WASHINGTON, D.C. – A little bit of the Caribbean is coming to our nation’s capital. A Food Network winning chef will open a new Jamaican concept in one of the busiest spots in town.
At Washington, D.C.’s busy Union Market, there’s a variety of food options to choose from. But in this 100 square foot spot, visitors will be able to order a bit of paradise.
“We have authentic Caribbean cuisine,” said Erica Barrett, owner and chef of COCO Jerk.
Barrett is the winner of Food Network’s season five BBQ Brawl. She owns a handful of restaurants across the US, but for 15 years, she has worked on developing COCO Jerk. She took her time to source the right ingredients and testing the recipes. COCO Jerk will pay homage to the authentic way of cooking Caribbean food.
“When you go to the Caribbean or to Jamaica, you get this authentic way of life and its beautiful,” said Barrett. “Everything is fresh, it’s organic. People are eating off the land and I feel like a lot of times when we cook those cuisines, we lose that in the US in terms of how we source our food in terms of food traceability and just really paying respect to ingredients in a fast casual concept.”
Construction of the space itself will begin soon. On May 7th, COCO Jerk will finally open in this busy market.
“What you can experience is when you come to COCO Jerk is amazing jerk chicken,” said Barrett. You can also expect rice and peas, we’ll have the herb citrus rice. We’ll have amazing desserts. We’ll have a toasted coconut banana pudding. We’ll have curry chicken, sweet potato chickpea curry. There’s so many fun things, oxtail! We’re cracking fresh coconuts. You can get fresh coconut water right here in Union Market.”
Barrett hopes a plate of COCO Jerk will make you feel like you’re on vacation.
“What you’re gonna experience with jerk is the love and care we put into this,” said Barrett. “I can promise you, you’ve never had it before.”
