Jamaican Grill (www.jamaicangrill.com)

http://www.jamaicangrill.com/

In the early 1990’s, Frank Kenny and Tim Murphy worked together at the Guam Hilton Hotel and became friends.

Frank a native of Boston, served a brief stint in the U.S. Air force as a cool in the services squadron. During his enlistment, he traveled to many different places and was attracted to the Asian region. After graduation from the Food Service Management program at the Johnson & Wales University at Rhode Island, he sent his resume out to numerous hotels in the Asian region.

Shortly he received and accepted an offer to work at the Hilton Guam Hotel. After many cold winters in the Boston area, he greatly appreciated the sunshine and warm tropical breezes of Guam.

At the beginning of his career, Tim says “I was just a high school student looking for a job”. Later, Tim left the island to serve as a merchant marine, and went on to work in the restaurant industry in San Francisco, California.

He discovered that he has a really strong interest in the food and beverage industry and, when he returned to Guam, he had the opportunity to become the owner and operator of The Brig restaurant from 1981 to 1985.

While Frank and Time were working together, they did some “serious talking”. A new restaurant idea started to fire their imagination. They discovered three things that would ultimately be the root of their success:

1. the overall love for barbecue in Guam;
2. The intense love for spice food which is apparent in most Chamorro dishes; and
3. The deep love for reggae music in Guam which originates from the island of Jamaica.

With this unique perspective on the local market in mind, Frank later returned from a trip to southern Florida with a bottle of Jamaican “Jerk” seasoning – a highly spiced combination of scallions, onions, thyme, Jamaican pimento (all spice), cinnamon, nutmeg and peppers. In 1992, they introduced the flavor to Guam in small local gatherings in the form of “chesa”. Served with some reggae music in the background, a little red rice (a local favorite), and some Jerk seasoned barbeque, it was a hit. Frank and Tim knew they had found their market.

Frank explains: “The Jamaican Jerk style of cooling was something that very few people in Guam knew about at that time. We found that the fusion of Jamaican style jerk barbecue combined with the local Chamorro flavors was a recipe for success.” Tim comments: “It started me down a path that I would never have dreamed of myself.”

Milestones:

• December 1994: The first Jamaican Grill restaurant opens at the Chamorro Village in Hagatna with just two employees: Frank and Tim. It has since become one of the popular dining places in Guam.

• In November 2004: The second Jamaican Grill restaurant opened in Tumon, across from the Pacific Island Club Hotel, and is a favorite with tourist and hotel employees.

• January 2007: After four months of renovation, creating more seating, an open kitchen, better traffic flow for waiters and customers, and a décor that more authentically reflects the colors, tones and sounds of a typical neighborhood café in Jamaica, the original Jamaican Grill restaurant re-opens at the Chamorro Village, and remain more popular than ever.

• In 2010, Jamaican Grill is offering its business model in other locations in the form of franchising. Off island expansion of the Jamaican Grill concept is initially targeted to the neighboring Asia/Pacific market.

 

To learn more about Jamaican Grill, visit http://jamaicangrill.com/flash/index.html

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