At one of the city\u2019s most anticipated new restaurants, diners feast on Wagyu-stuffed Jamaican patties and saltfish-and-fig croquettes while seated in sculptural, shell-like booths. A showstopping flower-like art installation crowns the bar at the center of the modern Afro-Caribbean restaurant. Jerk-spiced tomahawk steaks and sorrel-dusted plantains make their way out to the tables while a DJ spins music late into the night. Lucia wants to take island flavors \u2014 and Fairfax\u2014 to new heights.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew how diverse and how flavorful and how impactful this cuisine could be if executed in this modern way that Adrian [Forte] has taken it to,\u201d said owner Sam Jordan. \u201cIt came from a love of the food and an opportunity to do something different in L.A.\u201d<\/p>\n
In chef Forte\u2019s Guyanese-style oxtail pepper pot \u2014 a dish that takes three days to make \u2014 the meat is coated in a house-ground spice blend and smoked over Jamaican pimento wood, then braised and served with a sauce reduced with cassareep. The tender fried chicken is brined in coconut milk and dabbed with fermented chili aioli. Pepper shrimp toast, a nod to Jamaica\u2019s cultural melting pot, blends the ubiquitous fermented-pepper shrimp street food with the fried Chinese classic.<\/p>\n
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A showstopping flower-like art installation crowns the bar at the center of the modern Afro-Caribbean restaurant. <\/p>\n
(Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cI truly believe that our culture needs something like this,\u201d Forte said. \u201cOther cultures have all these different restaurants that are doing [their cuisines] at a high level and teaching cooks how to make this food. But we don\u2019t have that in our culture, so that was very important for me, and very purposeful.\u201d<\/p>\n
A large reason for this, he said, is value perception. Why might some diners pay $40 or $50 for a bowl of pasta but not the oxtails that take three days to make? Caribbean cuisine, he said, can and should exist across a range of price points.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very adamant about wanting to do this project … mainly just for the culture so they can see that it\u2019s possible, and they could see the perceived value, and we could stop undervaluing ourselves and our food,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Saltfish croquettes with huancaina and salsa criolla at Lucia.<\/p>\n
(Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Another reason Forte believes Caribbean cuisine isn\u2019t often attempted in fine dining is accessibility of ingredients.<\/p>\n
Multiple chefs of L.A. Caribbean restaurants told Forte they couldn\u2019t find the fresh leafy greens required to make callaloo, and thus ordered it canned. But Forte noticed that many Southern California farmers use sweet potato and taro leaves as compost or as feed for livestock; now he buys it fresh from the farmers and serves it as creamed callaloo with grilled snapper and a coconut butter sauce.<\/p>\n
When hunting for sorrel, he heads to Latin markets for hibiscus. When looking for boniato, or Caribbean sweet potato, he easily finds Japanese sweet potato. He purchases plantains from a Vietnamese grocer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not necessarily missing any specific ingredients,\u201d Forte said, \u201cbecause of the interconnectedness of what we do as a whole. The diaspora is so vast, and we have all these synergies with different cultures that people don\u2019t even realize.\u201d<\/p>\n
Late-night service focuses on his small bites and the drinks overseen by beverage director Melina Meza (formerly of Level8, Boujis Group), which include an okra martini, a tamarind Collins and an oxtail old-fashioned. But Forte is also planning a new, Caribbean-inspired raw bar program, which he also expects to serve late into the evening.<\/p>\n
The Jamaica-born chef has deep culinary roots; his parents met at their own parents\u2019 shared restaurant. Forte spent years of his childhood and adolescence in their kitchens, and when his father immigrated to Canada, Forte spent years traveling between, dining and cooking in both countries. He participated in season eight of \u201cTop Chef Canada\u201d \u2014 as the series\u2019 first Black contestant \u2014 and helped launch multiple restaurants there.<\/p>\n
When he met Jordan, Forte was working as a private chef in Jamaica. But Jordan\u2019s vision for Lucia lured the chef and \u201cYawd\u201d cookbook author to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
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Coconut fried chicken with fermented chili aioli, coconut milk powder and house pickles at Lucia. An earlier version of this dish can be found in Forte\u2019s 2022 cookbook, \u201cYawd: Modern Afro-Caribbean Recipes.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
After years spent investing in other people\u2019s restaurants in L.A. and the Bay Area, California-born Jordan wanted to build a business of his own and drew on his travels in the Caribbean to do it.<\/p>\n
When Jordan moved to L.A. in 2016 he found a bustling Fairfax filled with art, street style and tastemakers. The pandemic closed multiple storefronts along the iconic stretch, but the restaurateur hopes that Lucia \u2014 which opened in the former Black Star Burger space \u2014 can help spur revitalization on the street.<\/p>\n
He and design firm Preen pulled from the Caribbean\u2019s flora and fauna for the interior, calling on artist Guerin Swing to hand-cast the rows of \u201cshell booths\u201d and the towering, flower-like bar sculpture from concrete.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole place is like a show,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cWhen you look around you see the big flowers in the center, you see the shell booths; the back dining room area is beautiful with the mirrors, everything. A big part of the food and the cultures that inspire our restaurant is the idea that we\u2019re not we\u2019re not trying to rush anyone out. We want people to get comfortable, to order food, order drinks, hang out, listen to the music. It\u2019s really like a whole immersive experience.\u201d<\/p>\n