Nadia’s Jamaican Kitchen now serving in Brooklyn Park

The restaurant hosted a ribbon cutting on Jan. 11.

The eatery is a family affair, with Wotrang-Brown’s son Tyler Brown also working at the restaurant. “It seems like the community is really loving us so far,” he said.

“And we’re really loving the community,” Wotrang-Brown said.

The idea for the restaurant began “way back,” she said. “These chairs, I’ve gotten these chairs over seven years ago. So I’ve always been in the food industry all my life, food management. I just wanted to do something, I knew I was going to do something for myself.”

While she had opportunities to advance in management, “something else was missing,” she said. “It was time for me to go, it was time for something for myself because I’m like, if not now, when? At 55, 54 at the time, if not now, when?”

As plans to start the restaurant moved forward, some of Wotrang-Brown’s family thought she “was nuts” because she sold her townhouse in Woodbury, she said.

Despite doubts, Tyler has “always been supportive, up until this day,” she said. “He’s constantly by my side, extremely faithful and he’s a superstar. … We’re partners together.”

Wotrang-Brown’s mother taught her to cook Jamaican food, and was her main inspiration to start the restaurant.

“She was the best cook and baker that I’ve ever known,” she said. “My mom could just pick up snow outside and create a meal. That’s how amazing she is when it comes to cooking. (Without many) ingredients, she could create a meal.”

People in her neighborhood would come to her with cooking questions and ask her to cook or bake for weddings, funerals and during Christmas, Wotrang-Brown said.

“You should see when she starts baking for Christmas, there’s cakes everywhere and the whole house smells of this beautiful aroma,” she said.

For a first-time customer at Nadia’s Jamaican Kitchen, Wotrang-Brown recommended the jerk chicken “because it’s more of the milder version that we serve, and we make some really killer Jamaican barbecue jerk sauce,” she said. “Actually we sold out of it, I just had to make a fresh batch today.”

The restaurant has a taco special on Tuesdays, while other menu options include oxtail with butterbeans, Jamaican jerk glazed salmon, curry goat, brown stew chicken, curry chicken, beef patties, red beans and rice, fried plantains, and pumpkin chicken dumpling soup.

“We’re getting a really good response with everything on the menu,” Brown said. “We ran out of curried goat over the weekend.”

Wotrang-Brown said that while Jamaican food is increasing in popularity, it isn’t widely available in Minnesota.

“A lot of people love Jamaican food all over the world,” she said. “The flavors of Jamaica, you don’t get that anywhere.”

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