Tanika Charles
Tanika Charles, a two-time JUNO Award nominee and three-time Polaris Music Prize long-lister, has become synonymous with Canadian Soul. Her music is a celebration of honesty and attitude, delivered with a high-energy live performance that leaves audiences enthralled. With a sound rooted in soul but fearlessly exploring gospel, rock, and even country influences, Tanika pushes the boundaries of what the genre can be, connecting with fans one album, one stream, and one encore at a time.
Her journey began with the release of Soul Run in 2016, an independent debut that was re-released internationally by Record Kicks in 2017. Her sophomore album, The Gumption (2019), featured standout tracks like “Tell Me Something,” amassing over a million Spotify streams. In 2022, she unveiled Papillon de Nuit: The Night Butterfly, showcasing hits like “Frustrated” and “Different Morning” featuring DijahSB. Most recently, The Union Sessions (2023) presented reimagined versions of early favorites, including “Parkdale” and “Silly Happy Wild.”
Edmonton-raised and Toronto-based, this first-generation Trinidadian-Canadian artist feels most at home on stage. Since her first cross-Canada tour in 2016, Tanika has performed in over 150 cities across 10 countries, headlining club shows, rocking festival main stages, and even entertaining audiences on moving trains. Her full-band live shows seamlessly blend faithful recreations of her studio work with bold reinterpretations, revealing the depth of her artistic influences.
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Diakhia Lezama
Executive Chef & Owner
Chef Diakhia is a one-of-a-kind culinary artist who designs menus inspired by the idea of simple and honest cooking.
She started in 2000, and developed a unique catering experience for all of our clients using fresh and sustainable ingredients. Catering became her specialty, where she provided sumptuous meals to many events of various sizes throughout the GTA.
Hailing from the Caribbean Island of Trinidad and Tobago, where her mother owned a catering business, she was grounded in the art of cooking.
She loves to be creative in the kitchen, taking a bit of all the Caribbean islands and putting them in a pot and making her guests feel welcomed and at home.
Prior to her newly found full-time profession, Chef Diakhia worked in the corporate sector as a financial analyst. “I thought that my nine-to-five job was going to be what I would do for the rest of my working life,” she said. “But there came a time when I started to hate what I was doing and I knew I could not continue.”
While working with her corporate colleagues they often went to lunch or dinner at various eateries and they always asked when she was going to take them to a Caribbean restaurant. She created one.
Her specialty signature menus include: The Seafood Bacchanal; The Laz Caribbean Breakfast; Caribbean Soup with an array of dishes that include stew chicken; barbecue, jerk chicken; stew pork, beef, fish, oxtail, curry shrimp, crab and lobster to meet your Caribbean delight!