Fiyahside Jamaican restaurant to take over the Stella J's Soul Food spot on Capitol

Carol Deptolla, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
·4 min read
Rosie Jackson opened Stella J's Soul Food at 7434 W. Capitol Drive in 2013 with her family. The restaurant remains open for now, but Fiyahside Jamaican Restaurant will open its second location there, likely in spring.
Rosie Jackson opened Stella J's Soul Food at 7434 W. Capitol Drive in 2013 with her family. The restaurant remains open for now, but Fiyahside Jamaican Restaurant will open its second location there, likely in spring.

A change is in the works at 7434 W. Capitol Drive: Fiyahside Jamaican Restaurant will open its second location there after Stella J's Soul Food closes.

Fiyahside, which has its original takeout location at 3709 W. Villard Ave., hopes to open on Capitol in early May.

Fiyahside owner Lascelles Rattray said the second location would provide seating for about 40 customers (he hopes to have table service), and it would have a bar with a lounge area and soft seating. It would be available for meetings.

The owner of Stella J's, Rosie Jackson, was working as a registered nurse when she decided to open the restaurant in 2013, to provide jobs for sisters and in-laws from Mississippi who wanted to move north.

"We grew up in the restaurant business in Mississippi," she said. She named Stella J's for her mother and grandmother.

"It used to be, family ran those type of restaurants," Jackson said.

But, she said, her sisters decided a restaurant career wasn't for them. Jackson continued the restaurant on her own, but she's ready to go back to nursing full time. A nurse for almost 40 years, she's worked in her field part time while also operating the restaurant.

"I used to think nursing was hard," Jackson said, "but it’s nothing like the restaurant business."

Stella J's serves soul food classics, such as catfish and fried chicken, baked macaroni and cheese, and vegetables such as collard greens, fried corn, black-eyed peas, and butter beans mixed with okra — boiled, not fried.

"Whatever you was raised on in the South, we have it, including rutabagas," Jackson said.

Rosie Jackson makes soul food dishes including catfish, fried chicken, smothered pork chops, collard greens and black-eyed peas. "Whatever you was raised on in the South, we have it, including rutabagas," she said.
Rosie Jackson makes soul food dishes including catfish, fried chicken, smothered pork chops, collard greens and black-eyed peas. "Whatever you was raised on in the South, we have it, including rutabagas," she said.

Serving a healthy soul food menu

A hallmark of Stella J's is that Jackson doesn't add salt to foods.

"I use herbs and spices," she said. "A pinto bean should taste like a pinto bean."

"It’s the nurse in me," Jackson said. It's also how she grew up. "I know in the South, coming up, my grandma had the smokehouses, and I’m sure they packed a lot of salt in food to keep it fresh," she said. But she can't recall ever adding salt to food in the kitchen.

"The majority of soul food is very healthy," she said, such as the greens and beans. As with any cuisine, Jackson said, "you got your healthy side and your unhealthy side."

Restaurant work, she said, "has changed so much, with staffing and a lot of the culture."

Still, she said, "I’ll miss it. But I’ll miss my people the most."

She recalls days when everyone in the dining room would join in discussions on the issues of the day, such as domestic violence.

"I’ve met a lot of beautiful people," Jackson said. "You can learn a lot from people."

Jackson said she's known the Fiyahside owner, a good friend of her husband's, for years and knew he was looking for a second location.

"It came at the perfect time," she said.

The handover date is to be determined. For now, Stella J's opens at 11 a.m. Wednesday to Sunday. Jackson said she stays open until 7 p.m. if she has the staffing.

"Sometimes I’ll have full staff, sometimes it’s just me. Being I’m in my 60s, it’s just too much," Jackson said.

The new Fiyahside will expand its menu

The Fiyahside owner said the second location will give the restaurant a chance to grow in more ways than one.

"I couldn’t do all the Jamaican food that I wanted to do" because of the size of the Villard location, Rattray said. He opened the takeout spot in late 2016, and it's been popular.

"I will add a lot more to the menu. I couldn’t carry jerk pork over there because I didn’t have the space," he said. At the restaurant on Capitol, he will have room for another smoker.

Fiyahside on Capitol also plans to have Jamaican stew peas, the dish made with kidney beans and dumplings; rasta pasta; and ackee and salt fish, considered the national dish of Jamaica.

Fiyahside's takeaway spot on Villard will remain open. Its hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

Rattray expects the Capitol Drive location will stay open later at night and serve both lunch and dinner. He plans to have additional parking for Fiyahside customers next door to the little strip mall housing the restaurant.

More:Milwaukee-area restaurants that closed in 2023

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Fiyahside Jamaican restaurant to take over Stella J's Soul Food spot