Jewels brings Caribbean food to King Drive
A mother and her daughters are opening an upscale restaurant on North King Drive that features the food of the Caribbean, including dishes from St. Lucia.
Lucile Jules and daughters Natasha and Lennora will debut Jewels Caribbean, 2230 N. King Drive, to the public for dinner Saturday.
The restaurant will be open for lunch, dinner and weekend brunch once regular hours begin, also serving menu items from Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
Jewels is in a three-story 1885 building on King and a connected one-story building.
The dining room is bright like the colors of the Caribbean, Natasha Jules said, including turquoise walls.
She designed a riverlike inlay of colored glass and shells that snakes around the bartop; a custom-made 5-foot chandelier hangs from the ceiling, she said.
Natasha Jules said her mother and father are from St. Lucia, where their families operated restaurants. “The restaurant business is kind of in our blood,” she said.
The restaurant’s recipes are her mother’s and those of other family members. “We’ve been making a lot of overseas phone calls,” Natasha Jules said. “This has been a group effort.”
Some distinctly St. Lucian dishes include the Creole breakfast ($12), served during brunch — sauteed saltfish served with biscuit-like bakes, avocado slices and green fig, the St. Lucian term for green banana.
Lunch items include the callaloo plate ($7.95), steamed greens with ground provisions, or root vegetables, and jerk chicken sandwich ($10.95), served with rice and peas and steamed vegetables.
Appetizers at lunch and dinner include beef or vegetable patties ($7 for two filled pastries) and accras ($9.99), six, two-bite saltfish fritters.
Natasha Jules said the cuisine of St. Lucia has similarities to other Caribbean islands but also has a French influence; so, the curried goat ($17.95) on the dinner menu is less spicy than it might be in a Jamaican restaurant.
The menu has vegetarian and vegan dishes, and Jewels serves tapas at the bar all day and in the dining room after 9:30 p.m. Thursday to Saturday. It includes jerk chicken wings ($8) and coconut shrimp ($7).
The bar will pour rums and beers from several islands. Jules said cocktails are mostly $8 to $12, although higher-end cocktails are in the works that include hard-to-procure St. Lucian rums.
Hours this Saturday are 6 to 9 p.m. Regular hours will be 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.
To contact by phone: (414) 585-0678. Links for online reservations and food delivery orders will be at
Tusk opens on west side
The owner of a busy bar on the west side has opened a restaurant six blocks away, focusing on elevated pub fare, cocktails and wines.
Christine McRoberts looked to her fondness for elephants when she named Tusk at 5513 W. North Ave. The restaurant eventually will house her collection of elephant art and statues.
Since 1986, McRoberts has operated the Irish pub McBob’s at 4919 W. North Ave., known for its corned beef and fish fry.
The new restaurant is on a block of North Ave. that’s home to several newer businesses: Vennture Brewing is next door to Tusk’s west, the Sharehouse coffee shop is to the east, and Scene 1 restaurant is across the street.
McRoberts said she wanted to build on that momentum (and that of the new Bittercube bar nearby, at 48th and Lisbon).
Tusk’s chef is George Jones, who worked at the Bartolotta group’s Rumpus Room and Harbor House and in Colorado.
He said dishes on the menu can be shared, like waffle-battered chicken tenders, although there also are items like ramen for one. (Components like mushroom broth and bacon dashi are made at the restaurant.)
Jones is using his own gluten-free flour blend in some dishes, and there are menu items for vegans, he said.
“I wanted to make it so you can come in with your friends and family and nobody has to worry about not being able to eat,” he said.
Jones is turning next door for some ingredients; he’s tapping beer from Vennture for marinades and the brewery’s spent grains for crostini for the cheese and charcuterie boards. Plates range in price up to $22.
At the bar, Pattie Ford, formerly of Juniper 61 in Wauwatosa, is focusing on fresh ingredients and infusions, such as mango, pineapple and jalapeño in tequila.
“I also wanted to showcase a really nice wine list,” she said, adding that customers can buy half bottles from the pricier reserve list, and the rest can be sold by the glass.
Tusk is on Facebook. To contact for takeout and for private parties on Sundays and Mondays: (414) 763-2095.
Miracle on 2nd St.
Gin and whiskey specialist The Tin Widow, 703 S. 2nd St., will be the scene this year of Miracle, the national pop-up Christmas bar that annually serves seasonal drinks at 80 or so bars and gives a portion of proceeds to charity.
Miracle on 2nd St. starts Friday and continues through Christmas Eve. The bar is open daily from 7 p.m. until bar time.
The Tin Widow will be done up in Christmas decor that fit the bar’s aesthetic. “We always joke that it feels like your grandparents’ basement in 1978,” owner Sam Berman said.
And it will serve mainly Miracle cocktails (all $12). They include the Christmas Carol Barrel (aged rum, aquavit, amaro, pumpkin-pie flavors, lemon, Angostura bitters). Shots will be $5.
Some of the Christmas glassware will be for sale; a portion of sales will go to the global charity Action Against Hunger.
The Tin Widow’s capacity is 49 patrons, and Berman expects the bar will be hopping during the pop-up. “We’re going to do our best to have the fastest service available,” he said.