Arriving as an exchange student in the Caribbean many Augusts ago, I dropped pounds as fast as ice cream melts. The sparkling sea and flowers couldn’t have been more appealing, but a whiny letter home complained: “I’m hot all the time, and the food is so spicy, greasy, mushy, or sweet …” I swore over our daily dish of mashed breadfruit (also used to make paper, ’cause even termites don’t like it), vowing never again to eat it again by choice.
I’ve since come to enjoy much of what derailed me then, including curried and jerked meats and bananas’ starchy cousins, plantains. Such island staples feature prominently on the menu at Jamaican Jerk Pit, just off campus in an old house on Thayer. They’re prepared to order in an unusual split-level space that conjures up as much of a rustic sunny atmosphere as possible in the shadow of Hill Auditorium.
A relentless reggae soundtrack and big bright posters of beaches and Bob Marley drive home the theme. Lined up in the cold case are Ting grapefruit soda, coconut water, Coke bottled in Mexico (with real sugar, no corn syrup), and other drinks of the south–but, alas, not rum or Red Stripe beer. A small warm case offers ugly yellow-dough meat pies for three bucks each–that’s either too much or a bargain, depending how you feel about this particular street food. To me they tasted pretty much like the last ones I had in Jamaica: heavy and nondescript.
Tradition and kitsch clash both in the food and decor at Jamaican Jerk Pit, but there’s more good than bad here. The “jerk” process of pre-rubbing meats with a savory-sweet mixture–heavy on the hot pepper, garlic, salt, thyme, allspice, and cinnamon–reliably produces densely flavorful results. The chicken and pork jerk versions I sampled were generally tender and delicious, though with an occasional fatty or chewy morsel. Also one “medium” spice order of chicken produced full facial sweats from the heat. Be sure to communicate clearly to your friendly server about your spicing tolerance, and be ready to temper the intense sauce with accompanying forkfuls of mild rice and “peas” (kidney beans, not the green peas northerners might expect). If your tastes are more temperate, the curry entrees are quite mild. A huge helping of curried halal goat was stewed fork-tender with onions, carrots, and potatoes–and if that’s not exotic enough there’s oxtail stew as well.
—
There have been Caribbean restaurants in Ann Arbor before–Bev’s Kitchen on Packard, and an earlier iteration of the Jerk Pit before it was taken over in 2009 by Jamaica native Robert Campbell, who also owns the Irie Caribbean Kitchen in Canton. But the other local restaurant I thought of most as a comparison with the Jerk Pit was Frita Batidos, as much for the contrast as the similarities in their approaches to Caribbean-inspired dining: Frita’s antiseptic white interior and mostly ground meats versus the Jerk Pit’s colorful interior and sauced slabs. Both places work the details for fresh-tasting food, but Frita’s brioche-style buns are better than the Jerk Pit’s mundane kaiser rolls. On the other hand, I found the Jerk Pit’s salt cod fritters more interesting than Frita’s conch fritters, because there was such pronounced interplay between the little spikes of briny fish, doughy stuffing, and the fried-to-perfection crust.
Another standout among the Jerk Pit’s “calypso starters” is pumpkin soup (“of the day” technically but available on all my February visits). Its lovely thick broth mingles white-meat chicken, homemade dumplings, and stewed yellow chunks of real honest-to-Jah pumpkin. The coconut shrimp starter was just OK, not particularly exciting or unusual. Better to save yourself for the “Island Style Entrees,” most of which round out nicely with side helpings of lightly curried sauteed cabbage, wonderful caramelized plantains, fried redskins, or the omnipresent rice and peas (at least it’s not breadfruit …). Bow tie pasta with chicken in creamy jerk sauce was a dreary dun color but tasted better than it looked.
Some entrees take a while to prepare, but be sure to save time and room for dessert when the luscious coconut cake is in the case. Its tall, rich cake layers stack high with interspersed custard and almost ganache-dense icing, topped off by a dusting of flaked coconut. Ideal for two to share, it’s an island escape on a plate.
—
Jamaican Jerk Pit
314 S. Thayer
585-5278
www.jamaicanjerkpit.com
Mon.-Thurs. 11:30 a.m-9:30 p.m., Fri. 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m., Sat. noon-10 p.m., Sun. (buffet) noon-8 p.m.
Appetizers $3-$7.50, sandwiches and salads $6-$8, entrees $9.50-$14.50, dessert $4.
Wheelchair accessible (one floor only)
