Chef Kadon Barnwell opens Bincho-Don island cuisine at Easton Public Market

EASTON, Pa. — Kadon Barnwell spent years cooking in some of New Jersey’s most decorated kitchens. Now he has a smoker, a tight menu and a community wall where kids can draw.

Barnwell, 28, held a ribbon-cutting and grand opening celebration for Bincho-Don at the Easton Public Market, 325 Northampton St., on April 2, capping a soft opening period that began Feb. 28.

The island-inspired vendor occupies the space long held by More Than Q, a wood-smoked barbecue concept that was one of the market’s founding vendors when it opened in April 2016.

The concept blends Caribbean, Guyanese, Honduran and Filipino influences — a reflection of Barnwell’s own heritage. His father is from Guyana. His mother is from Roatán, a Honduran island in the Caribbean. He grew up in a Filipino household.

“We call it island cuisine because islands all over the world,” Barnwell said.

The name itself is layered. Binchotan is a Japanese charcoal Barnwell used extensively for pop-ups and private events — always fanning it, always tending the fire. “I was called the Bincho Don at some point,” he said. His own name is in there, too.

Barnwell started cooking professionally at 16 and spent 12 years working his way up through the industry.

He later served as chef de cuisine at the Pluckemin Inn, a Wine Spectator Grand Award-winning fine dining restaurant in Bedminster, N.J., and most recently worked as executive chef at Cree Wine Company, a Hunterdon County wine bar run by New Jersey’s only certified Master of Wine.

At Bincho-Don, he is trading composed, fine-dining plates for rice bowls and smoked proteins at the market.

“I’m young, I don’t have much to lose,” Barnwell said.

The standout item so far has been the jerk chicken, which Barnwell said has been the most consistent seller since the soft opening.

The bird marinates for 48 hours before being smoked and finished in a house-made jerk barbecue sauce. During a visit this week, the chicken was tender, falling off the bone and deeply smoked — served over rice with mac and cheese and steamed cabbage, a generous portion.

The current menu, which Barnwell said will rotate seasonally, also includes escovitch fish, shrimp with green seasoning, a vegan chana dal and a curry fried chicken sandwich, with sides ranging from coconut rice and beans to yuca fries. Plates run $14 to $21.

“We’re not Jamaican. We’re Guyanese at our roots,” Barnwell said. “But the jerk chicken — we’re like, all right, we got to do something that people know just to bring them in. But the way that we do it has just been killing them.”

The smoker, like the space itself, came from the previous tenant. More Than Q pitmaster Matt Martin passed it along to Barnwell when he decided to exit the Easton location. Barnwell said Larry, a former More Than Q employee who helped run that kitchen, has stayed on and is now part of the Bincho-Don team.

“He ran this place like home,” Barnwell said of Larry. “He taught me how to use that smoker.”

Barnwell’s younger brother, Isaiah, also works alongside him. Their father comes in to help. The business, Barnwell said, was funded by his family.

“Very transparently, it was me and my family,” he said. “They believe in me, and they put their trust in me to do the right thing and express my talents. It’s the start for us to actually become free and do something for ourselves rather than someone else.”

Operating out of a public market presents its own logistical challenges. Unlike a restaurant, there are no reservations and no way to anticipate foot traffic.

“Some days it is completely quiet in here, and then there are other days where there was a protest outside and the space is packed and we just got absolutely swamped,” Barnwell said.

He said one thing he did not expect was how natural it has become to talk to guests. A self-described kitchen guy who is always hiding in the back, he said the day-to-day customer interaction has been an adjustment — but one that is getting easier.

“I thought my stomach was going to turn every single day,” he said. “But now it’s getting a little bit better.”

For now, Barnwell said the menu will stay focused — tight dishes he knows are working, designed to build a customer base and generate consistent revenue before he starts experimenting.

He said he is eyeing a presence at Belleville Market, the multi-merchant shopping destination at 20 S. 3rd St. in downtown Easton, and plans to resume pop-ups under the Bincho-Don name once the stall is fully established.

Spring and summer are what he is most looking forward to.

“Culinarily, the spring and summer seasons — just for new produce, just to be able to do some more variations of dishes and have a more rotating menu,” Barnwell said. “Right now, this is baseline. Some people think this is all we have, but there’s a lot more to come.”

Jared Mast, executive director of Greater Easton Development, which operates the Easton Public Market, welcomed the new addition.

“It’s a sad farewell to Matt and More Than Q, having worked with him since the very beginnings of the market, but we’re excited to welcome the next chapter for that space with Kadon,” Mast said.

Bincho-Don is open Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.