Beamsville winery opens Italian Jerk restaurant
Royal DeMaria Wines offers dining with a Caribbean twist
A longtime Beamsville winery is now the proud owner of an Italian Jerk — that is, a restaurant that serves a unique combination of Italian and Caribbean food.
Royal DeMaria Wines owner Joseph DeMaria said it was his brother who first said he’d love to open a restaurant called Italian Jerk.
“When he held a party, everybody went for the food. And we told him, ‘We’re not coming to see you, we’re coming to eat your food,’” he said with a laugh.
His brother loved to cook Jamaican food and ultimately shared all his recipes with DeMaria’s wife, Charlene Stephenson.
Ten years later, DeMaria said his brother gave him his blessing and plans for the winery’s first restaurant began.
It features a large, outdoor jerk hut where jerk chicken and jerk pork are smoked using apple, pear, cherry, plum and peach wood.
“We mix it up so we get the flavours from the wood right into the chicken or into the pork,” he said.
The Italian side of the menu includes pizzas and pastas featuring the secret sauce of DeMaria’s mother, Margarita Sborlini, who passed away last year.
“Everybody loves her sauce, you can smell it from a mile away.”
Having a restaurant that combines Italian and Caribbean food is especially meaningful for DeMaria because the winery has long been welcoming off-shore workers.
Now, he said, the thousands of migrant workers who come to Niagara from Saint Vincent, Jamaica and Trinidad can enjoy home cooking here.
“At the end of the day, it’s nice to know we’ve got island food here,” he said.