Cecil Lawson had every intention of retiring in Florida. He grew up in Jamaica, and when he was 24 years old, he moved to New York.

Luckily, when he was ready to move again, his daughter, Michelle, who had moved to Greenville in 1992, begged her father to open a Jamaican restaurant here.

There wasn't a Jamaican restaurant anywhere in the Upstate, she told Lawson.
 

On Fourth of July weekend in 2004, just two weeks after his first visit to Greenville, Lawson and his wife, Panchita, opened Island Blend Jerk & BBQ restaurant on Main Street.

"I've been cooking all my life," Lawson said. "I love it."

The atmosphere in the restaurant is distinctly tropical, with a palm tree-framed ocean mural on one wall and a moving picture of a tropical island behind the front counter. Jamaican music plays softly in the background, and the smoky, spicy smells of jerk chicken and pork greet customers as they walk through the front door.

"I try to keep it as authentic as possible," Lawson said.

Lawson does most of the cooking but has taught his daughter to cook as well.

"She claims now that she is better than me, which is not true," Lawson said with a smile.

Lawson does about 80 percent of his restaurant shopping at Jamaican markets in Atlanta and brings back Jamaican sodas, juices, hot sauces and seasonings to cook with and to sell in his restaurant. Soft drinks such as ginger beer and kola champagne, along with ginseng power drinks, coconut water, guava nectar and sorrel, are available in a cooler, but Lawson makes his own fresh juices as well.

One of his specialty drinks, Irish Moss ($4 a pint), is made with seaweed and is quite good for you, he said.

Bottles of Jamaican crushed peppers and scotch bonnet pepper sauce (only for the brave) are available on every table.

The restaurant's jerk chicken and jerk pork ($7 a plate) are the most popular items on the menu, but the curried goat ($9 a plate) sells quickly as well, Lawson said.

Jamaicans love their goat and eat a lot of it, Lawson said.

Other popular dishes include seafood specialties such as the Salmon Caribbean Blend ($10) and the Black Grouper Fillet ($12).

Original Article