Editor’s note: Food & Dining Magazine’s Spring 2026 print publication (Vol. 89) could not be published in the usual manner owing to the unexpected death in late February of our friend, founder, publisher and mentor John Carlos White. F&D’s future has yet to be determined. However, our Spring 2026 columns, profiles and features are being released online prior to Kentucky Derby 152.
Today’s installment is the last. Find them all here: The SPRING 2026 (Vol. 89) F & D Compendium.
—
Tastes of Jamaica at Elliment Restaurant & Lounge
By Marty Rosen | Photos by Dan Dry
It’s going on thirty years now since I wrote my first restaurant piece for LEO Weekly, a review of Jim Gravatte’s storied cafe/watering hole on Swan Street. That’s a good memory.
It is quite possible that this will be my last restaurant piece. As our digital/social media editor puts this issue together, the future of F&D remains unclear, and hinges on the disposition of the estate of our founder and publisher, John Carlos White, who died unexpectedly just as this issue was on the verge of going to the printer.
The last time I saw John was the day of our photo shoot at the subject of this article: Janice Clarke’s superb Elliment Restaurant & Lounge. It was a dreary day, chilly and gray — but the outdoor elements held no sway in Elliment, where the dining room was as bright as a Jamaican sky and the room pulsed to the sound of Bob Marley’s “One Love.”
If it should, in fact, turn out that this is my final restaurant piece I’m closing on a happy note.
Every restaurant (every worthwhile endeavor of any kind, for that matter) has an origin story. But few are as meaningful as the origin of Elliment.
Back in 2012, Janice Clarke found herself living in New York; Queens, to be precise. She was successfully pursuing a lifelong career ambition—as a nine year-old she had dreamt of working in the hospitality industry, and she’d been successful in earning a degree in the field, a teaching certificate, and making the climb — following a conventional career ladder that included success in the corporate world of KFC and, among others, a graduate degree from Uof L.
All of that follows a standard pattern, family, career, and a path that eventually found...Read more
