The Nosh with Rachel Belle
Grab a slice at an acclaimed pizza joint that specializes in flavors of the Black Diaspora. And it’s okay to be a jerk (if you’re chicken!) at a Central District Jamaican restaurant
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When Marlie and Anthony Love moved to Seattle several years ago, they were eager to explore the area but weren’t quite sure what that would be like as a Black couple in a predominantly white state. So they created Traveling While Black, now known as TWB, a video series documenting their adventures that also serves as a modern-day Green Book.
On this Juneteenth eve, follow along as Marlie and Anthony take me on a mini restaurant crawl, to a couple of their favorite Black-owned Seattle spots.
We start at Jerk Shack, in the Central District, where chef/owner Trey Lamont grew up. Chef Lamont knows his way around a protein; tender, fall-off-the-bone ribs, silky salmon and juicy chicken, all cloaked in house-ground spice blends and sauces, inspired by his Jamaican heritage. Don’t sleep on the jerk chicken burrito; the griddled, roti-esque tortilla is stuffed with rice and peas cooked in coconut milk, sweet fried plantains, slaw, melty cheese and zippy, house made, Caribbean-inspired salsas.
Then we head to South Lake Union to sample slices at Pizza By Ruffin, where chef Isaiah Ruffin tells the story of the Black Diaspora through square slices of Roman-style pizza al taglio. His creative toppings jump from Africa to the Caribbean, South America to the American South and beyond. One week a pie might be inspired by Ghanaian flavors (plantains, mascarpone, fried onion and chili sauce), the next it could be Somalia (black eyed peas; peanut, tomato and onion sauce and spicy cilantro and green chili pepper sauce) or topped with BBQ brisket with banana peppers and pickled onions.
