Nicola Blaque
The Jerk Shack and Mi Roti | San Antonio
NOVEMBER 2023
Throughout her childhood, Nicola Blaque moved around often—her stepfather was in the military—and when she turned 18, she decided to follow in his footsteps and enlist in the Army. While serving, she met her husband, and in 2013 Blaque settled down in Hawaii, thinking about what she wanted to do next. She traveled to Texas to visit a friend, who insisted she think about attending culinary school. Blaque was hooked, and enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America’s San Antonio campus the next year. During school, she started her own catering and private chef business, cooking the Jamaican food she had grown up eating. After graduating, she continued the business out of a commercial kitchen, honing her jerk chicken recipe.
But in 2017, a family member sadly passed away, and Blaque traveled back to her home of Jamaica. She was inspired and moved by the food and the people she had missed, so when she returned to Texas, Blaque decided to transform her catering business into a full-blown brick-and-mortar. She opened The Jerk Shack in 2018 on San Antonio’s West Side, serving Jamaican classics by way of Texas, like her rundown shrimp with coconut milk, bell peppers, and habanero chiles, that went on to earn her a James Beard nomination. In 2020, Blaque opened her second concept, Mi Roti in the Pearl District, a fast-casual restaurant focusing on Caribbean flatbread. With her third restaurant, a fried chicken concept, opening in late 2023, Blaque is focused on her goal of sharing thoughtful Caribbean food across Texas.
