Toronto-Based Jamaican Restaurant Transports Your Taste-Buds to an Island Getaway
Since opening Taste Seduction in 2006, Chef Vernon Young has been on a mission to bring a little piece of Jamaica to the Junction area of Toronto. Taste Seduction is a family-owned restaurant that mixes traditional Jamaican flavours with other cultures around the world to create a Jamaican International experience for everyone to savour. Their menu is curated by owner and Executive Chef Vernon Young – a native of Jamaica with years of experience crafting traditional home-style meals.
“Jamaican culture and food flavours have been loved and admired all around the world for centuries,” Vernon states. “People of all nations travel to our beautiful country of Jamaica not only for the warm sunshine, relaxing beaches, and majestic waterfalls, but to taste our authenticity in Caribbean-inspired food.”
Although Taste Seduction is a popular favourite among the local community, their website was not visible to search engines. With their lack of visibility hindering the ability for customers to order online and loss of local foot traffic due to COVID-19, Chef Vernon Young turned to the DMS Future Proof program as an opportunity to pivot Taste Seduction’s business online and gain more brand visibility.
“As a small business owner, things [have been] very difficult these past few months because of the pandemic. There's less foot traffic,” Vernon said.
Thanks to the Transformation Teams, Taste Seduction’s website was re-designed to improve UX/UI on desktop and mobile. The website now includes updated images, additional website copy, and an order online feature. Taste Seduction’s website now appears on the first page of Google when searching for Jamaican food in the Junction, Toronto – a huge win for Chef Vernon Young and customers in the area. “The Transformation Team did a great job with my website upgrade and setting up the SEO. They really did a great job. I have a website that is more effective, I hope to gain more visits,” Vernon said.
Vernon also expressed gratitude for his Transformation Team, stating that he was confident in the digital marketing skills that the team trained him on once the transformation was complete. “They are professionals, they take pride in what they were doing, they are easy to work with, and they listen to your concerns,” Vernon said. “They always wanted to make sure I was comfortable with the work that’s been done.
For the best jerk chicken, rotis, and braised oxtail in Toronto, check out Taste Seduction’s online menu or follow them on Instagram. To learn more about the Digital Main Street Future Proof program, click here.
Written by Liana Mallia
Digital Main Street was created by the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA) with direct support from the City of Toronto. DMS is also supported by a group of strategic business partners, including Google, Mastercard, Shopify, Meta, Intuit QuickBooks, Square, Lightspeed, Ebay and Canada Post.
A $42.5-million investment from FedDev Ontario brought together the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas, Communitech, Invest Ottawa and the Ontario Business Improvement Area Association to expand the Digital Main Street Platform in order to support more businesses going digital as a response to the impacts of COVID-19 in Southern Ontario.
