Leya’s Island Grill, which will open on March 1, 2018, in Hanover, is a casual Jamaican restaurant with carry-out service. Gayann Letman, whose family immigrated from Jamaica to New Hampshire, is the creator of the restaurant. Errol Letman, the chef at Claremont’s Sunshine Jamaican Style Cook Shop, is her father. She says that her new restaurant will offer a fusion of Jamaican and Thai cuisine, in addition to the traditional Jamaican dishes like jerk chicken, beef patties, fried plantains, rice & peas and what she describes as “very fruity” island salads. Her offering of free pineapple juice is sure to be a novelty in Hanover. Letman plans for the eatery to be very high energy, which she believes will be a good match for its location, as she intends to attract students from Dartmouth College and other diners interested in island cuisine. She also plans to keep all of the curries from the location’s previous tenant, Kata Thai, on her menu. Letman got her restaurant experience working at her father’s Claremont venue and in the tapas restaurant Candela in Hanover. She said she has always been passionate about cooking and wanted to have her own restaurant from the time she was 16 years old.

Source: Valley News

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