- [Rachel] So you're taking me on a mini food crawl to a couple of Black-owned restaurant that I haven't been to yet?

- Jerk shack is one of our most favorite restaurants.

The food is amazing anytime we go.

And then Pizza by Ruffin, we wanted you to try that because we know you love pizza.

- [Rachel] I love pizza!

- [VO] Marlie and Anthony Love host the video series Traveling While Black.

Their take on a modern day Greenbook.

They rate their Pacific Northwest adventures based on how comfortable they feel exploring new places as a Black couple.

I'm Rachel Belle, host of Your Last Meal podcast, cookbook author and longtime journalist.

Today on The Nosh, a Traveling While Black Seattle food crawl.

- So why did you start Traveling While Black?

- Well, we started back in 2019 when we moved from St.

Louis, Missouri to Seattle, Washington.

We knew we wanted to kind of explore this new area.

So we said, let's start a show to kind of help people like us go to these different places in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest and kind of see how it is as a Black traveler.

- You want to go check out some of this food?

- I do.

I'm hungry.

- [VO] Our first stop is Jerk Shack.

Caribbean food inspired by chef owner, Trey Lamont's Jamaican heritage.

The restaurant is in the Central District, just a few blocks from where he grew up.

- So I'm curious, why did you choose the Jerk Shack?

Why did you decide to bring me here?

You know, when we first moved to Seattle Trey's Jerk Shack was like one of the first Black-owned restaurants we became familiar with.

The first time we ate it, we fell in love.

So it's kind of, like, nostalgic for us.

- [Rachel] What inspired you to open Jerk Shack?

- Well, I'm from Seattle, so I was born and raised here.

My family background on my dad's side is Caribbean, Jamaican.

So when I visited family on the East Coast and in the Caribbean, when I came back to Seattle, it was very hard for us to get food that had the flavors that we craved.

So it was just a no brainer.

- [Rachel] Tell us about the dishes.

- [Trey] You got the Cuban spiced salmon.

Rice and peas, plantains and spring mix salad.

The white sauce is garlic sauce.

The green sauce is garlic, cilantro, lime.

- Let's eat!

(laughs) Mmm.

That is perfectly cooked.

- This is usually what we get, whenever... - I know.

That's why I made it.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - Early on when we first moved up here, we would go to Trey's when we were feeling homesick, you know what I mean?

Missing family.

And then... - I'd see them pop up.

- Yeah, yup.

- So, you know, we always had a perception of Seattle as being, like, really progressive, but we did not notice, like a lot of folks that looked like us.

So we wanted to try to remove a barrier that might be preventing our people from going out and exploring really great places that are just in their backyard.

- Jerk smoked fried chicken is our signature dish.

We jerk brine our chicken for 48 hours, smoke it to render the fat out of the skin, chill it, and then when you order it we flash fry it.

So take a bite and then take a bite of your plantain.

- [Rachel] I'm gonna peel a little piece off.

- [Trey] There you go.

- Mmm.

- Here's a rib.

You guys are from St.

Louis so... - Oh, yeah.

- You want one?

- Oh, absolutely.

- Let me put that over there.

- [Rachel] I'm not just saying this, these are the best ribs I've had in Seattle.

By far.

By far.

- Well, thank you.

Thank you.

- They're so juicy and so tender, and like, the fat is like, perfectly rendered and melted.

I mean, it's really delicious.

- You get the St.

Louis checkmark, for sure.

- [Trey] There we go.

American barbecue comes from the Caribbean.

A lot of people don't know that.

So in Jamaica, you say 'barbacoa.'

Put some of that 'barbacoa' on the grill.

This is our jerk chicken burrito.

We kind of fry the tortilla on the flat top with a little bit of oil to make it kind of like a roti texture.

Look at this side.

Peel that side, and you can see, like.. - Everybody are you ready?

- [All] Ooh.

Ahh.

- [Rachel] That is excellent.

I love the textures.

Like you get the softness of the plantains and then like the little crispy of the tortilla.

Wow.

I can't put this down.

This is my best friend and my little baby.

You guys can't have any of this.

Well, should we go and eat some more?

- Yeah, absolutely.

- [VO] Next, we head to South Lake Union to try Pizza By Ruffin.

Roman style pizza topped with flavors of the Black diaspora.

Owned by wife and husband, Colleen Constant and Isaiah Ruffin.

- [Marlie] Here it is!

Hi!

- [Isaiah] Yo, what's up?

What's good?

- What are you working on today?

- You know, I got a few of our specialty pizzas out.

Are you guys interested in trying some?

- [Rachel] Yes, always.

- Well I'm ready to change your world.

- Alright!

- [VO] Isaiah isn't just tossing pepperoni or olives on pizza dough.

He cooks for hours before the pizzas are topped.

He's making jerk chicken, Doro Wat, Trinidadian curry, black-eyed peas.

Complex flavors from all over Africa, the Caribbean, South America and the American South.

- I think people get a lot of joy from eating pizza, what brings you the most joy about making it?

- It means a great deal to, like, represent the culture in this fashion.

It's one thing to have a Black-owned restaurant.

It's another thing to, like, really showcase your culture and make your ancestors proud.

When it comes to being a Black chef, people think of soul food, one of the African cuisines or Caribbean, right?

And so when you see me here making this pizza, it's always met with some skepticism, and it's always the people who've been to Rome, and they get a few bites and they're like, oh, okay.

- [Rachel] So this is the Doro Wat?

This is the Doro, yes.

It has a Ethiopian stew and some chicken on there, and a little bit of cilantro.

- [Rachel] You get the umami and get the acid and the brightness.

It just totally gives you all of the kind of, like, different vibes you're expecting from a slice of pizza, but totally different flavors.

- [Isaiah] Here we have our jerk.

- What goes into the jerk sauce?

- The sauce has cilantro, green onions, and coconut.

The chicken itself was marinated in a lot of things.

Allspice, ginger, garlic, and my secret ingredient.

I'ma tell you guys.

- Okay.

- Fish sauce.

- Mmm.

Yeah, to bring the umami and the salt.

- A little funk in there.

- That is excellent.

It's so good.

It kind of opens up in these layers as it hits your tongue.

Like the coconut takes a little while to come in, and then you get the sweet from the mango.

And I really like the crispiness of the crust.

This is delicious.

So for you doing the show, why is it important to introduce the audience to places like this?

- You know, when we first moved up to Washington, the big reason we started the show was because we didn't see a lot of Black people.

And so to have a pizzeria owned by someone Black, that's huge for us.

You know, it kind of not only reinforces for our audience that there are Black people up here, but also we're doing great things like making unbelievable award-winning pizza.

- A year before we even moved to Seattle, my wife and I, we were shopping cities and I came across their TikTok.

Their videos helped us decide to come here.

I really wanted to be around more Black people, and it made me feel really comfortable in making that step here.

- It makes us feel awesome hearing those stories.

It gives us that encouragement to keep going.

- I do think that you changed my pizza world.

You really did.

This is so delicious and it gives me something to look forward to to know that I can come in at any time and not know what I'm going to get, so I'm excited to come back.

- [Rachel] I can't eat this on camera... - [Trey] You can't eat...?

You gotta pick it up.

It's chicken.

- Can I just pick it up?

- Yeah!

- [Trey] Here, would you like some help?

I can cut through the joint.

- Yeah, cut my food for me!

- Okay, I mean I don't mind eating with my hand, I'm trying to be like a lady, which I don't think that I am.