JAMMIN’ GOOD FOOD SINCE 2019

 

GREEN BAY - If a Jamaican vacation sounds so good right about now you can practically smell the jerk chicken and hear the reggae music, maybe it’s because it’s just down the street.

No, not a mirage. It’s the real deal, right down to the cold Red Stripe.

Derron Wilson and Janel Johnson have slipped a slice of island life in the middle of the Broadway neighborhood that’s home to such fixtures as Cropsey’s on State, Packer Stadium Lounge and State Street Pub. There’s no missing their Lil Jamaica at 1332 S. Broadway, where a brightly colored mural by Green Bay artist Gregory Frederic on the outside of the building is your first hint at the good vibes inside.

That’s assuming you even make it into the lounge, which opened July 24. The draw, even before those doors opened, has been the beer garden, with its hibiscus trees, Jamaican flags, picnic tables, tiki bar and a pair of food trucks that serve up Wilson’s Jamaican cuisine.  The menu changes daily, but things like jerk chicken, curry chicken, jerk tacos and, yes, even a jerk brat, are staples, dished up with sides of coleslaw, rice and beans, steamed cabbage or mac and cheese. Don’t be surprised to see oxtail, curry goat or brown stew scrawled on the whiteboard on select days.

Questions are inevitable. When people ask what oxtail is, Wilson dishes it to them straight. 

“It’s the tail of an ox, cooked. And they’re like, ‘All right, I’ll have the jerk chicken,’” he says, laughing. “But then you have people who are adventurous and like, ‘OK, I’ll have a plate.’”

Men are more likely to try the curry goat than women, Johnson said, and brown stew is actually made with chicken. The jerk brat is a top seller and a favorite with kids. Wilson, who grew up in Hanover, Jamaica, 30 minutes west of Montego Bay, was set on keeping his menu authentic to his home country, but hey, when in Green Bay ... “Green Bay is full of so much culture, and the brats are part of Green Bay culture, so the Jamaican jerk flavor to a brat, what would make people around here feel like they have a part of this?” he said.

He also stepped out of his comfort zone to do jerk tacos after a friend suggested them. He started out with jerk chicken on a corn tortilla and then eventually added rice and beans. It was Johnson’s idea to top it with coleslaw. She also makes the mac and cheese, which sells out daily.

Serving Jamaican food in Green Bay means educating people about the cuisine.

“So people tend to think Jamaican cooking is this fine dining, put together, measuring out all the ingredients and getting it right. Well, that’s wrong,” Wilson said. “Jamaican cooking is actually getting it right so you don’t die of hunger. In a real Jamaican kitchen you would never find a measuring cup or a scoop or anything like that. It’s a little throwing in this, throwing in that, burning that.

“No two persons in Jamaica have the same taste. I burnt a lot of stuff,” he said.

Wilson perfected his recipes with trial and error and then expanded from the jerk chicken that earned him his first raves from friends when he served it from his garage. Jerk does not have to mean spicy, as some people think. One of the most asked questions from first-timers at the walk-up window is “What do you have on the menu that’s not spicy?” Wilson’s answer: “Everything.”


 

LEAD STAFF

Nemard Wilson
President /Owner

Derron
Executive Chef

Janel Johnson
General Manager/owner

gabby Wilson
Bar Manager




RECENT PRESS

Dena Holtz
https://www.wearegreenbay.com/local5live/local5live-recipes/brown-stew-chicken-recipe-from-lil-jamaica/