Dukunoo Jamaican Kitchen marks fifth anniversary in Miami

After Dukunoo Jamaican Kitchen held its roll call for ticket holders in Miami, Florida, at their fifth Golden Anniversary event earlier this month, the celebration continued with authentic Jamaican dishes, mixed cocktails, and beers available for guests to enjoy.

The restaurant offers indoor and outdoor dining, a full bar, fine art, and an outdoor jerk stand. Co-owners Leonie McKoy, Dr Shrusan Gray, and Rodrick Leighton aim to share a sense of Jamaican history and culture with their guests.

After migrating to the United States, Gray wanted to establish a full-service scale Caribbean dining experience in the heart of Wynwood. In addition to pursuing her medical career, she decided to involve her mother and husband in bringing this vision to life.

Now, five years later, Gray and her husband, Rodrick Leighton, were thrilled to celebrate the success of their business during the Golden Anniversary event held at their Dukunoo Jamaican Kitchen location.

When asked why she conceptualised the idea for the restaurant, Gray explained to Food, “It was to bring Caribbean cuisine, Caribbean culture and Caribbean vibes, like the real deal to Miami. That’s it. We wanted to ensure that we exposed our culture a lot. We’re a food restaurant where you come in and sit down, enjoy the food, the experience the vibes.”

When it comes to the vibes, her husband added that element to the planning, because he acknowledges how important music is to Jamaica’s culture.

“I like to party and I’m a free spirited guy. That’s just me. So, from you come through the door, you should feel like you’re in somebody’s back yard. That’s what I try to put out,” he added.

The restaurant has welcomed locals and visitors from around the world, including celebrities like Kanye West, who teased his new album during a surprise Art Basel appearance in December 2023. Other notable names include American rappers DThang, J. Cole, DJ Khaled, Future, Safaree, and Coi Leray, as well as actor and singer Rotimi, Jamaica’s Dexter Daps, and more recently, rapper DaBaby.

To conclude the night’s celebration, Busy Signal performed his popular birthday hit, Happy Birthday, during a 15-minute live set. The performance capped off the evening before Dukunoo Jamaican Kitchen’s resident deejay and emcee, DJ Bankz, took over, keeping the vibe alive until the lights were turned off in the early morning hours.

The man of the night, Chef Jorian Blair, held the Jamaican word ‘dukunoo’ closed to heart when thinking of the food for the anniversary night’s menu.

The word dukunoo may be strange to some, but it is steeped in history and has a very simple meaning. Its roots are West African and simply means ‘sweet thing’ or ‘sweet mouth’ when directly translated.

“Tonight’s inspiration for the menu was everything we’ve been trying to show people in the past year of the true [Jamaican] culture, true roots when it come on the natural flavours, the true Jamaican smoke flavours in the jerk chicken, and we probably have the number one/best jerk chicken and oxtail [in Miami],” Blair, who was born in St Ann, Jamaica but migrated to the United States at the age of seven years, told Food.

Some of the dishes spearheaded the creation for the event included:

Appetisers: Stamp and go (more popularly known as Jamaican salt fish fritters); Plantain with spicy jerk chicken topping; Ackee and salt fish quiche; Vegetable spring rolls.

Entrée: Curried goat served with plain rice; Oxtail served with rice and peas; Barbecue ribs and wings; Escovitch fish and festival; Jerk chicken burgers; Curried lobster served with plain rice

Dessert: Jamaican bread pudding.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com