Sandz team dishes up ‘premium casual’ EGO

Kingston and St Andrew’s restaurant scene has a new addition, with EGO offering a premium casual dining experience alongside entertainment and a space to unwind.

Located at 43 Constant Spring Road, inside 7th Avenue Plaza, the recently opened establishment is the latest venture from members of the team behind the Sandz entertainment brand. Among the familiar faces behind the business is Jermaule ‘Nino’ Adair, the events and marketing entrepreneur who is also one of the owners of New Kingston restaurant Komo Mai.

For Adair and his Sandz partners, however, EGO is an opportunity to create a different kind of hospitality experience – one that combines food, drinks, music, and a relaxed atmosphere. After more than 12 years in the events business, Adair said moving into hospitality felt like a natural progression. “We already have the fan base for it from our big events such as Sandz, Estate, and Vacae Weekend, among others,” he explained. “Branching off was seamless as we believe the entertainment industry is similar to the restaurant industry because yes, you have to have good food, but you also have to have good entertainment.”

While EGO and Komo Mai share an ownership connection through Adair, he is clear that the two restaurants are designed to serve different dining tiers. Komo Mai is positioned as more of a special-occasion destination – somewhere for birthdays, upscale date nights, and occasions where guests want to dress up and make an impression. EGO, on the other hand, is deliberately more relaxed. The restaurant features televisions for watching sports, an indoor air-conditioned dining area and an outdoor balcony, giving patrons the option of choosing their preferred atmosphere.

The vision, Adair explained, is to create a space where someone can leave a meeting, link up with friends or colleagues, grab something to eat, and simply decompress. “I think the space needed this type of environment, where you could leave a meeting and go there with your team and chill and par,” he said. Rather than committing to one fixed identity, the team wants the experience to evolve depending on the night. “I don’t want it to be one thing,” Adair said. “The aim is to offer a different vibe every night.”

BIGGER OBJECTIVE

For operations manager and partner Andrew Ellis, the restaurant’s name carries an interesting story. As part of the team behind Sandz, the co-owners understand that working together requires putting personal egos aside in favour of the bigger objective. That principle eventually became the inspiration behind the restaurant’s name. “EGO is a concept that we play with every day,” Ellis explained. “One of the core principles of just our survival in the business is our ability to not let ego get in the way of the good decisions that you need to make.”

The restaurant is being positioned as “premium casual”, offering an elevated experience without making it inaccessible. Guests can drop in for wings and fries or opt for steak and mashed potatoes. The intention is to provide enough variety to accommodate everything from a casual after-work drink to a more intimate date. “We just want to create a good experience, a good value,” Ellis said.

Behind EGO’s kitchen is Lead Chef Raldeno Francis, whose culinary journey includes working as a server before progressing through various chef roles and eventually becoming a private chef for Usain Bolt for eight months and the Gore family for two years. Francis developed EGO’s initial menu, drawing on ideas and techniques accumulated throughout his career. “This is just like a soft menu,” he explained, noting that the team intends to expand and refine the offerings based on customer feedback.

Among his personal favourites are the Appleton BBQ chicken, sesame charcoal chicken, and the lobster roll, while the restaurant’s steak has already earned high praise from Adair. For first-time visitors, Francis recommends the crab cake, particularly for seafood lovers, describing it as crispy on the outside with a softer surprise inside. For those who prefer chicken, the sesame chicken skewers are another strong recommendation. The chef said the objective is, ultimately, to develop dishes that guests cannot simply find at any other restaurant. “Not just the regular [dishes] where they could go, ‘Oh, I could get that at that restaurant.’ No, you can only get that at EGO.”

And when it comes to pairings, Francis recommends a sweet red wine with the steak, while the shrimp Alfredo works well with a Pinot Grigio. With the Sandz team behind the concept, entertainment was always going to form part of EGO’s DNA. The team has already begun planning a series of activations, including The Suites at EGO, a Saturday night experience featuring guest DJs, signature cocktails, and a more relaxed nightlife atmosphere. Brunches, private events, and sponsored activations are also in the pipeline.

For Ellis, these experiences will allow EGO to gradually build on the team’s entertainment expertise while establishing its own identity within Kingston and St Andrew hospitality market. “We have a lot to look out for here at EGO,” he said. Despite EGO being a new addition to Kingston’s restaurant scene, the partners are already thinking beyond the current location. For Adair, both Komo Mai and EGO represent stepping stones towards something much bigger, including the possibility of taking the restaurant concepts beyond Jamaica. “Everything I always think of as a stepping stone,” he said. “This is just the beginning.”

With Sandz already possessing a strong international audience, he sees potential for the hospitality ventures to eventually follow a similar path. “Just like the event Sandz, there is a strong overseas market. So it only makes sense to try restaurants overseas.” For now, however, the focus is on establishing EGO in Jamaica. As the team continues to develop the menu, fine-tune the service, and introduce new experiences, Adair remains focused on what he hopes the restaurant will become. When asked why people should visit, he puts it simply: “Because it will be the place to be”.

o’brian.wynter@gleanerjm.com

Editor's Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified bartender Wayne Gayle as Jennoy Waugh. We regret the error.