Jamaican Pat’s Caribbean Kitchen plans closure after nearly 14 years in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS — The man known for his proclamation of “One Love” is about to break many hearts.

After nearly 14 years in business, one of Cedar Rapids’ most widely recognized restaurateurs is closing.

Caribbean Kitchen owner Patrick Rashed, known by diners as Jamaican Pat, announced plans to close at the end of the year. Caribbean Kitchen’s last day open will be Dec. 31.

The Nov. 5 announcement comes on the heels of the restaurant’s food truck closure earlier this fall.

“Thank you Cedar Rapids for the love and support all these years. I appreciate you so much,” Rashed said in a social media post. “I ask for your continuing support these last two months of operation. Stop by and have a jerk chicken bowl or two before we close.”

Rashed, one of NewBo City Market’s original vendors when it opened in 2012, has not detailed reasons for his restaurant’s closure or future plans.

When he opened Caribbean Kitchen, the native of Kingston, Jamaica, was one of the only people in Cedar Rapids serving authentic jerk chicken. He took pride in the authenticity of his recipe, smoked over imported pimento wood harvested from the allspice tree.

“If you don't use pimento wood, it's not real jerk chicken,” he told The Gazette in 2015.

From 2014 to 2016, Rashed had a second location at 529 Fifth Ave. SE, a space most recently home to Mi Lindo Vallarta.

Over the last several years, a couple other options have opened for Caribbean food. But Rashed always laid claim to the title of the “original” jerk chicken in Cedar Rapids.

Over time, he said Iowa’s palate grew to tolerate the jerk spice. Meanwhile, the business evolved as it left NewBo, tried its Fifth Avenue spot as a singular location and lived out of a food truck for several years — an early adopter of the trend locally.

In 2021, Caribbean Kitchen moved back to NewBo City Market.

The following year, he opened Fat Pat’s Gumbo YaYa, the first restaurant to specialize in gumbo. The restaurant, inspired by his Creole grandmother’s recipes, lasted about six months.

In 2023, Caribbean Kitchen pivoted to serve more soul food at NewBo, and took another short-lived shot at a second location in the downtown Armstrong Centre.

“Just me understanding my culture a lot more, I’m able to be more creative with my food,” he told The Gazette in 2022. “I try to cater to Iowa’s palate, as well as (Jamaican) authenticity.”

Over the years, the menu’s flavor profiles evolved and added a variety of items including rice bowls, tacos and other fusion dishes — a Greek salad with jerk sauce and chicken, a Cuban sandwich with a Jamaican twist and Indian creations with sweet rotti flatbread.

“If you hear of any honey jerk in Iowa, they got it from me,” he said. “Nobody else does it here.”

Rashed, whose first restaurant experience started at age 12, found a passion in the industry that returned later as an adult.

With a master’s degree in clinical social work, Rashed, now 58, has found joy in the customers he saw every day. He chose to focus on an industry with a different kind of stress than social work.

“It’s an honor, for me, for someone to come purchase your food and to trust you with something they’re going to put inside their body. I don’t take that lightly,” he said in 2022.

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.