Coalhouse Grill Expansion

Like many restaurants serving foreign cuisine, the walls inside Coalhouse Grill are designed to express the food’s origins. The dining room walls are trimmed with rustic, chair rail molding along with inspirational quotes. The stained tables, made from the same common lumber used as floor joists, and the bar, built with oriented, strand board typically used for wall sheathing, are utilitarian. It takes you to another world — just like the food does.

Chef Nathalee Francis, who moved to the U.S. at 19 and owns the 6-year-old restaurant with her husband, Patrick, they know both sides of her native country of Jamaica. The beaches, the tourists, and sugary cocktails with umbrellas, but there is also the inside of her grandfather’s butcher shop where he’d pack cuts of beef, pork, goat, and chicken he’d send her home to cook with. This developed her passion, her love for food and the desire to become a Great Chef. Francis described her restaurant’s interior as the beginning of that reflection of Jamaica, that ends with a list of authentic menu choices.

The twice-cooked braised oxtail, braised curried goat, and stewed, bone-in segments of tender chicken coated in a rich brown sauce flavored with carrots are classic favorites. The jerk chicken and pork both spend about 24 hours in a sweet, smooth rub with scotch bonnet pepper, pimentos, and thyme. The quarter chicken’s mildly spicy flavor is tempered by the bright and sweet mango salsa, while the six or so hunks of pork shoulder sit squarely on the savory-spicy side. We have a carefully selected Vegan menu that our Vegan-lovers are addicted to. Careful preparation is taken into each meal that keeps customers coming back day after day.

A ginger beer in hand and a guava passion drink, described as having a patron-like taste, is like going on vacation.

At the Coalhouse Grill, you won’t be tricked into thinking you’re on a touristy beach, but it sure will feel like your Jamaican mama’s kitchen.

After 6 years of operating, having survived a dreadful pandemic, the dynamic duo has decided it’s time to expand.

With expansion comes huge cost to get the process started. They are seeking the generosity of the families, friends and anyone else who’s had a Coalhouse Grill experience and call this restaurant a home away from home, to help in their fundraising efforts. Please help them by donating to their expansion process.

Thank You!