Tiny's Famous Eats Continues Family Soul Food Tradition In Mastic

MASTIC, NY—Growing up in Mastic on the Poospatuck Reservation, Justin Edwards was never very far away from family or food. The owner of Tiny's Famous Eats grew up cooking soul food and home-cooked comfort dishes with his mother and grandmother.

So when Edwards' mother opened a small eatery at 146 Squaw Lane last year, but then wanted to retire from the business he decided to make the leap and leave his hospitality career and enter the food business full-time.

"I always enjoyed cooking, and I learned from my mother and grandmother. I remember making entire Thanksgiving dinners with my grandmother at age five," Edwards tells Patch.

As he got older, family and friends would ask him to cook for events and holidays, which evolved into an informal catering business.

"A friend told me, you should really start cooking," he recalls, and "the idea stuck."

Edwards is continuing in his mom's tradition, keeping most of her menu, but he's added new dishes, sides like candied yams, mashed potatoes, baked macaroni and cheese and his famous collard greens. The eatery is take-out and delivery.

The food, fresh seafood and dishes like chicken and waffles, is the food Edwards grew up eating, he says. Occasionally he creates a Native American dish.

So far, most of his customers are people living or working on the reservation's smoke shops but he's seeing more and more people wander in from further afield to check out the food.

"People will come in saying, I was going by and it smelled really good."

Edwards has bigger plans for the future.

"I'm saving every dime and my goal is to move off the reservation and open a bigger, dine-in restaurant where people can come in and really sit and enjoy."