Ann Arbor's Blue Llama teams up with chef JJ Johnson for new jazz club menu

A popular destination in Ann Arbor's nightlife scene is bringing in a nationally recognized New York City chef to revamp its menu with inspiration from jazz clubs in Harlem and New Orleans.

Starting this week, the Blue Llama Jazz Club and its new creative culinary director, JJ Johnson, will unveil new dishes. The Harlem-based chef is the co-author of the James Beard Award-winning cookbook "Between Harlem and Heaven" and recently released a second book, "The Simple Art of Rice." His was a semifinalist nominee for the James Beard Awards this year for his work at his fast-casual NYC restaurants Field Trip.

Johnson told The Detroit News ahead of the menu launch that he's excited to not only be involved in a project in southeastern Michigan, but also to get back into creating cuisine that is more for a fine dining audience. The new menu at Blue Llama, developed by Johnson with the club's owner and founder Don Hicks, is influenced by the flavors of Barbados, Puerto Rico, Africa and the American South.

"Jazz music is heavily the music of the diaspora, and at Blue Llama they are really pushing that out heavily. If you look at the artists that have been through there are are coming there ... the food really needs to sing along with that style of music that's coming through Blue Llama," said Johnson.

He said he plans on using a lot of African and Caribbean flavors in dishes like West African peanut goat noodles, the Senegalese dish leeks yassa, house-cut steak, jerk prawns and the Jamaican dish escovitch using local perch.

"When you hear music and you eat food together, if it all clicks, it's very nostalgic," he said. "And that's my goal and my expectation at Blue Llama."

Johnson will still be based in New York but he's been working with the team at Blue Llama to execute his vision and he's excited to be part of another culinary scene.

"I'm a big community person," he said. "Hopefully the community and the culinary community will accept me and the food that I cook, and hopefully I can contribute to the Michigan community some way somehow."

The new menu will be available for a la carte ordering, or as a fixed-price meal and there will also be a bar menu for pre-show or late-night snacking. Among this week’s events are African band Mokoomba Thursday night, the Ari Hoenig Trio Friday and the Luther S. Allison Quintet on Saturday.

The Blue Llama is open at 6 p.m. Wed.-Sat. at 314 S. Main in Ann Arbor. Call (734) 372-3200 or visit bluellamaclub.com for reservations.

mbaetens@detroitnews.com