Germany and the Caribbean cuisine are an unlikely match. With typically spicy dishes, like jerk chicken, curry goat, and meaty patties, served up with warm hospitality, Jamaican food culture is arguably the antithesis of a stereotypical Berlin restaurant.
But, as the scene’s enthusiastic restaurateurs tell us, their grub is a hit with locals, perhaps because it’s such a departure from those gruff, chilli-free German norms. Still, the scene remains small; Berlin is no London or Toronto. There’s just one brick-and-mortar Jamaican restaurant and a smattering of food trucks and pop-ups – but compared to a few years ago, the crowds are hungry for it.
Just ask Barbara Saltmann, the vivacious owner of Berlin’s only Jamaican restaurant Ya-Man in Moabit. She first arrived in Germany in the 1970s after convincing the Jamaican tourism board, where she worked, to send her. In 2008, despite “having never carried a tray in her hand”, she found herself changing careers to take what’s now Ya-Man over from its previous owner.
“The beginning was not easy; the Germans were saying, ‘Oh, it’s too spicy,’ and things like that.” A darker side of Germany revealed itself too, as unwelcoming neighbours called the police on the restaurant repeatedly, claiming that the restaurant was selling drugs. “I said, ‘All I have to sell you, my dears, is jerk chicken and Jamaican beer’,” she laughs.
Sixteen years later, both those problems have evaporated. Nowadays, Saltmann says she’s surprised (but delighted) to have customers beelining to her cosy bright green-and-yellow dining room directly from the airport for plates of deeply-marinated chicken stacked with rice and plantains, or ackee and saltfish – Jamaica’s national dish – made with salt cod, nutty ackee fruit and plenty of spice.
Enthusiastic diners aren’t unique to Ya-Man: food truck owners Jonele Watts and Elvis Ololo see it, too. Both have been in Berlin for around 20 years, but in 2022, they joined forces and started running a trio of trucks – Sweet Jamaica Jerk, Sweet Jamaica Food, and Royal Jerk – which set up weekly at locations like Tempelhofer Hafen and the Kulturbrauerei, and at various street festivals around town.
“There’s three things Germans know about Jamaica. First, it’s Bob Marley, then reggae music, and jerk chicken.”
Despite Jamaican food being so uncommon in Germany, Watts says she rarely needs to explain jerk chicken to locals – perhaps helped by a fairly large outflux of Germans heading to Jamaica on holidays, as the German Foreign Office reports, with Germany occupying the fifth place on the list of countries that send the most tourists to the Caribbean island. “There’s three things that the Germans know about Jamaica. First, it’s Bob Marley, then reggae music, and jerk chicken,” Watts says. “Every time the smoke from the grill hits their nose, they want to taste that jerk chicken, the caramelised sugar, the scotch bonnet peppers.”
“From politicians to police to the man that sits at the toilet, we draw everybody. Everybody loves the food,” she continues. It’s not just jerk they have on offer: the three trucks regularly serve saucy curry chicken, which developed from Indian immigration to Jamaica and is served with garlicky, peppery rice and peas; the hearty beef stew is another hit. Berlin’s Jamaican chefs do make small tweaks to the classics. For example, Sweet Jamaica nods to the German affinity for bread by offering the option of jerk chicken im Brot or, for kids, mit Pommes.
Meanwhile, at Ya-Man, Saltmann goes a little easy on the chilli, offering complementary hot sauce on tables for those who want that extra kick. “I would say our food is pikant [mildly spicy] instead of scharf, people think it’s strictly fire-in-my-mouth kind of scharf,” she says.It’s been enough of a hit that Saltmann has never had to offer delivery through apps like Wolt; Ya-Man has enough traffic without it. Plus, she prefers to have direct contact with her customers, selling good vibes on top of soul food like oxtail and curry. “I try to make the people leave satisfied and happy. And that’s the main thing. That’s Jamaica,” she says.
“We don’t only serve the food, we serve the happiness that comes with it.”
That ethos isn’t specific to Saltmann: with Watts and Ololo also serious about offering the kind of warm hospitality you’d get in Jamaica. “We don’t only serve the food, we serve the happiness that comes with it,” says Watts. The combination of spicy soul food and laid-back, friendly service is a winner, so much so that they’re currently scouting permanent locations for a restaurant.
Ololo envisions a firmly casual vibe; the kind of neighbourhood spot where you can sip some rum punch and hang out. “We don’t want a fine dining restaurant, we want somewhere that’s cool with sand on the floor and graffiti.” They’re hoping for a Kreuzberg or Schöneberg location – so with luck, Berlin will double its Jamaican restaurants soon.
- Ya-Man, Gotzkowskystr. 17, Moabit, @yamansoulfoodberlin.
- Sweet Jamaica Jerk, Sweet Jamaica Food, and Royal Jerk can be found Tue & Wed at Tempelhofer Hafen; Sun at Kulturbrauerei and Teufelsberg. Follow them on Instagram at @sweetjamaicajerk, @sweetjamaicafood and @royaljerkberlin for new locations.
