Island Flavors Caribbean Cuisine

🇭🇹 HAITI / In Downtown's old Nickel Diner space, a new Haitian restaurant is born from a chef who has been hustling his flavors in Los Angeles for some time.

🇭🇹 HAITI
📍 524 Main Street,
DTLA, Central Los Angeles
🅿️ Street or public garages
🥤 No Alcohol

📸 All photos by Jared Cohee
for Eat the World Los Angeles

Longtime readers may have noticed that when a country or its people are heavily in the news cycle in the United States for some stupid or tragic reason, the restaurants in Southern California that serve their foods soon thereafter show up on these pages. Every recent presidents’ first thought is to bomb a place. Many citizens’ first instinct is to be a horrible racist. Someone with empathy, however, probably thinks (amongst other kind things) about how delicious the food is and how patronizing a restaurant might in some butterfly-effect-sort-of-way support people that deserve support.

This recently happened with the Caribbean island nation of Haiti, a republic that is no stranger to the full might of US military and government that have wanted to destabilize it and take its resources for centuries. Only this time, it was ratcheted up to different levels, extremely mindless levels, putting its citizens and their descendants who live in Ohio in danger. Almost as a magic coincidence, a new Haitian restaurant opened its doors downtown, offering foods that are so unfortunately rare in Los Angeles.

The former truck, courtesy of Island Flavors.

The chef is not new to offering his Haitian cuisine around town, but this step is what he is hoping will take it to the next level. Formerly on the streets in a brightly painted truck that cruised the Valley, he has been thinking about a permanent place for some time. After a few months in the Lokels Only shared kitchen of Chinatown to get his wings under him, the new restaurant has moved into the old Nickel Diner space on Main Street, a beloved retro-styled spot that closed in May 2023.

The chef plans to replace the sign outside so as to advertise his food better, but the interior will mostly remain the same. The restaurant is often used for film and commercial shoots after all, and there is no reason to cover up any of its 1950’s stylings and possibly take away a revenue stream. For now, everything is quite informal, with a big menu at the counter to peruse and order from, after which you can take a seat at any of the red vinyl booths and tables.

Vegetable pâté.

Beef pâté.

With plans to make future Sundays special with Haitian soups and breakfast and brunch options from both Haiti and the United States, big things are in the works. But even the “limited” opening menu is bound to impress ahead of these grander plans. The first thing you might notice when you walk in is a heated case full of Haitian pastries called pâté ($4.95, above). These are somewhat similar to the Jamaican patties that Los Angeles is more familiar with, but oh so different. Wrapped with puff pastry instead, eaten fresh they are a true revelation.

While walking around Port-au-Prince, you will find these with beef, chicken, turkey, salted cod, and smoked herring. Available on a recent Sunday were both beef and vegetable versions, each of which was exquisite in its own right. The beef above was surprisingly full of flavor and wrapped delicately with the pastry. Even the vegetable pâté is just as full-flavored. After sharing them, you might selfishly wish you had one all to yourself. The chef serves these with a subtly spicy green sauce called epis which has a sour spike of white vinegar to accompany the herbs, garlic, and peppers.

At the top of the new restaurant’s menu is somewhat of a staple of the island, griot ($11.95 à la carte, $21.95 plate, above). This pork is marinated with citrus and spices, then slowly braised. Just before the pork is perfectly juicy and ready to serve, it is dunked in the deep fryer to give every piece a nice crisp.

If you have yourself a plate of griot and a side of pikliz, life is going well. This condiment is a mixture of pickled scotch bonnet peppers, cabbage, and carrots and adds a swift kick to every bite. All the “plate” options come with a choice of plantain, some greens, and a choice of rice and beans. This dine-in meal selected diri djon djon to accompany both plates, which is rice cooked in a black mushroom ragout and full of other herbs and spices.

The chef explains that many people who have patronized his businesses in the past and those walking in because of the “Caribbean Cuisine” ask for Jamaican dishes like jerk chicken. This makes sense for a city that does not yet have a well-rounded Caribbean food scene, but he also cooks things that someone wanting these flavors will enjoy, namely the creole seafood options.