by Thomas Breen The New Haven independent
A mother-son duo plans to open a new Jamaican restaurant at the site of the troubled former Grand Cafe — in an effort to bring jerk chicken, oxtail, brown stew, and Jamaican patties to a vacant storefront in Fair Haven.
That new restaurant to-be is called Grill-Mon.
On Thursday afternoon, co-owners Jamiel Bowen and Eulita Clarke sat inside the under-construction commercial space, taking a break from the two-months-and-counting work of bringing 124 Grand Ave. back to life.
They hope to have their new restaurant open by mid-September.
“We love the place. We see a lot of potential here,” Bowen said.
The storefront sits on the eastern end of a single-story commercial strip set back from East Pearl Street near Grand Avenue.
The space has been empty since February 2022, when the state liquor board denied a liquor license renewal submitted by the previous bar to occupy that spot, the Grand Cafe. Neighbors had organized protests seeking denial of the license renewal because of illegal activity taking place at and outside the bar, including a shooting on the premises and illicit drugs discovered in the basement.
More recently, in July of this year, the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) unanimously rejected applicant Breanna Stevenson’s bid to open an alcohol-selling “poetry cafe” at the former Grand Cafe spot.
Now, thanks to the work of Bowen and Clarke, the site is set to become a Jamaican eatery.
Bowen — who hails from August Town near Kingston, Jamaica — said that, growing up, he always wanted to open a restaurant with his mom.
When Bowen first moved to the New Haven area, he said he worked a host of jobs — including as a busser and a barback — at the now-closed Woodbridge Social restaurant.
With the help of CitySeed, a Fair Haven-based farmers market and local food business nonprofit, Bowen was able to start a Grill Mon food truck and then a Grill Mon restaurant in Middletown.
A University of New Haven graduate who also works full time for the corporate accounting firm Phalanx, Bowen said he found himself eager to come back to the New Haven area. Bowen himself lives in Glastonbury, while his mom lives in East Haven.
He noticed the vacant former Grand Cafe spot, and decided to go for it — ultimately signing a lease with the landlord to relocate Grill Mon from Middletown to Fair Haven.
Bowen said he’s been working on opening the restaurant since July. That work has included getting the gas turned back on, removing a “house trap” from a sewer line, and lining up the needed approvals from the city’s health and zoning departments.
They’re getting close, he said. He attended the Fair Haven Community Management Team meeting on Thursday to get to know his future neighbors. He’s also been in touch with his neighborhood’s alder, Sarah Miller (who also runs CitySeed), and management team stalwart and Fair Haven booster Dave Weinreb.
“I’m giving support,” said Clarke, who is a co-owner of the restaurant, the head chef, and Bowen’s mom.
Both stressed that their top priority, alongside serving up tasty Jamaican food, is providing a welcoming, warm, positive experience for customers. “We’re going to make sure the customer is not disappointed,” Bowen said.
He credited CitySeed for helping him get his food business off the ground; he also shouted out his wife, Tashane Bowen, who works full time as a labor and delivery nurse at Middletown Hospital — and who spent many an hour as a lead baker at the now-closed Middletown version of the Grill-Mon restaurant
Bowen’s and Clarke’s new restaurant is exactly what this neighborhood needs, said Miller, who, before she was an alder, helped lead the block parties and protests that led to Grand Cafe losing its liquor license.
“I feel like he’s really committed to being in the community,” she said about Bowen. “He seems genuinely excited” to bring his cooking talents to the area. Miller added that his story — of using one of CitySeed’s test kitchens to develop recipes and build up his food business into a food truck and then a restaurant — is a perfect example of how CitySeed hopes to help entrepreneurial foodies.
Weinreb was equally enthusiastic about the new restaurant in a separate comment emailed to the Independent. “Grill-Mon is moving into an important corner of our neighborhood,” he wrote. “It’s been a flashpoint for neglect, but it doesn’t have to be that way. When neighbors occupied the space in September 2021, we reminded ourselves that when we’re organized, when we work in partnership, we can help to transform places into more nourishing, celebratory, community-serving spaces. And that it takes time and consistent effort. Jamiel seems like someone who is ready to work with community, to take care of this space, and to feed us! Welcome to Fair Haven!”
Haci Top, who owns a pizza spot in the same commercial strip as Grill-Mon, said he’s happy to see a new restaurant moving in to the former Grand Cafe site.
“It’s better than being vacant,” he said. “It might be safer.” Hopefully people won’t walk around behind the building to urinate as they do now, he said. Plus, Bowen and Clarke seem like “a very nice family.”
Top said he’s skeptical that Grill-Mon will have much of an impact on the area overall. What would really help, he said, is if the smoke shops and liquor stores close down and leave.
A customer of the adjacent smoke shop, who identified himself only as “Mr. Pagan,” said he thinks a new restaurant in the old Grand Cafe spot will be a boon for the neighborhood. He said that storefront’s been empty for as long as he can remember. “I think it will really help,” he said.
Grill-Mon, coming soon.
The commercial strip at 118-124 Grand, with construction equipment outside for the removal of an outdated “house trap” from the sewer line.
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