In 2005, Theo Martin opened the restaurant we now know simply as Island Soul, a joyful confluence of soul food and Caribbean flavors forged with longtime chef Bobby Laing. Last April, Martin and his family debuted a new spot, Arleana’s, serving Caribbean dishes with French touches in a dramatic Kirkland dining room. The name pays tribute to Martin’s late mother; Lula Arleana and Loy Vadus Martin adopted Theo after an early childhood split between an estimated 14 foster homes.

As Martin tells it, his father brought him into the restaurant industry (and out of a 20-year career as a Nordstrom shoe buyer). Now he finally has a chance to honor his mother, not to mention the many years he spent in Kirkland.

My father started a restaurant in Judkins Park the ’70s. It was called Judkins Barbecue. He had a corner store and a barbecue restaurant. Construction was his day job. Around the ’90s, he started leasing it out to people in the neighborhood. Each person would kind of started falling behind on rent and he’d come take it back over. But it was too much. In the late ’90s he became ill and I stepped in. 

I worked at Nordstrom, I managed departments and was a shoe buyer. In between Nordstrom I would come and help; my brother would help. I lived in Judkins Park, so before Nordstrom, I’d come in and start cooking and prepping. When I got off work, I’d come in and close up the restaurant. After a year or two, my brother went back to corporate: back to PCC. I gave [the restaurant] my personality.

Bobby was the dishwasher at Casuelita’s Caribbean Cafe. Then one day my brother was like, this guy can really cook. And here I am trying to be a cook and be a shoe buyer at the same time, running back and forth. He was from Jamaica. He had traveled the world, especially the United States, cooking. He could cook Jamaican food to Americana food. So I said, let me show you what I do. You show me what you do. And let's put together something. It was Caribbean soul food.

It started off as Casuelita’s Island Soul. My cousin was Casuelita’s Caribbean Cafe. It started out as soul food, mostly barbecue soul food. Unfortunately I could never get my liquor license because I was less than 500 feet from an elementary school and a church. Back then you had to get a letter from both saying it was okay to serve liquor.

From there we started looking in Columbia City. One of my mother’s favorite spots in her senior years was a restaurant called the Wellington [Tea Room]. A Black family ran it, we used to celebrate my mother’s birthday there. Then one day the lady said she was closing down and she wanted to sell the restaurant.

It just turns out the word “Casuelita’s” made everyone think we were a Latin or Mexican restaurant. It’s a Spanish word that means small pot, small pan. We kept getting a lot of awards for new Latin food. When I moved to Columbia City, we decided as a group, let’s just drop the name “Casuelita’s” and just use Island Soul.

I spent my first 10 years of school, first grade to 10^th grade, in private school in Kirkland. I always loved Kirkland. As a foster kid, I’m in Seattle bouncing from house to house and now I’ve come to a house that fosters me and sends me to a private school. We rode a bus from our church to Kirkland. Back then it was woody, it was cool. All my sisters and brothers, all my foster family, we were all going to the same place. I stayed in contact with a lot of people from Kirkland. And it was getting gorgeous, the Google campus moved over there.

My parents were saints; they fostered kids. They legally adopted me. I always wanted to honor my mother. I wouldn’t have been into the business if my father hadn’t given me the opportunity to run his restaurant. As a foster kid I wanted to honor my mother the same. Mom loved food, she loved family, and she loved serving others. She had a restaurant in her young life. Now my wife and I have three businesses; we’ve had a staffing agency since 1999, Island Soul, and Arleana’s. All of our kids work with us.

People always go, “why Kirkland?” It’s a beautiful place; it’s got a very diverse community. We always think of Seattle being diverse and Tacoma. It’s also in the Eastside as well, because of the tech world. It’s brought people from all over the world who are familiar with Caribbean food and Caribbean spices. And spices, period.

[When I opened Arleana’s,] all of a sudden people started coming in there—I’m talking about white and Black—saying, ‘I’m from North Carolina. I haven’t had catfish since I left.’ ‘I haven’t had gumbo since I left Louisiana.’ There’s a huge percentage of people who don’t come to Seattle. They don’t cross that bridge. I smile and I go, there’s a huge community over there.