Star Chef JJ Jonhson Inflects Blue LLama Jazz Club With Caribbean and West African Flavors #DetroitFood

Blue LLama

The Ann Arbor hotspot’s new menu includes jerk shrimp, plant-based yassa, and boneless rib eye.

Over a little more than five years in business, Ann Arbor’s Blue LLama has established itself as a stylish downtown destination for jazz lovers for its world-class music programming and state-of-the-art acoustics. Now, the spot hopes to generate equal buzz for its food by hiring New York-based chef and star restaurateur JJ Johnson, who has stepped in to serve as Blue LLama’s creative culinary director.

Originally, the fine dining menu featured punny dishes that paid tribute to legendary jazz greats, such as poached monkfish with collard greens inspired by Thelonius Monk’s love of the hearty Southern leafy standby. However, other items such as Basin Street Bombs — Italian arancini seemed far removed from the culture of the actual New Orleans French Quarter. So as Blue LLama built its reputation in the college town as a destination jazz venue, owner Don Hicks felt that the food menu lost its synergy with the entertainment side of the business. “We got away from our roots through the years and I knew we needed a reboot,” he says. “We wanted to return our original mission of connecting world-class music with world-class food.”

While Blue LLama’s original dishes were tributes to jazz greats, Johnson’s new menu reflects African American foodways in recognition of jazz’s African American roots.

“Jazz is rooted in and influenced by peoples of the South, West Africa, and the Caribbean,” says Johnson. “To be able to listen to the music rooted in those cultures and pair it with food from those cultures is exciting for me.” Johnson‘s own culinary journey began in the kitchens of his Puerto Rican grandmother and Barbadian grandfather, developed through culinary school, and continued with years spent in Ghana after graduation. The ties to those various cultures make Johnson “a kid of the diaspora,” a natural fit for creating a menu that connects with Blue LLama’s music.

The menu — organized by first and second courses, sides for the table, and available in a prix fixe option ($55) — leans into Caribbean and West African influences. Highlights include grilled jerk prawns coated with a fresh herb marinade that does not hold back on heat; a meat-free version of yassa (a traditional Senegalese dish) made with leeks; and bouncy udon noodles in a savory peanut sauce and served with braised goat shoulder. Perhaps the star of the menu is the C. Bird Half Chicken — brined for 72 hours, roasted to crispy, juicy perfection and served with a collard green salsa verde. Some dishes such as a boneless ribeye with grilled pineapple are available on the prix fixe menu for an additional cost. Each reservation comes with a $15 ticket per person for the entertainment.

Blue LLama

From top left; Jerk shrimp; C. Bird’s Half Chicken; boneless ribeye with grilled pineapple.

Johnson’s resume in the culinary world is long. Earlier this year, he was named a semifinalist for a James Beard Award in the Best Chef: New York State category for his rice bowl shop, Field Trip, which first opened its doors in Harlem in 2019 to critical acclaim. He co-authored the James Beard Award-winning book Between Harlem and Heaven: Afro-Asian-American Cooking for Big Nights, Weeknights, and Every Day. He’s also hosted Cleo TV’s Just Eats with Chef JJ.

Since joining the team, the New York-based Johnson has been focused on developing and refining the recipes and overall menu in his role as a culinary advisor out of his lab in Harlem. Helming the kitchen locally is executive chef Scott Livingston, formerly of Napa Valley’s Meadowood Resort, and sous chef Shani Patterson from Jean-Georges. Both were brought on to revamp the kitchen staff and daily operations. Hicks likens the team, which also includes general manager Derrick Bolster, to an elite jazz combo — “a band of great players working together.”

Hicks tells Eater that he fell in love with Johnson’s food about six years ago — right around when the original planning for Blue LLama was underway. He and Johnson reconnected in September 2023 following the release of Johnson’s latest book, The Simple Art of Rice. Hicks says he was impressed with one detail in particular about the chef’s pedigree.

“He was the executive chef at Minton’s Playhouse — the birthplace of bebop — so to have someone who has such strong connections to jazz is really exciting,” says Hicks.

Whenever he is in town, Johnson has made it a priority to explore Ann Arbor and make connections locally.

“I wanted to see what the food scene was like and what it means to the people here,“ says Johnson. “The University of Michigan is a phenomenal place and its graduates migrate all around the world. I definitely want to be part of that culture.”

from Eater Detroit - All