A taste of the island life is now available in House Springs.
Lorinette “Lady Lor” Wirth, co-owner of the Blue Lagoon Cafe, said she wanted to offer an elevated dining experience in Jefferson County using recipes she grew up enjoying in her native country of Jamaica.
Blue Lagoon held a soft opening on Oct. 11 and will have a grand opening in March, Wirth said.
The restaurant is at 14 Gravois Station Road off Hwy. MM behind the BP gas station.
Wirth, 32, of Dittmer co-owns the restaurant with her mother, Claudette “Mama C” Williams of St. Peters.
“We eat at a lot of local restaurants here in House Springs,” Wirth said. “This is our neighborhood, but we also have to travel if we want anything (Caribbean-inspired) beyond what’s here. So personally, we’ve been frustrated.
“We really want this place to be like a little getaway to the Caribbean without having to buy plane tickets.”
It is the first restaurant venture for both Wirth and Williams. Wirth works as a full-time public health researcher and data scientist, while Williams is a professional baker and home economics teacher.
Wirth said both she and her mother enjoy cooking and love to host large gatherings, so the transition to running a restaurant together was a natural one.
“There is some comfort in just having someone you trust with you who can take the load off when you need it,” Wirth said. “(Williams) also understands the food I’m trying to bring here and the service I’m trying to bring here. She is someone who understands Caribbean excellence and Caribbean hospitality.”
What’s on the menu
Wirth said Blue Lagoon offers breakfast, lunch and dinner sit-down style. Customers may also go to the bar at the back of the restaurant for coffee, fresh-squeezed juice and pastries to-go.
While breakfast and lunch offers more casual dining, the restaurant is transformed with tablecloths, candles, low lighting and ambient music for dinner service.
“The Jamaican” entree is the most popular with customers, Wirth said, and includes jerk chicken, pork or shrimp, coconut-infused rice and beans, steamed cabbage and two fried plantains.
For the upcoming holidays, the restaurant will also offer a jerk turkey option.
Wirth says her jerk chicken is the best in the U.S., saying that one customer even claimed it’s better than the chicken made in Jamaica.
“That dish is our top seller,” she said. “The chicken is just light and bright, seasoned perfectly to the bone. You immediately get transported to the islands when you’re having that chicken.”
While the restaurant prepares several dishes with scotch bonnet peppers, diners shouldn’t be worried about the dishes being too hot, Wirth said.
“Nothing’s hot here; it’s flavorful,” she said. “We’re taking those peppers and extracting those amazing flavors that give you island vibes and bring that into our cooking. Now there are a couple of people who have said, ‘Well, can we still have a hot sauce?’ And so, we’re actually going to be rolling out a hot sauce for those who want to burn their tongue off.
“We’re all about flavor, incorporating heat in a flavorful way.”
For those wanting to stick a little closer to home when they eat at Blue Lagoon, the menu includes many classic American dishes with a Caribbean twist. The pancake breakfast includes two coconut-infused pancakes with fruit chutney, two eggs and bacon or sausage.
Wirth said the “Cubanican” is a Jamaican-inspired take on the classic Cuban sandwich made with jerk pork instead of ham.
For dessert, Wirth said her mother makes all kinds of pastries, including carrot cake with rum sauce, pineapple turnovers and gizzada, a Jamaican tart filled with sweetened coconut filling.
“Mama C does all the baking, and I do all the cooking – anything past bread I burn,” Wirth joked.
No place like home
Wirth moved with her mother from Jamaica to Pennsylvania about 20 years ago.
She grew up in the St. Catherine parish near Spanish Town, or the old capital of Jamaica, and attended Ardenne High School in nearby Kingston.
In the U.S., Wirth said she excelled in academics and sports and after that, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.. She went on to earn a master’s and doctorate in public health and epidemiology from St. Louis University.
“The United States has been good to us,” Wirth said. “We’ve been nothing but welcomed with opportunity and good people. We’ve worked hard for what we have.”
Wirth said she moved from St. Charles to Dittmer, along with her husband and two small children, because it reminded her of Jamaica.
“We wanted land and animals,” she said. “I love the peace and quiet and the space. That’s what Jamaica is all about.”
Wirth said she thinks Blue Lagoon Cafe will put House Springs on the map.
“I believe that this can be a destination restaurant where people are traveling from other states to come to House Springs,” she said. “This combination of elevated dining and authentic, scratch-made Caribbean cuisine, there’s nothing like it for miles.”
The Blue Lagoon Cafe is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and then from 5-9 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday; 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and then 5-9 p.m. on Friday; and from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and then 5-9 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The restaurant is closed on Tuesdays.
To reach the restaurant, call 636-671-7551.