Rubie Takes Over Club 104 at Maydan Market, Bringing Jamaican Roots to West Adams

Maydan Market has built its reputation as a place where culinary cultures intersect rather than compete. This week, the West Adams destination adds another chapter to that story with the arrival of Rubie, an experimental Caribbean pop-up led by Los Angeles-based chef Gian Scott. Beginning January 20, 2026, Rubie settles into Club 104, Maydan Market’s rotating residency space dedicated to emerging chefs and creative voices.

The limited-time residency marks the fifth to take place at Club 104, reinforcing the space’s role as a testing ground for chefs whose work reflects both personal heritage and the broader dining conversation unfolding in Los Angeles.

Rubie is shaped by Scott’s exploration of foodways across the African diaspora, filtered through Jamaican tradition, Black Southern cooking, and a distinctly New Californian sensibility. Rather than presenting Caribbean cuisine as a fixed category, the menu moves fluidly between comfort and refinement, offering dishes that feel grounded in memory while remaining open to reinterpretation.

Guests can enjoy the pop-up within Maydan Market’s communal seating or at Club 104’s designated countertop, where the experience feels closer to a conversation than a performance. The setting aligns naturally with Rubie’s approach, inviting diners to engage casually while still paying attention to detail.

Scott’s cooking reflects a career shaped by both discipline and curiosity. After early training in the kitchens of Providence, Los Angeles’ three Michelin-starred restaurant, he continued to refine his craft in Seattle before returning home in 2020. That return became a turning point, allowing him to cook more personally and explore flavors tied to identity and place.

Rubie launched in 2021 and quickly gained local recognition, earning features from Food & Wine, the Los Angeles Times, and other outlets. At its core, the project represents Scott’s effort to connect fine dining technique with the foods and rhythms that shaped him, using California’s seasonal bounty as a common thread.

Rubie’s menu balances counter-friendly dishes with plates that reward closer attention. Dinner begins with starters such as pickled okra tempura served with sauce moyo and plantain powder, alongside a vegetarian and gluten-free lentil pastelón layered with jerk spice and epis.

Mains lean into both land and sea. The jerk heirloom chicken is marinated for 24 hours and paired with coconut rice and peas, yucca charcoal, butter beans, citrus salad, and a croquette. Seafood appears in dishes like the Pacific rockfish rundown, built around coconut, yam, Scotch bonnet, pikliz, and herbs.

Dessert draws directly from the Caribbean pantry, with vanilla rum ice cream served alongside blue cornmeal festival, popped sorghum, and grains of paradise.

Lunch offerings take a more casual turn without losing intention. Options include a jerk chicken sandwich finished with St. Kitts mango sauce, cilantro aioli, pickled red onion, iceberg lettuce, and a potato roll, as well as an escovitch-style fried rock cod sandwich with buttermilk ranch and pickled red onion. Yucca fries are available on the side.

Rubie follows previous Club 104 residencies including Flavors From Afar and Knafeh Queens, as well as Melissa Cottingham’s Melnificent Wingz and Adam Gertler and Shane Lyons’s Vesti. Each residency contributes to the evolving identity of the space, emphasizing rotation and discovery rather than permanence.

Maydan Market itself spans 10,000 square feet and was created by chef Rose Previte as a modern interpretation of global marketplaces. Anchored by a central live-fire hearth, the space brings together concepts such as Maydan and Compass Rose from Washington, DC, alongside local operators including Yhing Yhang BBQ, Lugya’h by Poncho’s Tlayudas, and Maléna. The market also includes Sook, a Middle Eastern convenience store offering prepared foods and pantry staples.

The name Maydan refers to a central public meeting place, a definition that resonates throughout the space. It encourages guests to wander, taste, and connect, positioning food as a shared language rather than a singular destination.

Rubie’s residency begins January 20, 2026, at Club 104 inside Maydan Market, located at 4301 West Jefferson Boulevard in Los Angeles. Hours are Tuesday through Sunday, from 11 AM to 10 PM.

In a city known for reinvention, Rubie feels less like a trend and more like a conversation in progress. By anchoring Jamaican flavor within the broader context of Los Angeles dining, Gian Scott’s residency offers a thoughtful addition to Maydan Market’s ongoing exploration of what global cuisine looks like when it is personal, local, and allowed to evolve.