“A Neighborhood Anchor” — & Braised Oxtail Dumplings

by Lisa Reisman

At Grill-Mon Island on Grand Avenue, customers have fallen hard for Eulita Clarke’s braised oxtail, her jerk chicken and, more recently, her curried goat and honey-fried shrimp. That’s because, among other reasons, Clarke seasons meat to the bone to draw out its flavors, according to co-owner Jamiel Bowen.

Which is perhaps why, on a recent Friday evening at the 118 Grand Ave. eatery, a young mother named Myra was ordering dumplings — not just any dumplings, but ones from Clarke’s braised oxtail.

“They’re my favorite,” she explained, as reggae tunes filtered through the compact, mellow-lit space on the eastern end of a single-story commercial strip set back from East Pearl Street near Grand Avenue. Her husband Josiah nodded. Her son, also named Josiah, 2, banged his assent on the armrest of his stroller.

Grill-Mon, which offers take-out and delivery, opened last November on the site of the former Grand Cafe, which had been a hub for drug dealing, prostitution, loitering, underage drinking, fighting, public intoxication, and gun violence.

Seven months in, a lot has happened, most of it positive. “People have discovered her food,” Bowen said of his mother Eulita. “My mom, you know, she’s a great chef.”

“Yes she is,” said Myra.

“Yep,” said Clarke’s daughter Regina, a student at East Haven High School, who was settled in the homey seating area, playing video games. Regina highlighted her honey-fried shrimp, a new addition to the menu. “Yum,” she said.

Grill-Mon Island storefront.

Just then, Clarke emerged from the kitchen, beaming, as she enveloped Myra in a warm hug. “For me, food is love,” said the Grill-Mon head chef who learned about the otherworldly properties of allspice and thyme and Scotch bonnet peppers from her grandmother on their family farm in rural Jamaica. “If you can prepare someone a good meal, it’s love and everybody needs love.”

Bowen heard about the commercial vacancy at 124 Grand Ave. when the mother-son duo was running an earlier iteration of Grill-Mon in Middletown; it began as a food truck in November 2023. The location made sense. The commute for Clarke, who lives in East Haven, was long. Then there was Bowen’s abiding affection for New Haven—specifically, Fair Haven—from the time he came for college from Jamaica 16 years ago.

“The Fair Haven Clinic was important to my health, my mother’s health, my sister’s health,” said Bowen, who earned a bachelor’s in accounting, a master’s in taxation, and an MBA at the University of New Haven; an accountant for PhalanxFS, he now works remotely from an office in the back of the restaurant. “It was an affordable option when I first came to this country. New Haven is where my heart is.”

Bowen said he researched the site’s history before signing the lease. “We saw the litter, the broken car glass in the parking lot, we knew there were troubles, but we also saw the potential if we could bring a good business here,” Bowen said. Grill Mon is pooling resources with the other tenants of the single-story commercial strip to keep the area tidied up.

He recounted a conversation with a customer earlier that evening. “She said she’s lived on the block a long time and she would never come to this shopping strip because it was so dangerous,” he said. “And now she sees the place look cleaner, she sees people coming in, and she got curried chicken and rice.”

Head chef Eulita Clarke chopping it up with a regular customer as Jamiel Bowen prepares her order.

Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller who, as head of City Seed, has helped guide Bowen in his food truck and restaurant ventures, sounded a similar refrain.

“Restaurants build community, they bring culture, and Grill-Mon has quickly become a neighborhood anchor and Jamiel a beloved partner,” she said. “In addition to serving up delicious food to our neighborhood, he is treasurer of the Fair Haven Community Management Team and always at the ready to help and support.”

At celebration of Black women’s cuisine at Yale’s Afro-American Cultural Center, Kosy Okwunna of Kosy’s African Kitchen, Sheelah Howard of Auntie Sheelah’s Cheesecake, Grill-Mon Island’s Tashane Bowen and Eulita Clarke, and Sandra Pittman of Sandra’s Next Generation. Photo courtesy of Jamiel Bowen.

The larger community, it seems, has also taken notice. In March, Clarke and Bowen’s wife, Tashane, a labor and delivery nurse who pitched in as the baker at the Middletown location, were honored at a celebration of Black women’s cuisine in Connecticut at Yale’s Afro-American Cultural Center.

In the end, it goes back to feeding people — in every sense of the word, it seems.

“We thought if we clean the storefront and bring a positive vibe to it, we could have a positive impact on this community,” Bowen said, as he handed Myra her family’s order, including a container of braised oxtail dumplings.

“See you next time,” she called back.