Jamaica Jamaica

Photo: Jeremy Bolen

Tony and Lenice Levy couldn’t have made their latest Jamaican restaurant more different than their first. Whereas Good To Go is bright and sunny, their latest venture, Jamaica Jamaica, is dim and sultry. Good to Go inspires takeout, Jamaica Jamaica inspires lingering. And while juices at Good To Go are virgin, the fresh-squeezed stuff at Jamaica Jamaica is spiked.

All in all, these are good changes. Blended fruit cocktails, like the papaya-, pineapple- and mango-packed Rasta Rhythm (pictured), make surprisingly apt counterparts to the housemade meat patties, which pack slow-building heat that will have your nose running.

Rum punch is mostly rum and only a little punch, in line with the food’s strong flavors. Aromatic curry chicken slaps you in the face with cumin, and about halfway through the fall-apart jerk chicken, the warming allspice and Scotch bonnets cause a sweat. Coconut shrimp in creamy broth is a subtler option; ditto for lusciously fatty oxtail. Caramel cake won’t hurt a bit, either. That is, until you crave it again later—now that could bring some pain.

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