When creating Secrets Bistro & Bar, which is set to open Sunday at 250 Main St. in Hartford, Michelle Smith captured two different vibes.
The tasteful wine and beer bar, comfy upholstered seating, outdoor patio, playfully decorated alcoves, a big flowered swing and the downtown location would suggest an after-work lounge for friends to relax with a bottle of red and take selfies for Instagram.
But behind the beguiling decor is a kitchen that makes down-home Caribbean meals. Smith is a native of Clarendon, Jamaica, and a 1995 graduate of Weaver High. She is known in the local culinary community as former owner of Michelle’s Kitchen in East Hartford. She also is a beauty entrepreneur, who created a line of skincare products called Secret Shades.
Secrets Bistro & Bar is a step up from Michelle’s Kitchen. “I always wanted a dine-in restaurant with a patio and a bar,” she said. “I wanted something with an elegant look, with tinted windows so you can’t see outside. I want people to know they are in Hartford but not feel like they’re in Hartford, like they’re on vacation.”
Secrets will have its grand opening Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. with a “Secret Sunday Brunch,” at $40 per person and a “Jerk Chicken Festival” from 4 to 6 p.m. for $10.
“I will keep the last Sunday of every month as a Secret Sunday Brunch day,” she said. “Wear your Sunday best.”
Jerk Chicken, Festivals and for dessert- Rum and Raisin banana split. Michelle Smith is opening the Secrets Bistro Bar ion October 2, 2022. (Douglas Hook / Hartford Courant)
Family affair
Smith is supported in the kitchen by her husband, Kasim Smith, a native of Montego Bay. The restaurant is a family affair. Smith is being helped in the restaurant by her four children: Chavar Delaire, Justice Taylor, Zhania Brissett and Bella’star Brissett.
“I want to leave this place as a legacy to my children,” Smith said.
When she was a child, at age 5, Smith was taught how to cook by her Aunty Ms. Joe. “I had to milk the goats to make porridge. I had to get water from the well. We had no electricity. The light was by kerosene lamp,” she said. “Then I would go to bed. Six kids, all siblings and cousins, slept in one bed.”
She moved to Hartford a few years later. “I was already a pro at cooking,” she said.
The fun atmosphere in Secrets — pink neon, glittery panels, chandeliers — exudes the exact opposite of Smith’s hardscrabble upbringing. “Every section is set up differently,” she said.
The 3,950-square-foot restaurant, in the vacancy left years ago by Max Bibo’s, was made possible by a $150,000 matching grant from HartLift, the city program to revitalize empty downtown spaces.
Jamaican cuisine
In the kitchen, Smith and Smith take a deep dive into Jamaican cuisine. She serves the classics — jerk chicken, stew chicken, fried chicken, stew pork, oxtail, curry goat, escovitch fish, whiting fish, pepper steak — in takeout-only portions for $12 to $20, with menu offerings rotating every day.
The menu goes upscale from there. On the extensive dine-in menu, entrees range from $15 to $40. The offerings include many of those same recipes in more high-end preparations as well as lamb chops ($30); a “reggae bowl” with ackee, saltfish, pumpkin, pineapple, peppers and plantains ($30), jerk barbecue ribs ($26); jerk chicken mac and cheese ($27); and “jerkaque hen” for $25. Like the takeout options, the menu rotates daily.
The seafood offerings are extravagant, starting at $12 for pepper shrimp and moving up to $25 for stew and escovitch fish, $35 for snapper or salmon, $40 for curry conch, $45 for lobster tail, $50 for octopus-conch and $75 for a seafood bowl in garlic butter, with shrimp, scallops, mussels, lobster and crab legs.
Smith also serves pasta ($12 to $16), salads ($12), wings ($8 to $13), homemade juices ($10) and desserts including chocolate cake and banana split ($8 to $12).
Secrets Bistro & Bar is open Tuesday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday noon to 10 p.m. It is closed Mondays and closed Sundays except for the Secret Sunday Brunch from noon to 5 p.m. on the last Sunday of each month. facebook.com/profile.php?id=100047581759856.
Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.
