Jacob's Restaurant

We first discovered Jacob's Restaurant on a research trip to Harlem. In a rush, we noted the crowds and vowed to come back. When we did, we fell hard for its Caribbean, West African, and Southern specialties arrayed unpretentiously over two steam tables. Jerk chicken, fried chicken, turkey neck with fava beans, oxtail stew, short ribs, BBQ ribs, buttery corn, potato salad, veggies marinated in vinegar and salt, fruit salad, rice with black peas, mac and cheese, string beans, vanilla pudding adorned with wafers. Speak these words out loud, and you have one of the world's most beautiful poems. But it's the cornbread that will have us hopping on the A train and returning, again and again, for its ability to be so many things all at once: dense and light, savory and sweet, caramelized and chewy, absolutely extraordinary.   

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