, because they see the face behind the brand they taste. They taste the love in the food.”
Reece says he discovered the vacant space by chance while in the city looking to rent a home. Although the space was unconventional, Reece says that the tight space and visibility allowed him to turn curious skeptics into a loyal customer base.
“Most people were like, ‘It’s gas station food. I don’t eat from gas stations.’ I would try to tell them, ‘Hey, this is not gas station food, this is just where we’re currently at the moment,’” Reece said.
Within months, he said, lines wrapped around the pumps.
Now, nearly three years later, Reece is preparing to relocate again, this time to a larger space in Davie at 4196 S. University Drive.
The location is set to open Thursday, March 5, and is about five minutes from the current restaurant. Reece says the new space will offer roughly three times the seating capacity, along with expanded kitchen and storage space.
Each move, Reece said, comes down to the same issue: space.
“It’s the same issue we were having at the gas station. … I think it has to do with that slogan that I created, ‘Flavors out of this world,’” Reece said. “The more I think about it, I was like, what’s out of this world? Space.”
Limited kitchen and storage space made it difficult to keep up with the demand, a positive problem to have, Reece says.
“Due to the volume and all the love that we’re receiving from the community, we realized that we have an issue where food is taking so long to come out,” he said.
Born in Kingston and raised in Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica, Reece started to learn his way around a kitchen at 8 years old under his grandmother’s watch. He immigrated to the United States at 19, landing in New Jersey, where he worked at Five Guys, a job he now calls “full circle.”
After Jersey, Reece moved to Atlanta, where he lived until 2021. While working at a food distribution warehouse, the idea for his own business began to take shape.
“That’s when I started to sell plates, because when I used to bring my lunch to work, all my co-workers were like, ‘Yo Travis, yo, what are you eating? Can I get some of that?’” Reece said. “That’s when I started to sell plates and it went ballistic. … Everybody in the warehouse was just eating from me.”
By 2017, he began catering and later worked with entertainers, including Majah Hype. Just before the COVID-19 pandemic, he worked with Kanye West in Wyoming and later on the “Donda” tour.
After relocating to South Florida, Reece consulted for restaurants and served as an executive chef on South Beach.
But he said something shifted.
“I did a consultation, and something just triggered me,” he said. “Instead of doing consultation for others, how about I just run my own restaurant?”
He spoke with mentor Randy Dawkins, his now business partner, and Chef Reece Kitchen was born.
Reece credits their wives, Katana Dawkins and Sabrina Reece, with helping support the business.
When the restaurant moved from Pembroke Pines to Davie in 2024, Reece said they experienced some pushback from customers hesitant to travel a few extra minutes.
Still, many followed.
“To this day, we still have a lot of customer retention from the gas station three years ago,” Reece said.
Reece said the Davie location, near college campuses, has attracted a younger crowd, but that they still service a diverse base.
“Even though we’re Jamaican, we really serve everybody,” he said.
“I just want people to know that it don’t matter what business you’re in, it’s definitely in the work that you put in...to get up every day, even on the days that you don’t feel like doing it,” Reece said. “Just get up and just be consistent, there’s definitely magic in that. Whatever you do, just attach love to it and everything will pay off.”
