Tony and Zee Brown at their Hip-Hop cafe Da Flava Device Xpress, 1608 Sycamore St., in Iowa City, Iowa, on Monday, March 13, 2023. The restaurant, serving Caribbean-encouraged dishes, is owned by Tony and Zee Brown. They’ve perfected their recipes and menu following yrs of serving meals at festival stands and in their food stuff truck. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
Steak road-style taco food arrives with rice and beans and Belizean potato salad at Da Flava Device, 1608 Sycamore St., in Iowa Metropolis, Iowa, on Monday, March 13, 2023. The restaurant, serving Caribbean-inspired dishes, is owned by Tony and Zee Brown. They’ve perfected their recipes and menu immediately after yrs of serving food at festival stands and in their food truck. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
Da Flava jerk rooster meal comes with rice and beans, purple cabbage and household designed Mac and cheese at Da Flava Unit, 1608 Sycamore St., in Iowa Town, Iowa, on Monday, March 13, 2023. The restaurant, serving Caribbean-encouraged dishes, is owned by Tony and Zee Brown. They have perfected their recipes and menu soon after yrs of serving food stuff at competition stands and in their meals truck. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
Jerk rooster avenue-design tacos at Da Flava Device, 1608 Sycamore St., in Iowa Metropolis, Iowa, on Monday, March 13, 2023. The cafe, serving Caribbean-encouraged dishes, is owned by Tony and Zee Brown. They’ve perfected their recipes and menu immediately after yrs of serving foodstuff at pageant stands and in their meals truck. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
Steak avenue-design taco meal arrives with rice and beans and Belizean potato salad at Da Flava Device, 1608 Sycamore St., in Iowa Town, Iowa, on Monday, March 13, 2023. The restaurant, serving Caribbean-encouraged dishes, is owned by Tony and Zee Brown. They have perfected their recipes and menu after many years of serving foods at festival stands and in their foodstuff truck. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
A variety of household designed sauces and no salt seasoning and Da Flava seasoning are observed at Da Flava Unit, 1608 Sycamore St., in Iowa City, Iowa, on Monday, March 13, 2023. The cafe, serving Caribbean-motivated dishes, is owned by Tony and Zee Brown. They’ve perfected their recipes and menu right after decades of serving food at competition stands and in their foods truck. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
IOWA City — A couple who commenced working a foods stand in 2010 and a foods truck in 2020 have moved into their future stage with a brick-and-mortar location at the Iowa Metropolis Marketplace.
Da Flava Unit’s new “Xpress” area, opened by owners Tony and Zee Brown in December, presents diners a style of road foodstuff indoors, 4 times a week.
The long lasting location is a realization of a long-phrase strategy that started off with Zee’s Jerk Pit stand at the 2010 Iowa Town Jazz Competition. After a pause from the food items stand, the couple began Da Flava Unit’s food items truck in North Liberty in 2020. Given that then, they’ve built on the foods truck’s momentum — a little something they’ve staked their careers on immediately after repositioning with the pandemic.
“Our enthusiasm has normally been cooking,” Zee explained.
Tony and Zee, 53 and 43, respectively, ended up always the appointed cooks for large household reunion. Tony holds a culinary expertise from the ’80s, and both have many years of functional expertise cooking for their 10 children together.
But it was not right until decades of doing the job in buyer provider, wellness care transportation, insurance policy and more, that the couple understood how brief daily life is to reside out that passion. When the pandemic strike, they essential to make a adjust to stay self-adequate.
Tony, a kidney transplant receiver at substantial risk for COVID-19 problems, couldn’t danger a whole lot of public conversation early in the pandemic. As a health-related transportation driver, the pivot helped the Browns continue to keep their family members risk-free while next their aspiration.
“I understood there was one thing me and my spouse had to do, additional than just elevate our young children,” Zee mentioned. “I knew we had some variety of reward we could give again. We love feeding people.”
If you go
What: Da Flava Device Xpress
Address: Iowa City Marketplace, 1608 Sycamore St., Iowa Metropolis
Hours: 4 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday 4 to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday shut Sunday, Monday and Wednesday
Cellular phone: (319) 423-1930
Website: daflavaunit.com or facebook.com/daflavaunit1/
Particulars: Road food, fusions, jerk hen and soulful classics served on a consistently rotating menu with new dishes introduced every single 7 days, at modest charges.
The food stuff
With inspiration from their upbringings in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s south side, both equally deliver a one of a kind flare to classic street meals.
But a lot more than that, the concept in meals and aesthetics allows the Chicago transplants to be them selves in Iowa, wherever their style of street foodstuff hasn’t been served as significantly as in other substantial cities.
“Anywhere in the earth, road food is the greatest food stuff,” Zee explained. “I could generate a menu and company program for a great chop house or great sit-down fancy, restaurant, but that ain’t me.”
With parents from Belize, Tony brings a market Caribbean accent to his flavors. Jerk hen is marinated for 24 hrs in a proprietary mix of spices and herbs, and the palate of Belize will come by means of in other dishes like chicken stew.
For Zee, who was elevated vegetarian by “Black, Jewish hippies,” it implies supplying the veggies a highlight with flavorful vegetarian solutions to mirror the meats.
From soy protein tacos and cabbage substitutes to seitan kebabs, she appreciates how to make vegetarian choices that won’t make meat-eaters pass up any flavors.
With no sodium or preservatives, all of their scratch-produced menu is created with a healthy basis at an accessible cost issue — $3 for tacos and about $16 for a plate of jerk chicken with two sides.
From Caribbean Sundays to Remix Saturdays, every single working day delivers new flavors and choices on an ever-rotating menu of fresh selections. New street foodstuff are launched on Flava Fridays, and Thursdays are reserved for tacos.
Clients arrive again for their tacos, macaroni and cheese, rice and beans, Iowa chops, ribs and rib recommendations, alongside a selection of fusions like Tremendous Bowls (ramen-encouraged Vietnamese pho) and birria tacos. For barbecue entrees, a wide range of scratch-manufactured sauces location on standby to complement the smoked taste.
“Food is top quality to me. Everybody must have very good, healthy meals that’s do-it-yourself,” Zee reported. “I want Iowa to be portion of this.”
Remarks: (319) 398-8340 [email protected]
