Immigrants bring diverse flavors to Germantown

Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo Charlie Shoemaker⁄The Gazette Café owners Roddie and Carminha Simmons (center left and right) share laughs with friends Rolf Schmidt of Rockville (far left), Dina Davie of North Potomac and Elane Vieira of Germantown (standing) on a recent Friday night at Aqui Brazilian Coffee.

Now, she and her husband, Roddie Simmons, have opened Aqui Brazilian Coffee, a new café in Germantown Square Shopping Center on Wisteria Drive.

Up the street at 13220 Wisteria, Jacob and Jaisy Kallarackal are busy at their market, India Gourmet, where they sell more than 100 spices, rice, frozen meals and fresh produce and meats, including goat.

The two couples are an example of new businesses with an ethnic flair arriving in Germantown.

Also on Wisteria Drive, the Russian Gourmet market is under construction at Germantown Plaza Shopping Center.

The diversity they represent mirrors that at Montgomery College’s Germantown campus where students from 115 different countries converge for classes. Ninety-five students from India make up the largest foreign population, followed by those from Ghana, Iran, Peru, Cameroon and South Korea, according to Steve Poteat, director of community outreach at the campus.

Montgomery County’s minority and immigrant population grew from 19 percent of the total population in 1990 to over 40 percent in 2001, according to the county government’s Web site.

One of the advantages to a new, growing community is that many neighborhoods haven’t been segregated by race or ethnicity, Poteat noted.

‘‘I think a lot of people come to the upcounty because it’s a new developing area,” he said. ‘‘They feel welcome here.”

Café infuses shopping center with tropics

Stepping into her new Germantown café, Simmons is reminded of Fortaleza, the northern coastal community where she was raised.

‘‘It’s a good feeling,” she said last week. ‘‘I came from a very poor family.”

The walls are painted in bright blue and yellow and giant photographs of the Brazilian coast, beaches and mountains hang on the walls. On a recent Friday night, a Brazilian soap opera was playing on a small television. Women gathered to watch at the counter and chatted excitedly. At a table, a woman and two children ate arepa’s — grilled corn cakes with melted mozzarella cheese and ham.

It’s worlds away from her parent’s home where they farmed corn and beans for the family to survive, Simmons said. The Simmons family returns to Brazil yearly; their 4-year-old daughter already speaks Portuguese.

In Germantown, more than 35 percent of residents speak a language other than English at home. And more than 32 percent reported a foreign-born person as the head of household, according to census and county data.

All of Aqui’s employees are Brazilian, Simmons said.

It’s one way the couple infuses Brazilian culture in the café. Roddie Simmons, who conceptualized a Brazilian-themed café about five years ago, said the café will celebrate important events in the history of the countries that produce their coffee.

‘‘We went through a lot of trouble to make sure the coffee was high quality,” he said. ‘‘We want to give our customers a sense of the coffee and the people behind it.”

The Brazilian community is more active than people in the upcounty realize, he said.

‘‘This is a vibrant area,” he said. ‘‘The whole county has a lot of Latinos and a large Brazilian population.”

Many of them arrived as his wife and her sisters did — looking for a means to make a living and support family in South America.

‘‘The way I came over [to America] was so special,” said Carminha Simmons, who became a United States citizen in October. ‘‘I think God brought me here.”

A bit of Indiaon Wisteria Drive

India Gourmet has been open just over a year and owner Jacob Kallarackal still has big plans for the store that is 40 percent complete.

The store offers traditional Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankin fare, and also jewelry, purses, toys and movies.

More than 100 spices fill the shelves — tumeric and curry among them — and fresh plantains and other fruits and vegetables fill the aisles.

‘‘We’re just trying to bring the whole India here,” he said in a recent interview.

The couple moved to Germantown 21 years ago and opened the 7,200-square-foot market after selling two other Indian food stores several years ago.

Eventually the store will offer carry-out, he said. Kallarackal said he is discussing a venture with a large Indian grocery store, which would make India Gourmet its first American franchise.

He said he hopes to offer Indian cook-outs next summer so he, his wife and three children can educate others about Indian food.

Kallarackal relocated to this area after one of his brothers attended college at the University of Maryland. His parents still live in India, in the southern town of Kerala.

‘‘I’ve seen a big change in the Indian community in Germantown,” he said. ‘‘It’s growing.”