In June, father-daughter team Rodrick Harris and Felicia O’connor opened The Blōōhol, a high-end Belizean restaurant in Austin, the first of its kind in the neighborhood, and likely in the city as a whole.
“This is the first upscale Belizean restaurant in Chicago,” O’connor said. Its menu consists of popular Central American and Caribbean dishes that Harris grew up eating in Belize.
“Our Sunday dinner is rice and beans, stewed chicken, potato salad and fried plantains,” Harris said.
For $25, diners can order just that off the restaurant’s “dinna” menu. Jerk chicken with the same sides is $25, while melt-in-your-mouth oxtail, the restaurant’s most-popular item, is $35. Customers can also order a la carte items like mac and cheese, smashed potatoes and jerk wings.
Harris and O’connor said they plan to add more entrees to the restaurant’s menu and are waiting for The Blōōhol’s liquor license before opening the bar, hopefully by July 20.
After the bar is open, signature cocktails will include the Pina Breeze, made with tequila-soaked pineapple, and Down Di Blue Hole, made with mango.
Down the blue hole
Down Di Blue Hole contains the Americanized spelling of the restaurant’s name. The owners named both the drink and the restaurant after the famous sinkhole off Belize’s coast.
“It’s very close to being a wonder of the world because it’s so unique,” O’connor said about the Great Blue Hole, which is more than 400 feet deep and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
And the only high-end Belizean restaurant in Chicago may prove to be just as unique.
The Blōōhol sold out on its opening day June 8 and business has been relatively good since.
“It’s still in the slow parts, but it’s getting there because everybody’s just learning about it,” O’connor said. “For a restaurant to just start, and where we are at so far, I’m okay with that.”
The Blōōhol is the long-awaited result of over three years of O’connor asking her father to go into business with her.
Harris grew up in Belize, where his mom taught him how to cook in his childhood home’s stand-alone kitchen among a large backyard. When he was 17, he moved to Chicago. Later, Harris moved to Texas to work construction.
But his first-born, O’connor, was born and raised in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. In high school, she moved to the West Side with her mother.
“She kept inviting me to come up here and cook for her because they like my food,” Harris said about his daughter. He cooked for her wedding and several times for her friends during visits to Chicago.
It was during one of these trips when O’connor took Harris to an upscale Caribbean restaurant.
“I see the crowd and the way people are eating, like they’re having their last meal,” Harris said. But when he tasted the oxtail O’connor ordered, her favorite Belizean dish, he knew he could prepare it better.
After that experience, and unable to do heavy construction work as he grew older, Harris agreed to go into business with his daughter.
The father-daughter duo used their own funds to finance The Blōōhol. Before opening the restaurant, O’connor was working as a landlord and running her nail salon and trucking company. The pair paid for the building’s remodeling out-of-pocket, too.
Harris, with his construction background, built the bar and benches, plus painted the walls and tables.
“The way we’re set up, you come in here, you get the feel of being at home,” Harris said.
Caribbean music plays throughout the restaurant. Above a mural of The Blue Hole are three TVs playing videos of beaches and colorful fish. The back hallway leading to the bathroom is decorated with tropical animals. Fake flowers hang down from the ceiling and flags from various countries cover the walls.
“Even though this is a Belizean restaurant, we’re welcoming all races, all people,” O’connor said. She and her father hope that visitors feel a sense of belonging when they dine at The Blōōhol.
“We want to make it as safe and as comfortable as possible,” O’connor added. “We want to have a good time and make sure that they get the best Belizean food around.”
The Blōōhol is open at 5101 W. North Ave. Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 8 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 6 p.m. After the bar is open, The Blōōhol’s kitchen and bar will stay open on Fridays and Saturdays until 1:30 a.m.