Oxtails, curry goat, jerk chicken anyone? Middle GA Jamaican restaurant opens second spot

Macon restaurant owner and Montego Bay native Patrick Cunningham is serious about serving up authentic, quality Jamaican cuisine.

He recently opened a second location of Macon’s popular J & F Caribbean Delight in Centerville.

“If it’s not quality, it’s not coming out of my kitchen,” said Cunningham, who went to culinary arts school, cooked for Sandals resorts and later on a cruise ship.

After coming to America more than 20 years ago, he ran five restaurants in Brooklyn and then started his own catering business in Convington, about 35 miles east of Atlanta.

Nearly 10 years ago, Cunningham opened J & F Caribbean Delight at 1686 North Atwood Drive in Macon, and Saturday, he celebrated the grand opening of the restaurant’s second location at 100 Gunn Road in Centerville.

Nestled in a small shopping strip anchored by a gas station across from Center Park at Centerville, the small restaurant offers authentic Jamaican cuisine with dishes like curry goat, oxtails and jerk chicken.

Cunningham takes pride in how he cooks, noting that the meats are seasoned for days in advance and then slow cooked.

The chicken curry takes about 45 minutes to cook, compared to nearly three hours needed for oxtails, he said.

Authentic Jamaican cuisine

“It’s all about the herbs and spice,” Cunningham said.

He uses Scotch Bonnet peppers, a variety of chili pepper common to Jamaica and West Africa, as well as fresh garlic and thyme.

Because the Centerville restaurant is larger and because he wants his customers to experience the same flavor at both of his restaurants, Cunningham seasons the meats for both restaurants at the Centerville location.

All of the food is prepared and cooked fresh each day at each restaurant.

Only the coco bread, chicken, beef and veggie patties are prepared elsewhere by an Atlanta company and then cooked at his restaurants.

His side dishes include traditional Caribbean favorites from fried plantains to “rice and peas,” which is actually rice and red kidney beans, Cunningham said.

He also offers his own signature to a traditional Southern favorite, macaroni and cheese, by adding “a little pepper and onion and special species.”

Cunningham arrives at the restaurant at 7:30 a.m. to start cooking. He expects to split his time daily between the two restaurants once he gets the Centerville location established and running the way he wants it.

On Monday, a day when the restaurant is normally closed, Cunningham was cooking curry chicken — explaining how the dish is prepared to a Telegraph reporter and videographer.

There’s nothing significant to the initials in the restaurant’s name. “We just liked Caribbean Delight,” and adding J & F just sounded good, Cunningham said.

With its small dining room and outdoor patio with two picnic tables, the Centerville location already is doing a brisk business.

Offering dine-in and takeout, the new restaurant is open from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Allow about 30 minutes for take out, Cunningham said. The restaurant’s telephone number is 478-333-1656.