Paradise Jamaican Restaurant and Pizza officially opened Friday at 452 N. Park Ave.
“I want to have [a] relationship, like a community relationship with people that come in here,” co-owner Alison “Laurie” Williamson said in an interview with The Apopka Chief. “We bond together. We show that there is no — there’s no black, there’s no white.”
Raised in Saint Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica, Williamson sells jerk chicken, oxtail and other favorites from her homeland. She brings with her eight years of experience managing both locations of Negril Jamaican Restaurant, an Orlando chain owned by her cousin.
Williamson said she first wanted to buy the property when her husband visited Wingz Wingzz Wingzzz, a former tenant at the location. When she was driving to the post office in June, she noticed that Park Avenue Pizza had replaced it…