Miss Lily’s, a New-York born Caribbean concept will open its first international outlet in Dubai this Eid.
Located at Sheraton Grand on Sheikh Zayed Road, the beach shack inspired Jamaican diner will feature classic island cooking, vibrant design and old-school ska and reggae music.
The space will be split into a 40-seat restaurant, and a bar and lounge area seating up to 40 people and offering the full menu in addition to Caribbean-inspired cocktails and light bites.
A private chef’s table dining room seating up to 16 people will be situated just off the kitchen.
Miss Lily’s executive chef Adam Schop, a New York native, has created the menu, which features items such as jerk chicken, jerk corn grilled with toasted coconut and jerk mayo, pimento short ribs and hot pepper shrimp.
Schop graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1995.
In 2008 he opened pan-Latin restaurant Nuela in New York as executive chef and partner and later Stephan Starr took on Schop as executive chef at Brasserie Le Diplomate in Washington DC, before he returned to New York as executive chef of Miss Lily’s.
Dishes exclusive to the Dubai venue are king crab with aromatic scotch bonnet sauce, jerk BBQ short rib steamed buns, and Jamaican pepper ribeye steak.
Some of the Jamaican-inspired cocktails on offer include Tempted to Touch – a mix of Jamaican rum, hazelnut, grapefruit, pineapple and Angostura Bitters and the Night Nurse, crafted from Barbados Rum, cilantro, lemon, served with a dash of smoked paprika.
In addition to cocktails and spirits, Miss Lily’s Dubai will be importing the Jamaican style hops, Red Stripe, as well as grapefruit soda, Ting, marking a regional exclusive.
The two will be combined to create a Jamaican Shandy, also known as the ‘Ting A Ling’, a mix of Red Stripe and Ting.
Designer and co-owner Serge Becker created the interiors.
In addition to Miss Lily’s in NYC, his repertoire includes La Esquina (NYC), Bodega Negra (London), The Box (NYC) and Lure Fishbar (NYC).
In line with Becker’s theatrical approach to design, the Dubai location showcases Miss Lily’s signature look with bright colors and wild, clashing patterns that evoke an 80’s Jamaican diner vibe.
Elements such as the black and blue linoleum checkerboard floors and wood paneled walls will nod to the West Indian Brooklyn fast food diner aesthetic.
To pay homage to its New York City roots, the bar area will replicate a typical NYC Bodega storefront, the canopy itself having been flown in directly from New York.
Additional design details include a custom-built Jamaican speaker stack wall, vintage Michael Thonet Birch Bentwood dining chairs (circa 1940), and walls made up of Jamaican vinyl record covers.
Following the end of Ramadan, Miss Lily’s sibling juice bar, Melvin’s Juice Box will be serving organic cold press juices, healthy ‘bowls’ and salads at lunchtime.
Melvin Major Jr., the face behind Melvin’s Juice Box brand, is a 20-year veteran of the organic juice scene in NYC and has garnered a cult following
