Two Jamaican restaurants opened this summer in unlikely settings. Jerk fans used to trading cash through bulletproof glass for smoky-sweet yardbird and consuming it al trunko could at least could hope for a more comfortable environment at either one. First there was the second location of Ukrainian Village’s Mr. Brown’s Lounge that opened in the Hard Rock Hotel. Next came Jerk Modern Jamaican Grill on the car-swept corner of Chicago and Halsted, a brick-and-mortar anchor for the food truck of the same name.
Mr. Brown’s $16 island jerk chicken is an impressively sized half bird slathered in a potent jerk sauce that builds in intensity as you work your way through it. The chicken comes with a side of rice and peas, plantains, and some pretty bland slaw that’s livened up with an extra side of sauce. The problem with this bird—which is described on the menu, tellingly, as “finished on a charcoal grill”—is that it’s precooked somehow, but clearly not in the vicinity of any wood. There’s no smokiness, no breath of the fire, and meat itself is bland and mealy.
