says.“ About three years ago, I started traveling to festivals in Maryland, working EKU football games, and even a yacht club in Minnesota. I bartended all over.”
The road was thrilling, but relentless.“ I turned 43 and realized I might be getting a little too old for that pace,” she laughed.“ I had saved my money. I thought, I deserve my own place.”
She and Tonya began researching Caribbean cuisine last October, diving into its foundation of fresh vegetables, fruit, and layers of spice. Alicia had traveled to Jamaica, Haiti, and beyond. She fell in love with jerk chicken, and the brightness of mango and lime.
“ What I love most,” she says,“ is that everything here is made fresh in-house every day. Every ingredient on our menu we prep fresh each morning.”
If there’ s a headliner at Islands in the Stream, it’ s the jerk chicken.
Their version starts with a chicken thigh—“ that’ s the Caribbean cut,” Alicia explains. It then gets injected with housemade jerk butter. It rests overnight in apple juice and mild jerk marinade before being dried, seasoned again, and grilled. The 16-spice jerk blend that is built from thyme, cumin, allspice, and more is mixed in-house, day by day.
The result? Heat with restraint. Spice without burn.
Served over jasmine rice simmered with coconut milk and water, then topped with fresh mango, it’ s a dish that balances smoke, sweetness, and warmth in every bite.
A Jamaican woman who once met Tonya at the Millstone Festival recently returned with her family. After trying the jerk chicken and conch fritters, she delivered the kind of review no marketing campaign could buy:“ I feel like I’ m at home.”“ That meant everything,” Alicia said. Customers rave about the coconut shrimp that are plump, golden, and edged with crunch. The batter is a secret, according to the Dean couple. But some of the ingredients include panko, fresh shredded coconut, and a blend of the Dean’ s undisclosed spices.
Paired with a Painkiller cocktail from the full bar, it’ s a culinary vacation.
The drink list reads like a Caribbean passport. There’ s the Dark and Stormy— made with Goslings Rum, ginger beer, and lime. Islands in the Stream features a lineup of fruit-forward cocktails inspired by
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