I'm on a budget. Unlike some highrolling delivery drivers, I can barely afford to eat. That puts me in a bad mood, and nothing puts me in a better mood than eating, drinking and smoking. It's a sort of catch 22, that is, if you're not a food columnist. That said, last Tuesday was a miserable little blizzard of snow and useless paychecks and I was in desparate need of some E, D and S. I was saving this review for when I was in a terrible mood. I trekked through the snow to see how irie Jolly Bob's could get me.
I had exactly $20 to spend and I was told by my roommates that Jolly Bob's is not a twenty-dollar place. Indeed, the entrees range from $12 to $19. There are the jerk plates of chicken, pork, both or tuna, all served with jasmine rice, bread and salad.
Then there are the more adventurous chicken or seafood entrees. Jamaican food, as with many tropical cuisines, blends the spicy and the sweet. You can see this in Indian curry served with chutney, or in Jolly Bob's Black Jack blackened Amberjack with a lime cr??me sauce.
Luckily, the same adventurous flavors can be found in the appetizers. Indeed, there are more sauces to be had with the appetizers than with the entrees. Some of the sauces are orange/ginger, tamarind/ginger, curry/cream and island curry. I was enticed by the guava spliffs, which are pastry cigars filled with a salty fresh cheese and guava paste. Other than the guava spliffs, most of the appetizers seem more like entrees with no sides. Lamb patties, chicken thighs and mussels alone are enough for me.
What I ordered, though, were the conch fritters, a sort of hushpuppy with conch meat in it that comes with two extremely good sauces: Key lime mustard and Scotch Bonnet remoulade. The mustard sauce was more creamy than mustardy and the remoulade was the most complex spicy sauce I have ever had. Screw mole and curry; give me this remoulade with my lamb or seafood from now on. The lime mustard was mildly spicy and the lime lit up the conch in the fritters like fireworks. The remoulade was spicy enough to be in danger of overpowering the delicate conch, but luckily the fruity accents kept the spice down and balanced. The texture of both creamy sauces played off of the grainy corn texture of the deep fried dough balls. You get seven of them, and they will pretty much fill you up.
I didn't just go to Jolly Bob's for the food, believe it or not. As I said, I needed to eat, drink, and smoke. The place for me was the bar. You can sit directly at the bar or at a table along the wall. The bright blue paint of the outside is continued within, accented by bright yellows. Where this color scheme seemed homey in the crepery, the addition of bright action filled paintings, hanging fruit, reggae and a bar livens Jolly Bob's up to a nice little beach party, sans the beach. When the bartender is crushing limes with a wooden stick in order to make a drink, who cares if you're on the beach or not. Besides, you can watch the fish in the tank merrily swim around some coral. If you were on the beach you'd have to get wet to see fish. You can't smoke when you're wet.
Further back there is a very nice dining area that has a nice plantation vibe going for it. As I said, though, I sat at the bar, which comes with its very own menu and some very shapely measurements: 37-20-48. That's 37 brands of tequila, 20 tropical drinks and 48 brands of rum. I ordered the finest rum I have ever had, Plantation rum served in a snifter. Look, it really does help accent the food. It clears out your nose to fully take in the spice and sweetness of Jamaican food. That and you get, like, three freakin' ounces for $4 to $5! That's actually better than most bar prices. The tropical drinks are just as strong. Try the national drink of Brazil; I forget what it's called, but it's one of the most involved drinks ever. It's got crushing, dissolving, shaking and mixing. I got a Painkiller for dessert. That's coconut, orange juice and a whole lot of white rum topped off with a sprinkle of nutmeg. It was well worth $3.75.
The true utility of Jolly Bob's goes beyond food or drink and lies in the ability to serve you a dose of layback juice. The spicy/sweet flavors disarm you, the setting excites the eyes, the reggae mellows and the drinks relax. It's all quite intoxicating, and that is what tropical is supposed to be. $18.20 in food, drink and tips got me a whole lot further than I expected. All the way from silent grumpville to cheerfully talkingville. Can Jamerica measure up? Find out next time I am in a bad mood!
