Healthful Juices: Your Next Stop for a Jamaican Lunch

Caribbean cooking comes and goes in Five Points. A few intrepid food hunters may remember long-gone joints like the Cat Island Cafe and Sadie's Caribbean Cafe, or have perhaps visited A Taste of Haiti at 2622 Welton Street or tucked into the "Island-style pates" (similar to overstuffed empanadas) at the Welton Street Cafe. Those of you who can't live without your jerk chicken, braised oxtail and Irish-moss smoothies will be pleased to see that Healthful Juices has added its Jamaican style to 2736 Welton Street, in the plaza just behind the Welton Street Cafe.

Healthful Juices is a spinoff of Island Peppapot, the catering company and street-food stand operated by Paul March and Angela Smith. You may have encountered Island Peppapot on the 16th Street Mall or at Finn's Manor, just a few blocks over on Larimer Street.

The new place is named after Jamaican juices like sorrel (hibiscus), ginger and carrot, and fruit smoothies thickened with Irish moss, a type of seaweed packed with vitamins and other nutrients. But there's also a full menu of Jamaican entrees, sandwiches and patties (a little smaller and more delicate than its neighbor's pates).

Heaping plates of rice and cabbage come topped with jerk chicken, curry chicken and other slow-cooked meats, and weekend specials include braised oxtail, curry goat and rice with peas. Exact hours have yet to be set, but lunchtime is a good bet. Just come hungry, because portions are large.

Healthful Juices occupies the space formerly occupied by Fat Jack's Super Subs and shares a shopping center with Spangalang Brewery. So you could hang out and enjoy a meal along with a reggae soundtrack, or you could get your order to go to enjoy with locally made beer.