Jamaican restaurateur Hugh Russell, a downtown Hartford fixture for 17 years, has been expanding his footprint in the Hartford area. He opened a takeout-only grab-and-go satellite in Hartford’s South West neighborhood in April 2021. He opened a West Hartford Center location in January 2022.
Now Russell is opening his second grab-and-go location, at 1084 Main St. in East Hartford. Russell’s first East of the River outpost has its grand opening today.
“I listened to my customers. A lot of them live in East Hartford, which has a large West Indian population. I want them to be able to have lunch at Russell even if they can’t make it into the city that day,” Russell said.
The fast-casual location is at the corner of Wells Avenue, where a Dunkin’ Donuts used to be.
“I call it a grab-and-go but we do have about 25 seats. People can take their food home or they can sit down and charge their phone and work on their computer while they enjoy their meal,” he said.
Entrees range from $12 to $18 for medium sized and $15 to $22 for large and include jerk chicken, brown stew chicken, curry chicken, fried chicken, jerk pork, curry goat, oxtail, escovitch fish, barbecue jerk salmon, curry shrimp, penne with Cajun cream sauce and “rasta pasta” with a ginger-coconut curry. Pepper steak and stew peas are available Friday and Saturday only.
Sandwiches, for $9 to $12, include veggie wrap, jerk chicken, curry chicken and mango chicken. A wide variety of desserts, from $3 to $5.50, include carrot cake, rum cake, red velvet cake, “chocolate overload cake,” fruit cup, coconut drops, peanut drops, cheesecake and gizzada, a little tart with coconut and brown sugar filling.
The restaurant is for lunch and dinner, but breakfast is served on Saturday, including porridge ($6 to $8), ackee and saltfish ($17), salt mackerel rundung cooked in coconut milk ($15), callaloo and saltfish ($14) and corned beef and cabbage ($12).
The shop also sells salads, sides, nonalcoholic beverages and Saturday-only specials of ackee, callaloo and fried dumplings.
The Russell Grab and Go, 1084 Main St. in East Hartford, is open Monday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. https://therussellct.com/.
Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.
