KEVIN CHINN
JOE HANCE JR.

LAUREN MURPHEY
Stained Glass Pub
NEGRIL JAMAICAN EATERY
965 Thayer Ave.

Silver Spring, MD 20910
(301) 585-3000
Earl Chinn couldn’t find a proper
Jamaican restaurant when he came
to D.C. in the 1970s, so he took
matters into his own hands and
founded Negril Jamaican Eatery in
1979. But what helped cement the
brand name, according to Chinn’s son,
Kevin, was opening the Silver Spring
location six years later.

“If you came to the store in the late
80s, early 90s, it would be pretty
much the same thing you remember,”
says Kevin Chinn. Aside from some
fresh coats of paint and the addition
of a televised menu screen, not much
has changed at the Silver Spring
eatery. Even Miss Verna, one of the
chefs, has been there since day one.

Negril’s main attraction is a
Negril Jamaican Eatery (top); Gentleman Jim’s Restaurant (above)
homeland delicacy: the Jamaican beef
patty. Despite the patty’s popularity—
it makes up about a quarter of the
restaurant’s business—Kevin Chinn’s
favorite dish is the jerk chicken
sandwich. “It’ll fill you up,” he says. “The value
of it is … a lot more than you would
get probably anywhere.”
GENTLEMAN JIM’S RESTAURANT
18917 Earhart Court
Gaithersburg, MD 20879
(301) 963-7778
gentlemanjims.biz There may not be many places in
Gaithersburg with more local
paraphernalia than Gentleman
Jim’s Restaurant. That’s because
owner Joe Hance Jr. wants people
to feel like the restaurant is “an
extension of their home.”
His grandfather founded the
original Gentleman Jim’s in Twinbrook
in 1971, but it closed in 1993, three
years after the Gaithersburg location
opened. Over the years, the business
has been passed down to Hance Jr.’s
father and then to him.

Pizza is one of the restaurant’s
biggest draws and was once
enjoyed by none other than Frank
Sinatra. The Hance family has a
few pizza boxes signed by him in
their possession.

But at Gentleman Jim’s, it’s all
about family. Hance Jr. and all five
of his sisters have worked in the
restaurant at some point, several
menu items are named after
family members (and some other
employees and customers, too) and
staff members are regarded as family.

“If you become a part of your
community, you are indispensable,”
says Hance Jr. MM
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