FreeTown in Crown Heights: African and American food by the pan
Published · Food & Drink
FreeTown African & American Cuisine cooks at 1172 Park Place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The name comes from Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, and FreeTown's CloserAccess listing describes the family behind it as rooted there. The menu on its own website is a catering menu: every item is sold by the full pan, priced as a party tray rather than by the plate.
That makes FreeTown useful in a specific way. One order can put West African dishes like jollof rice and suya on the same table as fried chicken, turkey wings, collard greens and mac and cheese. CloserAccess builds and hosts FreeTown's website.
At a glance
- Who they are: FreeTown African & American Cuisine, a Brooklyn kitchen named for Freetown, Sierra Leone, where the family has its roots.
- What they sell: Catering trays by the full pan, 18 items across four sections, plus custom catering on request.
- Where: 1172 Park Place, Brooklyn, NY 11213, in Crown Heights.
- Who it's for: People feeding a crowd who want West African and soul food cooking in one order.
- Website: FreeTown's website
The menu, pan by pan
The menu has four sections, and the prices on FreeTown's site run from $40 to $165 a pan. Poultry and meat is the longest section:
- Pan Fried Chicken and Pan Baked Chicken, $100 each
- Jerk Chicken and Fried Chicken Suya, $120 each
- Pan Turkey Wings, $140
- Pan Steak, $160
- Pan Lamb and Lamb Suya, $165 each
The seafood trays are fried and grilled:
- Pan Whiting, $115
- Pan Shrimp, $125
- Pan Salmon, $150
Rice, pasta and the sides round out the spread:
- White Rice, $40
- Pan Jollof Rice, $85
- FreeTown Pasta, $85, with chicken (+$15), steak (+$30) or shrimp (+$20) added on
- Pan Caesar Salad and Pan Collard Greens, $60 each
- Mashed Potato, $80
- Mac & Cheese, $90
Every price is for a full pan. The full list, with the section notes, is on FreeTown's catering menu.
Two traditions on one table
The business named itself African & American, and the menu follows through. Jollof rice and two suya trays, one chicken and one lamb, sit on the West African side. Fried and baked chicken, turkey wings, whiting, collards, mashed potatoes and mac and cheese come from the Southern and soul food side. Jerk chicken is the one Caribbean dish on the tray menu.
For a host, the mix solves a real problem. A family party or a cookout often has guests who came for the jollof and guests who came for the mac and cheese, and here both can come from one kitchen in one order. A spread could be as simple as a pan of jollof, a pan of chicken suya, collard greens and mac and cheese, or it could cover every section.
FreeTown's blog writes about the same overlap. It has posts on two traditions of cooked greens, cassava leaf and collards, on how Crown Heights came to eat the way it does, on the food of West Indian Day Carnival on Eastern Parkway, and on Freetown itself and why the restaurant carries its name.
How to order
The site gives two routes. The Custom Catering service on the services page is a request form, and it asks the two questions that shape any catering order: how much food you need and how many people you are feeding. The menu page also has an Order on GrubHub link, which goes to the restaurant's Grubhub listing.
What to ask before you order
The menu doesn't say how many people a pan feeds, what the minimum order is, or how much notice the kitchen needs. Those answers depend on your event, so put your headcount and your date in the request and ask directly. The menu also has no dietary or allergen notes, so if anyone in your group eats halal, eats vegetarian or has an allergy, raise it when you ask for the quote.
Who it's for
FreeTown fits the person in charge of the food for a crowd: a birthday at home, a graduation, a holiday table or an office lunch in central Brooklyn. It fits especially well when the guest list spans West African and American food habits and the host wants one order to cover both. Anyone planning one of those can start with the trays and work out quantities with the kitchen.
FreeTown is also on CloserAccess.