If you want a good Caribbean meal, go to
JRG Restaurant Bar and Fashion Cafe in Prospect Heights. But
eat a little something before you go. And don’t plan on seeing
a movie afterward.
Strange advice, I know.
JRG Fashion Cafe ("where food and fashion meet") opened
in December. The restaurant has a lot going for it. It’s an attractive
space, warmly hosted by owner J.R. Giddings, and his staff. Some
of the food is simply good, other dishes, like a salmon fillet
bathed in mango and sorrel paste was sublime. Speedy, it’s not.
The kitchen, headed by executive chef Carlton Rodgers and sous-chef
Karen Pompey, is still experiencing growing pains. Waiting for
courses is slow going: how does 40 minutes for two appetizers
sound? If the food wasn’t as good as it is, I’d say, "Save
yourself the trip." But Rodgers and Pompey take great care
with their cuisine. Their dishes – fresh, attractively plated
and boldly spiced – are worth the wait.
The cafe occupies two floors of a building. There’s a busy bar
and dining room downstairs and a quieter dining room upstairs
abutted by a spacious outdoor deck. Little expense has been spared
in outfitting the cafe. The walls are glazed in tones of celadon
and soft beige. Run a hand over them, and you’ll find they’re
cool and smooth as glass.
On the fourth Thursday of each month, Giddings hosts a fashion
show in the cafe to promote New York area fashion designers.
His love of fashion is apparent in the photos of models gracing
the walls, the garments of Brooklyn-based designers displayed
on mannequins and an endless video of gorgeous Amazons strutting
down a runway that plays overhead while you dine.
Many dishes that you’d find on a Caribbean menu, with touches
of Guyana and Latin America, can be found at JRG. Yucca, a root
vegetable common in Latin cooking is present, as is sweet or
squash-like plantains and akee, a red-skinned fruit that tastes
a bit like scrambled eggs. Codfish, curries and jerk chicken
are among the entrees.
The akee and codfish tempura are a welcome break from seasonal
crab cakes. The akee is blended with codfish into a velvety puree.
The mix is then dipped into a light tempura batter and fried
until crisp. The cakes taste cleanly of the fish and needed only
a squeeze of fresh lemon to heighten the flavors. Codfish cakes,
similar to the tempura version without the akee, were almost
as good.
Stew, especially a heavy, brown stew, doesn’t appeal to me on
a hot summer evening. But I love what happens to oxtails when
they cook for hours in a rich stew and, heat or no heat, I was
ordering them.
JRG’s oxtails needed another hour in the pot to reach optimum
tenderness, yet it was still beefy and not stringy. The stew
– enhanced with a healthy dose of fresh thyme – was smoky. The
side of rice and beans (kidney or black-eyed peas) is slow cooked
in fresh coconut juice with thyme, rosemary, onions and garlic.
It’s worth ordering on its own.
And then there’s that salmon. A huge fillet of the fish arrives
with a crosshatch of grill marks on its orange-pink flesh. Before
the salmon’s short stint over the fire, it’s brushed with a marinade
of pureed mango and sorrel leaves. The mango’s sweet cinnamon
flavor underscored by the tartness of the sorrel does something
magical to the fish. The puree forms a thin, brittle skin while
the fish’s flesh stays moist with a crisp edge. Each mouthful
is a pleasure. Simply sauteed leaves of sorrel add color, and
garlic mashed potatoes add chunky texture to the plate.
There are only three desserts offered at JRG: a Georgetown sponge
cake, vanilla custard layered with strawberries, and a pineapple-raisin
bread pudding. I love bread pudding in any form, but this one
left me cold. It was too dry and a little heavy like a Polish
babka.
On the other hand, I’m not sure if I would have enjoyed anything
at that point. Two hours of those over-oiled sticks prancing
around on the video made me feel guilty for the big dinner I
just downed.
Imagine that the JRG Fashion Cafe is a vacation, one that takes
awhile to ease into. Allow your shoulders to drop from their
place near your ears. Try to forget the million things you have
to complete before bed. (A strong cocktail, like their potent
whiskey sour, will help.) The food will arrive. Think of it as
fashionably late.
JRG Restaurant Bar and Fashion Cafe
(177 Flatbush Ave. at Pacific Street in Prospect Heights) accepts
Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diner’s Club and Discover.
Entrees: $10.95-$19.95. Valet parking. For reservations, call
(718) 399-7079.
