Simone Caribbean Restaurant

Simone Lawrence, the businesswoman behind the Danforth's Simone's Caribbean Restaurant, has had many lives prior to opening her namesake restaurant. She's a florist by trade, has worked as a wedding planner and did interior decoration for a while. There's one thing, however, that has followed her throughout her life: her love for cooking.

''I don't have a formal training in cooking,'' she says, ''but I've been cooking since I was a child. I learned about Caribbean culinary traditions and techniques that way, and I respect them while I also use a great deal of instinct when I'm preparing the food too.''

Prior to opening Simone's Caribbean Restaurant in October 2013, Simone worked at another Caribbean restaurant in Toronto, saving up money to buy one of their franchises. ''Quickly, I realized it was too expensive to do so; I then decided to use the money I saved up to open my own place, and sort of reinvent the Caribbean restaurant experience,'' she says.

As most Caribbean restaurants are take-out joints, Simone wanted to create a dine-in friendly place, where customers could linger for a while, enjoy traditional Caribbean fare and sip on a warm tea, or a cold Red Stripe. ''It had to be friendly and welcoming, an environment where diners would want to sit down and spend some time at. We even have a patio, for our customers to make the most out of warm summer evenings."