Taste the Caribbean on Church Street
By Liz Barry on Apr. 08, 2009
Jerk chicken sizzles on the grill, snapping and crackling under the spatula of Nehrice Little, a Jamaican native who runs It’s a Wrap Caribbean Take Out.
The sparse storefront eatery on Church Street, which opened in October, is a humble beginning for Nehrice and her husband, Stephen. After 10 years in Lynchburg, the couple wanted to have a stake in Lynchburg’s revitalization.
“We see people starting to gravitate to this downtown area,” Stephen says
“We decided to try our hand in it, and see if this area would like it and accept it.”
Caribbean cuisine is a rarity in the area, which is dominated by fast food joints and national chains. It’s a Wrap offers staples like jerk chicken and Jamaican patties, as well as fish and vegetarian options. Most of the dishes cost between $5 and $7.
Just past 12:30 p.m. on a recent weekday, and the lunch crowd is slow but steady.
Nehrice runs the restaurant while her husband works at Virginia Sentinel, an alarm and security company. As usual, Stephen is visiting Nehrice on his lunch break.
In a back room, the couple’s three youngest children, ages 10, 6 and 2, complete their schoolwork. Nehrice home-schools the children, who in turn help her clean dishes and do chores at the restaurant.
Since opening, It’s a Wrap has gained clientele mostly through word of mouth. They have served Island natives looking for a taste of home, and college students from countries like Haiti and Trinidad.
Scott Mason of Lynchburg is already a regular. Today, he eats a jerk chicken wrap with rice and beans. Mason is a fan of West Indian food and seeks it out when he visits big cities like London, New York and Richmond.
“I can rate this place highly among all those places,” he says. “For it to be in Lynchburg is a surprise.”
The couple have long dreamed of opening a restaurant. When they decided to go for it last year, it took months to get the space into working order.
“Man, this place was terrible from the front to back,” Stephen says of the long-vacant storefront.
Stephen is no stranger to the restaurant business. He practically grew up in his parents’ soul food restaurant in New Jersey. He spent countless hours washing dishes and watching his father cook.
Nehrice, who moved to the United States at age 3, was raised on her family’s Jamaican home cooking. She remembers her grandmother’s jerk chicken, seasoned with peppers and herbs plucked straight from the garden.
Cooking is second nature to Nehrice, who incorporates her family’s cooking secrets into her dishes at It’s a Wrap.
“I come from a family of women who don’t ever measure,” Nehrice says.
The dishes tend to be spicy but not overpowering, like the Jamaican patties, a popular lunch meal on the island. The seasoned patty is made from beef, chicken or vegetables and served with coco, a sweet and buttery Jamaican bread. “You get the kick of the hot and spicy patty, but it kind of relieves you with the bread,” Stephen says.
The couple plan on expanding the menu as they expand their customer base. An upcoming addition is ox tail and butter beans.
The Littles are optimistic about the future of the restaurant, even though they took a risk by opening it during an economic downturn.
“We’ve seen the economy start to reshape itself during the decline, so we decided ‘Let’s do it now; you never know what the future holds.’”
COMMENTS