“Come back to Jamaica” is an old advertising refrain, but in Baltimore, it means visit Park Heights Avenue.
Near the famed Pimlico Racetrack is a growing number of authentic Jamaican restaurants, grocery stores and record shops that fill the neighborhood with smells of jerk seasoning and reggae music. According to Freka Scott, 26, a native of Jamaica and manager of Judy?s Island Grill and Bake Shop on Park Heights Avenue, the businesses are a sign that the city has a growing, though tightly knit Jamaican community.
“It is large and at the same time small, because everyone knows each other,” she said.
Scott?s restaurant serves authentic Jamaican dishes like ackee and saltfish, curried goat and beef patties, a turnover stuffed with beef that Scott said is a staple in her native country. She said 80 percent of her patrons are Jamaican.
Scott said the Jamaican community is “growing” in Baltimore, albeit quietly. “Jamaicans are private people,” she said.
Along with a half dozen restaurants, the growing number of grocery stores that sell imported Jamaican foods is another sign of the influx of Jamaicans. Afro-Tropical, on the 5800 block of York Road, carries all the Jamaica staples, including fresh thyme, plantain and goat meat. But owner Barbara Chukwuemeka, a Nigerian, said the real indication of the growing presence of Jamaicans in Baltimore is sales of Easter buns specially imported from the island.
Chukwuemeka said the demand for authentic Easter buns this year was heavy. “We sell a lot of these to Jamaican customers because they have to have them for Easter,” she said. “On Good Friday, they eat it with fish or cheese.”
While demographic census data for Baltimore City does not have a specific category for Jamaicans, Judy Scott, Freka?s mother and owner of Judy?s Island Grill, said the growing number of restaurants and grocery stores means the Jamaican community is on the rise. “It?s definitely getting bigger; I know, because my business is doing well,” Scott said.
Bunny Grant, 37, a chef at one of the restaurants on Park Heights, agreed as he picked up some canned fish at Afro-Tropical on his way home. “There are a lot of Jamaicans here,” he said. “All over the area, actually.”
