Dishin’ on the Dish: Rasta pasta at Dr. Bird’s Jamaican Patty Shack

Brian Rich/Sun-Times

What’s cookin’ in and around Chicago? Here’s a closer look at one of the area’s delicious dishes you don’t want to miss.

Rasta pasta is a comforting and spicy noodle dish popular in Jamaican communities across New York.

But there’s possibly no better version of it in Chicago than the one the Lee brothers are serving up at Dr. Bird’s Jamaican Patty Shack in Noble Square.

Hakim Lee isn’t new to Chicago; he moved here more than six years ago. His brother Changa ultimately joined him and together the two decided the city was the perfect place to open an extension to their father’s Doctor Bird Caribbean Rasta-rant in Buffalo, New York.

The rasta pasta with Jerk salmon is served at Dr Bird’s Jamaican Patty Shack.

“We feel like food, in general, is one of the things that brings all people together, all ethnicities together,” Changa Lee said. “We feel like [this is] something that could bring everybody together, it’s about peace… That’s why we did it.”

Hakim and Changa Lee opened Dr. Bird’s Jamaican Patty Shack in June 2021, with the hopes of becoming a popular spot in the neighborhood among the locals before growing recognition across the city.

Changa explained that the family’s Buffalo restaurant started as a go-to neighborhood place. “The whole neighborhood started coming to us, then, eventually, we started getting popular in the whole city. So the same thing we’re trying to start” here, he said.

One dish that especially stands out on Dr. Bird’s menu is its Rasta pasta, an herbaceous and cheesy meal that has become a favorite among diners.

“It’s a popular dish that’s starting to pick up [because] a lot of people like pasta... and so it’s another dish where we show inverted Italian, a different culture, and put Jamaican style into it,” Changa Lee said.

Changa Lee is the co-owner of Dr Bird’s Jamaican Patty Shack in Noble Square.

Rasta pasta has several genesis stories. Chef Lorraine Washington is often credited with being the first person to create the dish. She told the Jamaica Gleaner in 2012 that she first made what is now known as Rasta pasta in 1985 when she spontaneously topped fresh fettuccine with tomato sauce and ackee — the national fruit of Jamaica — while working at Paradise Yard in Negril, Jamaica, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Changa Lee said their dish is inspired by their father’s recipe, which he developed in 2005. But the brothers added a twist of their own to it.

“Everybody sees Rasta pasta… they think it’s alfredo,” Changa Lee said. But that’s not necessarily the case at Dr. Bird’s.

Changa Lee said the addition of an herb blend of rosemary, thyme, basil and parsley makes their take especially unique. The pasta noodles are thrown into a sauce that includes the herbs medley, gruyere cheese, coconut milk and slow-roasted tomatoes.

Customers can choose to add a protein — like mild Jerk chicken shawarma, Jerk skirt steak or wood-smoked Jerk jackfruit, among other items — but Changa Lee said the pasta dish itself is a star on its own.

“We’ve been getting a lot of love, a lot of social media love, a lot of foodies coming through the neighborhood loving this so far,” Changa Lee said. “So we’re definitely [getting] a good response.

“I like Chicago. It’s definitely a warm city as far as the food industry.”

Dr. Bird’s Jamaican Patty Shack, 1215 N. Milwaukee Ave. The rasta pasta costs $11.95. https://doctorbirds.com/

Got a favorite dish from a Chicago-area restaurant? Let us know via email at: dishinonthedish@suntimes.com.