Before there was a Smurf's Cafe and Jackie's Hearts of Love Cafe & Bakery, there was the Original: Trans Love Cafe & Bakery. We are remembering the founders, the prodigious baker/chef Michael Harman and songstress/deliver-ess, Julie, along with a string of succeeding generations of business caretakers who stoked the flames of love, heart and communitarian values.

Through all its transformations, the cafe/coffee shop has remained a gathering place to start the day with heady infusions of locally roasted coffee... fare nourishing to the eye, taste and belly...a place to meet and discover what gwan.

The spirit of bringing world-class French baguettes, delicious pastries (banana breads and such) and special-occasion cakes all started with Trans Love, which sounds more like a philosophy of adventurous engagement with ALL that's about.

After all these years, you only have to close your eyes, guide your neural pathways, open your sniffing nostrils to bring back all the goodness of Michael Harman's impossibly rich chocolate ganache cake gentled out of a country oven here in Treasure Beach.

We sometimes take it for granted that certain special places become depositories for an exchange of vast social and cultural blessings, and seekers/adventurers/humanitarians such as Michael elaborate on these quests... taking from and giving back.

Here's a treat to what caring epicure, such as Michael, does for survive-al:

A DAY THAT MATTERS:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf2QmKato5M

LINK To Jackie's Memory & The Resilience of Smurf"s Cafe After The Fire:

Jackie Gone But Not Forgotten:
http://treasurebeach.net/discus/messages/8121/11763.html?1236544484

Caring For Smurf's Cafe At Time Of The Fire:
http://webtonic.info/discus/messages/1584/13763.html?1258050045

Wow! The place sure has changed since I first opened it in the Winter of 89-90. It warms my heart to know that it's still a "hot-spot" in Treasure Beach (my favorite of all the towns I visited when researching for the right place in 1988) and my original name, Trans-Love Sweets and Breads, is still remembered.

Full "respect" to those who brought it back from the fire damage, from "the bakermon."

michael harman on Sunday, January 02, 2011 - 01:01 pm

“Good Beaches, Great People”

I loved the beaches, swam several times a day, ate sweet fruit and fresh fish and home style meals, enjoyed walking along the a coast line with the variety including sand, rock, meadow, cottages, and trees.

And now that I am home, what I remember is the people. Another visitor said “they treat us like guests, not tourists”.
Instead of night club acts, there are people to talk with, people who sing while walking down the road, people who listen, people who show me how they are making a drum or carving wood or how their paintings developed, people who tell me how the villages were before the hotels started, people who wave when they see me again, people who tell me of their travels away from Jamaica and their return, people who treat me offhand like a local customer.

When I wanted to be left alone, I usually was (since the beaches are quiet and the hills are serene); when I wanted company, I could always find some at the local coffee shop or beach shack or grocery store or dance hall.

I have been there twice, and been surprised that people recognized me a year later after a short visit. Yes, I will return again, I need to see how everyone is doing!
(A Trip Advisor Member, West Paterson, NJ: 29•10•2004)

www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147309-d148169-Reviews-or10-Treasure_Beac h-Jamaica.html#REVIEWS

Oh,Yes,those were great times.Lots of hard work,but very rewarding.Michael would arrive from early early,to begin the bread,and I would come a bit later,and the girls and I squeezed huge bags of ortaniques for juice and made fruit salad,which,if we didn't use ,we would cook into delicious jam for the breads.Everything Michael Harman made was superlative,even the crust that bubbled up from the bottom of the pine upside down cake.But the food and all the work that was involved was only a small part of Trans Love.It wasfor us, learning Jamaica from the inside,first of all from the many wonderful women who worked there and taught us the runnings,whom I still see and love,and the welcoming community we became part of.We learned also from the interesting people from around the world who came to eat and interact with us sometimes for many years in a row.Michael Harman was(still is) a sucker for a good conversation,and cannot fathom that everone does not have a strong opinion about everything.So,he fit right in also with all the locals who hung out there.Jamaica has changed since then in many ways,after all twenty years have passed.We've lost so many of our older friends,Brother Martin,Zimbo,Mockford and many more,includung sweet Jackie.The kids from the neighborhood now have children of their own.It warms my heart that the memory of Trans Love Sweets and Breads survives still and that Dawn now is doing her own magic there.And Michael Harman thinks fondly of those days,even now in his many reincarnations.If Obama was not running,I,for one would vote for Michael Harman for President,a job I'm sure he would not want.

Michael & Julie, we were glad to help make your dream came through in Treasure Beach. We have very fond memories of you.

Michael, we are very proud to see te work you do with those specail kids.

Miss Darcy,Niv,Dickey,Lockie,I was remiss in not thanking all of the Lewis family first thing!We never could have done it without you!We loved being at Shakespear Cottage,and being your renters at the shop.You were so kind to us,and taught us so much.Thank you.Don't know which one of you is where now,but I'll soon see you,if you are in TB.I hope my good friend Jaguar is around too!Merry Christmas to you all.