Jerk chicken, snapper and oxtail abound at Jay’s Nyam and Jam, a new Jamaican-inspired restaurant located just across the street from Findlay Market.
Co-owner Jermaine Vassell grew up in Montego Bay, Jamaica. He started the restaurant out of a desire to showcase his culture in the Cincinnati area.
“‘Nyam’ means ‘eat’ in Patois. And on any given day when my husband grew up, you could walk up the hill and find him and his family eating and listening to music. He especially did a lot of cooking with his father,” said co-owner Kelly Vassell. “When he came to America, he was searching for a taste of home. Just anything that reminded him of his family, his dad, his country. And there’s plenty of Jamaican restaurants in Cincinnati, but none that gave him the experience he was looking for.”
The two started small. At first, they were selling small dinners and catering out of their home—mostly just for birthday parties or weddings of close friends. After realizing they could turn Jermaine’s cooking into a full-time business, a friend told the couple to look into commissary kitchens, which are rentable commercial kitchens intended for upstart chefs or chefs who don’t have the space you’d find in a typical restaurant.
Eventually, they discovered the Findlay Kitchen program, a non-profit food business incubator near Findlay Market. Their participation in the program enabled them to open a stand outside the market itself, kickstarting their status as a beloved local vendor while bolstering their catering efforts.
“We’ve used Findlay Kitchen for about two and a half or three years now. I’d say 95%, maybe even 100% of our catering customers are people who found us at Findlay Market. We’re very appreciative of our customers there, which is why we knew once we eventually expanded that we had to stay close by,” Kelly said.
Along their journey to opening a brick-and-mortar, the couple entered their food into Taste of Cincinnati, the region’s yearly food festival where chefs compete against each other to win coveted ‘Best of Taste’ awards. Two years in a row, they’ve won Best Entree at the event for their Jerk Chicken Bowl—which is “surreal” for Kelly, a Cincinnati native.
“I’m born and raised Cincinnati. I grew up going to Findlay Market, and grew up going to Taste of Cincinnati. Now, to be a part of the festival and to be contributing to our city’s culture is an amazing feeling,” she said. “Seeing Jermaine smile as he holds the Best of Taste award … he knows his food is good, but then having judges vote and say ‘Yeah, your thought is validated, your food really is good’ is a very humbling experience.”
With the full location of Jay’s Nyam and Jam now open for business, former customers of their Findlay Market stand won’t be disappointed.
That award-winning jerk chicken bowl is still on the menu, for example. Best-sellers like their honey-lemon-pepper jerk chicken wings, snapper filet and ‘rasta pasta’ are the same as they were before. New additions, like a jerk chicken quesadilla, have already proven popular. And “everyone’s favorite,” the oxtail, is even better thanks to their new kitchen space.
“We did bring a couple new items to the menu that our customers haven’t had, but really it’s based on what they want,” Kelly said. “Jay has favorites he likes to cook, like our curry goat. But we have regulars that have been eating with us since our first day at Findlay. We formulate the menu by listening to the people who buy our food. Feedback helps us grow, and we value the input of our community members.”
Cooking is something that Jermaine is very passionate about—”you could say it’s his love language,” Kelly said—and opening their own restaurant comes from his desire to “build a legacy” while doing what he loves.
“He loves cooking. He loves being in the kitchen. You know, he’ll be cooking in the restaurant and come home and still cook,” she said. “It’s not really work for him. It’s what he enjoys doing. So to be able to build a business on the back of what he enjoys doing, he sees that as an honor, a privilege, a dream.”
It’s a dream that Kelly eventually grew to share with her husband, too. After working in higher education for almost 20 years, she realized the feeling she got from serving people at their Findlay Market stand was very similar to the feeling she got from serving her students.
“I actually fell in love with this, and I definitely never thought I would. I fell in love with being at the market, people enjoying our food, and making their lives brighter,” she said. “When people say, ‘Hey, you catered our wedding, and your food just pulled everything together,’ or ‘Hey, I had your food at our birthday and it was the icing on the cake’ … I love being able to grow the community through food. And we look forward to continuing to serve the community in the future.”
Jay’s Nyam and Jam is open Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1809 Elm Street in Over-the-Rhine. You can find more information on their website or their Instagram page.
