Today’s Special: Jazzy’s Jerk Chicken

To attain jerk status, the chicken sizzling on the grill at Jazzy’s Cabaret had spent the last 48 hours marinating in a blend of scallions, onions, and scotch bonnet peppers, with a rub of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice working their way into the meat.

“That’s for maximum flavor,” said executive chef Stephen Ross, as he turned the chicken over with a pair of tongs, a smoky aroma wafting through the brightly lit kitchen.

“And that flavor is why we make 40 of these on a given night.”

The jerk chicken is one of an array of specialties — from Caribbean-inspired sweet plantains and honey butter cornbread, to West African jollof rice, to Haitian griot (pork shoulder marinated in citrus) —that bridge the cuisines of the African diaspora at Jazzy’s, the Ninth Square’s newest restaurant and nightspot in the renovated space at Orange and Crown streets formerly occupied by Thali.

“It brings you back to that vacation in Jamaica or the other islands,” Ross said of the appeal of jerk chicken. ​“And I like to think I make it pretty good.” Not to mention his wife is Jamaican. ​“She’s my toughest critic,” he said.

Ross got his start frying chicken and barbecuing pork ribs at New Haven soul food institution Sandra’s. He trained at the Connecticut Culinary Institute, and has cooked at Barcelona, Scoozi’s, and Zinc, among other restaurants.

“I try to pick up something everywhere I go,” he said, as he added a sprig of thyme to a pan popping and hissing with cabbage, scallions, and peppers. 

A turning point came when he was serving the record executive Russell Simmons at the former Blake Street Cafe.

“He ordered spice curry tofu, and I’d never made tofu before,” Ross recalled. ​“I was standing behind him and he was talking to someone, and he said, ​‘Man, this is some of the best curry I’ve ever had. You gotta taste this.’”

“It sort of clicked, that this is where I belong, this is where I can take chances, express myself.” 

Another admirer was Jazzy’s owner Jason V. Watts, who had just poked his head into the kitchen. 

“I was a regular at Cast Iron Soul,” said Watts, referring to the Congress Avenue restaurant that Ross founded in 2010. ​“Young bachelor, didn’t like to cook, and it was close to my house. Plus Steve knows his way around a kitchen.”

Cast Iron Soul closed after seven years. When Watts came to Ross last year with the idea of a restaurant offering African American comfort food spanning the globe, Ross was all in.

“A lot of these cuisines use similar ingredients but different techniques,” Ross said, drizzling lime over the chicken, and across the baked plantains and rice and peas, and adding some jerk sauce for ​“that extra kick,” he said.

“Black-eyed peas, okra, bell peppers, turnip greens, plantains, they all come from Africa, and you see them across the diaspora,” Ross said.

“It’s a whole bunch of ethnicities coming together, and seeing what we all have in common,” he said.

“Jazzy’s is about connection,” said Watts as he led a visitor into the VIP Garden Room, a dining area festooned with arrangements from Watts’ mother, Sandra Watts, founder of Remember the Lilies Florist on Dixwell Avenue.

Watts, too, it seems, is all about connection. In 2005, he founded the Urban Professionals Network, a social and business networking organization, in New Haven. It arose, he said, from the absence of a place for minority professionals to come together and support each other. As of 2021, its members number in the tens of thousands.

“It’s really simple,” he said. ​“You can get to where you’re going faster when you have people telling you, ​‘I went down that path, there’s a hole in the road on the left, step to the right.’”

His work at UPN led to a marketing partnership with Yale Repertory Theatre that, he said, ​“has helped diversify their reach.”

“I like to take chances, do things out of the box,” he said. ​“Always have. If I fail, at least I tried.”

Jazzy’s exemplifies that penchant for risk-taking, and it’s not just the wide range of ​“international comfort food,” as Watts calls it.

There’s the sheer potential in the 6,000 square-foot venue, as well as its site in Ninth Square.

“This area is up and coming,” Watts said. ​“They’re literally building in every direction.”

“I want this to be a place for professionals, entrepreneurs, and creatives to build each other up, a warm and inviting place, like someone’s living room,” he said, gesturing at a cozy sitting area tucked near the front.

Across the way was the wide mahogany bar with comfortable seats and speakeasy cocktails.

“There’s nothing like this in New Haven,” said bar manager Eddy Caves, as R&B from Thundercat filtered through the space. ​“It’s just a whole different vibe. It’s a cabaret. Where is there another cabaret around here? Where is there another stage for live music, comedy shows, spoken word events, and birthday parties?” 

“Plus we can accommodate up to 180 people,” Watts chimed in. ​“Not a lot of venues that can say that.”

This weekend marks Jazzy’s official kickoff, with Wayne Escoffrey bringing his Grammy-winning saxophone to the stage on Friday night. Myke Ross and Fay Green will perform jazz standards on Friday, Dec. 10. 

The Jerk Chicken

The plantains were velvety, the rice and peas aromatic. Those, however, were mere accompanists to the star of the production: the jerk chicken.

As Chef Ross promised, the vibrant sweetness of the cinnamon and allspice mingling with the pungent kick of the Scotch Bell peppers transported this correspondent to a beach in the Caribbean, with winter seeming far away.

jazzyscabaret.com; 4 Orange Street. 203 – 444-2509. Pickup and delivery available Tuesday through Sunday. UPN holiday mixer and Toy Drive on Tuesday, Dec. 14.