'I love to feed people': Owners of new Jacksonville restaurant bring island food to the area

Lucia Stridiron loves to feed people and she's doing it in a new way with a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Jacksonville.

West Indian Kitchen started as a food truck in 2007 and has been successful at feeding Marines on Camp Lejeune ever since. However, the Stridirons had been looking at bringing the Caribbean-style cuisine to Jacksonville as a brick-and-mortar for some time, but the prices kept it from happening.

"The prices were outrageous," Lucia said. "The rent for restaurants is crazy."

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After a conversation last year with her pastor about the struggle, Lucia found the perfect location — 93 Western Boulevard Suite F. The location was home to a Chinese restaurant, but the owner was ready to close up the shop.

"We signed the lease in September, and then we were just fixing this up, doing what had to be done," Lucia said. "We had a late hiccup in the road, and we just had to rearrange everything and bring everything up to code, so, this is where we are at."

West Indian Kitchen sells a variety of island food, according to Lucia's husband, William, who she says is the mastermind behind the operation. With everything from oxtail, to curry goat, and jerk chicken, there's something for everyone.

The Stridirons are from the Virgin Islands, and Lucia said William's mother had a restaurant there in the 1970s with the same name. Lucia's mother was also a head cook for a school in the Virgin Islands, but her parents are Puerto Rican, hence the combination of Caribbean-style foods.

"When people look at West Indian Kitchen, they go, 'Oh yeah, an Indian restaurant,' and we have to say the West Indies are down in the Caribbean, and that's where we get the name from," Lucia said. "You have a chain of islands which includes Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, all those little islands, they're considered the West Indies."

Although the Stridirons can't cook food from every island in the chain, that's where the inspiration comes from, and William said the whole process has been an adventure.

"We just had a special yesterday that was salmon croquette, so, we try and do something different to bring our island neighbors here," William said. "The most important thing is the authenticity of the whole thing, it's, you know you're coming in here to eat and you know you're getting something authentic, not something out of a can."

The Stridirons cook all of the food from scratch each and every day.

West Indian Kitchen had a soft opening, but its grand opening was on July 29. Lucia said the feedback has been awesome, and that their Facebook page is full of positive reviews.

"We have a lot of Marines that say, 'this tastes so close to my grandma,' or 'this took me back home,' instead of the fast food," Lucia said. "I enjoy the cooking. Sometimes we just go and we just look at the Marines and how they would eat the food up and suck their fingers, and just to see the folks actually enjoy the food, that's it for me, I love to feed people, I love the cooking, my daughter also loves to cook."

Speaking of the Stridiron's daughter, Toni, she also designed the entire front interior of the restaurant. From the green and gold colors to the refurbishing of the tables, she did it all.

Lucia said the goal was to make it as homey as possible, and that's why they also consistently play music. The Stridirons said they play everything from Caribbean music to Spanish music and steelpan. She said people will come in and start dancing.

"Here in Jacksonville, we call it a melting pot," Lucia said. "We have a diverse area. We've met people from all over, so people tend to go back to their culture and they're looking for something of that nature. So, I think with that, that's what we're bringing."

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She said they have people come in all the time who are scared of the oxtails, but she always says to not nag it, but taste it, because it ends up becoming many of their favorite foods. Oxtails, Lucia said, is the restaurant's number one seller.

Although West Indian Kitchen is a big hit on base, Lucia said they're still trying to get the word out about the new restaurant.

"Like any new place, I'm not going to have a rush every day, but on base, yes," Lucia said. "What I like about there, they, to me, they are my children. Everybody calls me Mama Lucy. They come and they don't even have to say what they want, I know what they want. It's like a personal relationship, you know your regulars"

For more information on West Indian Kitchen, visit their Facebook page, or call 910-968-0069. Their hours of operation are Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Reporter Morgan Starling can be reached at mstarling@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on The Daily News: Jacksonville family opens brick-and-mortar Caribbean restaurant