Copyright M Live Michigan
FLINT, MI — Nate Campbell III is no stranger to the Flint Farmers’ Market or the city’s food scene. Campbell, 34, also known as DJ Chef Nate, has been cooking through the Flint Social Club and pop-ups throughout the community. Now, he has another line to add to his accomplishments: restaurant owner. The 2009 Flint Southwestern Classical Academy graduate is the owner and chef behind 810 Tings, a new Jamaican eatery in the Flint Farmers’ Market. 810 Tings offers family-inspired recipes with a twist of Jamaican flavors and soul food where you’ll hear the DJ in him when you visit the stand with rap, hip-hop and R&B jams in the background while your food is cooked. “You’re gonna hear some Frankie Beverly and Maze, and definitely will hear some hip hop. I’m a backpack hip hop guy,” Campbell said. “I will say, some early 2000s is my sweet spot. Like Talib Kweli era, like early Kanye West, that’s my golden era. But I love everything, newer stuff too. So we’ll be grooving while we cook.” Family influences, flavors and breakthrough His godmother and grandmother ran catering businesses, where Campbell found many of his favorite flavors and connection to concocting creative cuisine and kitchens. Velma Massey, Campbell’s godmother, ran a Jamaican catering business in Chicago. Leora Campbell, Campbell’s grandmother, a Louisiana native, is whom he credits for having a Creole flavor in her recipes. “I spent my summers in Chicago with my godmother, and I learned a lot of those flavors from her. Then soul food is my grandmother’s passion,” Campbell said. “I grew up in her kitchen every day, so I became her little prep cook, which drove my passion for food. I was fortunate to be a kid that didn’t like fast food growing up because I was blessed to have great flavor at home all the time. “My grandmother was even more known in the community than I am. And it showed when they’re cooking, it was a sense of welcoming. So even though she didn’t have an open kitchen like I have, she welcomed everybody into her kitchen. It felt like you knew her even though you didn’t once you ate her food for the first time or anytime. And that — that stuck with me. It’s an approach that I take very seriously. It’s a big part of my mantra that people feel loved when they’re getting food from me." A DJ and a chef for the last 15 years, Campbell would cooked in several kitchens throughout Michigan by day while hitting different clubs spinning records and getting people moving on the dance floor by night. He credits his biggest breaks in the food industry to two prior jobs. Campbell worked from 2016 to 2020 as sous chef at Johnny Black’s, finding traction on how to run a business properly, and from 2021 to 2024 learning from Tony Vu while working in collaboration with other chefs at the Flint Social Club, discovering his own confidence and utilizing the flavors he grew up with as a core value for the spring board to open his own spot. What is 810 Tings? Tings literally is a slang term for Things, in how it is pronounced in the Jamaican dialect. “I want you to feel like welcome. I’m not an uptight person. I’m a laid back, chill person,” Campbell said. “And I feel like tings represents the essence of what that is ... Like, ‘Oh, it’s slow motion, no worries kind of vibes.’ And that’s what we are over here.” For Campbell, it’s also a love letter to his family’s roots back into the Flint community — through bold, beautiful flavorful food that’ll warm hearts and fill bellies. “Doing this just fast, casual way with doing bright bowls and grits bowls and things like that, it’s an easy way to deliver the flavors that I like and that aren’t really available in our area,” he said. “That’s a big part of this, is to bring flavors that didn’t exist in our area before.” Campbell said the jerk chicken is the restaurant’s claim to fame, noting it has been “selling like hotcakes.” For those who aren’t a fan of spicy tings, Campbell’s solution is the Cajun chicken. He said there’s something for everybody, with vegan and vegetarian friendly options as well. Another ting he’s proud of, citrus pickled onions, may be something new to many people. “Pickled onion comes with typically vinegar and that’s how it’s made. But this one, there is no vinegar involved,” Campbell said. “It’s all lime juice. And it just makes it for a totally different flavor profile than what you’re using too. And it’s something that surprises you when you bite into it.” 810 Tings is open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at the market, 300 E. 1st St., and available through Door Dash. “It means a great deal to bring these flavors, like the boldness and the smokiness. That is just something that, like growing up in Flint, I didn’t get around here, only when I was in Chicago with my godparents,” he said. “So it is very important me to be able to introduce those type of smoky, bold flavors to our area. I live here. I’ve lived here my whole life. I want to be able to eat a variety of things. So I’m glad that I’m a part of that community that are bringing those varieties to the world. “I’m a big Flint first guy. It matters to me. So I’ve always wanted to be a part of the change in my city. So to do it in a culinary sense is. That’s my avenue... it’s so refreshing to be a part of the growth in the city that I love.”
