Harry's Daughter, the Caribbean restaurant on Communipaw Avenue that became a Bergen-Lafayette mainstay, is back in business after a kitchen fire forced it to close for roughly a year. The restaurant reopened in June 2026, timed to a Juneteenth celebration, with its tropical murals, exposed brick and long, well-stocked bar restored and a refreshed menu ready for the crowds who had been waiting for its return.
The fire that shut the restaurant down struck in June 2025, burning through the kitchen exhaust system and damaging electrical wiring and the HVAC system, according to a review published by NJ.com. Smoke damage was severe enough that the owners had to replace the dining room's wallpaper and handle a round of cosmetic repairs on top of the structural fixes. Earlier reporting from Hudson County View described the blaze as a two-alarm fire that started in the kitchen and extended into the exterior exhaust ductwork, damaging the restaurant's interior, kitchen and ductwork, though the outlet reported no injuries and said no relocations were necessary.
Accounts differ on the exact date the fire broke out. Daily Voice reported the restaurant announced its closure following a small fire on June 16, 2025, while Hoboken Girl's first coverage of the closure and fire appeared on June 18, 2025. Either way, the restaurant stayed shuttered for close to a year, with the owners keeping some connection to regulars alive by serving to-go rum punch and sorrel sangria and hosting guests in the outdoor dining area during repairs.
A Yearlong Rebuild Rooted in Family
Harry's Daughter is owned by Ria Ramkissoon and Alasdair Cotter, who opened the restaurant on Communipaw Avenue in 2017. The name honors Ramkissoon's late father, Harry, and the restaurant was built as a tribute to him and to the island of Trinidad, where Ramkissoon grew up. Per the NJ.com review, Ramkissoon said the reopening was as hard as opening the restaurant the first time; the neighborhood rallied on reopening day.
Behind the stove, a new head chef trained with Ramkissoon's mother and reportedly spent a month cooking Trinidadian food before the restaurant reopened its doors, per the same review. The menu kept its longtime favorites intact, according to Hoboken Girl, while folding in a handful of new additions and a refreshed Caribbean beach bar atmosphere, as Jersey Digs described it, alongside backyard dining built for summer crowds.
What's on the Plate Now
The rebuilt menu leans into the restaurant's Caribbean roots with dishes like jerk salmon, roti quesadillas and coconut curry mahi mahi served with pumpkin rice and okra for $36, the NJ.com review notes. Tamarind-glazed barbecue pork ribs, paired with mac and cheese, grilled corn and coleslaw, run $34, while salmon pies packed into a flaky crust go for $16. Sweet chili plantains are listed at $8, and grilled jerk wings cost $17 — though the review found the jerk seasoning on the wings wasn't quite as prominent as it could have been.
Weekend brunch, a service that reportedly filled the restaurant on weekend afternoons soon after it launched according to a 2024 Eater review, is back too, running Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. per the restaurant's own site. The brunch menu blends Jamaican fare, Trinidadian sandwiches and traditional brunch plates, including rum banana flambé French toast, pancakes with lemon maple butter and oxtail flatbreads. Happy hour runs Monday through Friday from noon to 6 p.m., and the bar still pours a watermelon jalapeño margarita for $16 — a worthy companion to the carry-out rum punch that, according to PIX11, became something of a cult classic in the neighborhood and beyond.
Harry's Daughter had already built a reputation well before the fire, landing on NJ.com's list of New Jersey's 21 best Black-owned restaurants to try in 2025 and earning a reputation as a mainstay of both Bergen-Lafayette's dining scene and Jersey City's broader restaurant landscape. With the kitchen rebuilt and the dining room refreshed, the restaurant is betting that reputation — and its rum punch — will keep drawing people back to Communipaw Avenue.
