GREENACRES — You don’t need to fly hundreds of miles if you crave authentic Jamaican jerk chicken, crunchy Puerto Rican mofongo or stuffed Venezuelan arepas. Drive to Greenacres instead.
The city in the heart of Hispanic Palm Beach County is filled with eateries tucked away in strip malls that take your palette on a trip to the Caribbean and Latin America.
Many of the restaurants are family-run and owned by immigrants who have brought their condiments, recipes and flavors all the way to Palm Beach County.
Here are three, all with food that a diner won’t find just anywhere and all of them operated by people with stories to tell.
“A Taste of . . . “ is a Palm Beach Post series that aims to highlight the county’s lesser-known culinary gems and the humans behind the food. Tell us what area and restaurants you would like to see us write about next!
Critic's pick: My five favorite empanadas in Palm Beach County, from Boca to Palm Beach Gardens
Reggae Jerk restaurant: 'Jamaica is here' in the hands of chef Robert Leslie
Address: 2178 Jog Road, Greenacres, FL 33415
Hours: Open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
At Reggae Jerk, order the juicy and smoky Jerk chicken. And if you dare, indulge in curry goat.
Chef and owner Robert Leslie marinates the chicken for over 24 hours in a tub full of secret sauce and a blend of 12 spices and herbs before sizzling it on a flaming grill and drizzling it with Red Stripe beer. The juicy chicken has aromas of wood, nutmeg and thyme and is served on a bed of rice and a side of boiled coleslaw. ($13.49)
The curry goat ($13.99) is slow-cooked in a yellow, turmeric-based sauce. Goat meat is similar to lamb and the dish bursts with aromas of ginger, chili peppers, turmeric and coriander. Diced goat meat pieces bathed with the curry sauce served with white rice and boiled coleslaw.
Leslie grew up immersed in his family’s kitchen in Jamaica and moved to Palm Beach County at age 22, dreaming of becoming a chef.
He started washing dishes at a Caribbean eatery. Seven months later, Leslie was its head cook. After a year, a friend got him an interview at Mar-a-Lago.
Leslie cooked for former President Donald Trump and his guests for over four years. In 2015, he opened Reggae Jerk, his vision for a place where people from different nationalities and walks of life would meet to slow down, unite and enjoy traditional Jamaican flavors.
“This is the Jerk chicken that is going to make America great again,” Leslie said with a laugh, waving and greeting clients with a wide smile.
Leslie also has opened a second Reggae Jerk location on 45th Street in West Palm Beach.
Your favorite pizzas: Meet the best pies in Palm Beach County, picked by Post readers!
Isla del Coqui restaurant: Jeanette Carillo's 20 years of Puerto Rican sazón
Address: 3092 Jog Road, Greenacres, FL 33467
Hours: Open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
At La Isla del Coqui, get the Coqui Bowl ($15). It's a twist on mofongo, a Puerto Rican staple.
The stacked dish has as its base mashed, green plantains, covered by a layer of rice and beans and crunchy chicken or lechon — tender pork roast — topped with “coqui sauce.” The colorful meal pairs yellow, sweet plantain puré with salty, fried chicken chunks and the tangy, pink sauce.
Also consider the El Viejo San Juan, ($16) a sample platter of fried appetizers that includes stuffed potatoes, a beef empanada, bacalaito (cod fish fritters), alcapurria (fritters made of green plantains and taro) and a pastel, which is similar to a tamale.
When owner Jeanette Carillo moved to Greenacres in 1998, there weren’t many Boricua eateries around. So she took on the challenge of replicating her family recipes at home.
One evening, after English class, she ate at El Coqui and promised her classmates she would one day own it. In 2000, she opened a food truck. On the first day, Puerto Ricans lined outside and around the block. Soon, other residents — Hispanic, white and Black — became regulars.
In 2003, Carillo bought El Coqui and fulfilled her dream of owning a restaurant where she could serve dishes with the traditional “sazon” of Puerto Rico.
Carillo still cooks everything, now with the help of an assistant. She is usually in the kitchen or peeking at the door because when a regular walks in, she rushes to prepare their usual order.
“I’ve kept the same flavor for over 20 years,” Carillo said. “The best compliment is when someone tells me, ‘Your food tastes just like the island,’ or ‘how my abuelita used to make it.' ”
National attention: Palm Beach County favorite named one of USA TODAY'S best restaurants of 2024
Doña Arepa restaurant: Emiliana Herrera's hand-held meals celebrate Venezuela
Address: 3090 S. Jog Road, Greenacres, FL 33467
Hours: Open Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
At Doña Arepa, order the bite-sized platter Doña Arepa Mix ($16.99). It includes three arepas, three empanadas, three tequeños, or cheese sticks, and three cachapas, sweet corn disks.
To wash it down, sip on papelon con limón, a Venezuelan drink made with raw sugarcane, water and lemon juice. It is similar to lemonade, but thicker and is served over ice, perfect for a hot day.
Co-owner Emiliana Herrera says their signature arepas can be stuffed with over 20 fillings including pork belly and cheese, fish and sweet plantain and shredded beef with cheese and black bean.
Herrera and her two cousins bought the restaurant last year. They were born and raised in Venezuela and wanted to start a family business rooted in the culture and flavors they missed.
They set out to create a new menu and purchased boxes of their favorite sweets from Venezuela such as Samba, Susy and Cocosette wafer cookies. They noticed area residents were curious to try their stuffed hand-held meals.
“It's a little nostalgic,” said Herrera.
One of their main goals is also to bring people from other nationalities to Doña Arepa to give them a taste of their faraway home. To meet client demands, they created the Doña Arepa Pantry, a food-delivery service for frozen, family-size frozen meals that taste homemade, and plan to open a second location next year.
“It's our way of giving back to this country,” said Herrera, who lives in Boca Raton.
Valentina Palm covers Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Greenacres, Palm Springs and other western communities in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@pbpost.com and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @ValenPalmB. Support local journalism: Subscribe today .
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: A taste of Greenacres: These 3 restaurants take diners to Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Venezuela
Most Popular
Comments / 0