New grill and bakery to grill up local and cultural flavors

Cape Verde, Portugal and Brazil are coming to Dartmouth. At least, the cuisine will be when The Grill Basket Express opens in the 15 State Road Shaws plaza.

“I think there’s no better legacy than impacting other people and inspiring and motivating and transforming this world,” said Ellie Paris, the brains and recipes behind the new restaurant. “So this is what I’m hoping to do with the restaurant and everything that I’ve been doing.”

Paris started the Grill Basket Express World Social Kitchen and Bake House because she wanted to open a casual bakery and cultural kitchen where people could get globally and locally inspired food. 

“What a great way to be a bridge connector between those communities and surrounding communities and bringing both food, globally and locally inspired food, that represents the people of our communities,” said Paris.

She wants the restaurant to be a place where families can connect with each other over a healthy and authentic boldly-flavored dishes. She hopes the food will “...inspire, educate and connect.”

“I want people to go there and have, perhaps, their first Cape Verdean meal or Portuguese meal,” Paris said. “We also want to be doing a lot around the world, daily specials from places that people perhaps never heard of or never even thought about trying their food.”

Paris is an award-winning entrepreneur, winning the 2025 Entrepreneur of the Year from the Metro South Chamber for the Dr. Ellie Paris Social Bookstore and Ice Cream Cafe located in Brockton. 

She started her entrepreneurial career back at UMass Dartmouth, when she was getting her graduate degree in Business Administration and PhD in Luso-Afro-Brazilian and Portuguese Studies and Thoery. While the idea for a social kitchen like this began then, a number of projects came first. 

Her first business was a tee-shirt business that started almost by accident. For a trip she was overseeing as a faculty advisor, she created a shirt with the help of her graphic design friend. The shirt was posted on social media, and she received many orders. 

“As a PhD student, as any graduate student, I was struggling financially and I was at some point struggling with access to food,” Paris said, “So coming back to help fight this is really a special moment for me.”

She later opened her bookstore, the Dr. Ellie Paris Social Bookstore and Ice Cream Cafe. The goal is to foster literacy and support economic capability, through “one book, one community.” 

Paris is now a professor of Entrepreneurship at Wheaton College. She recently moved to New Bedford. 

All the recipes used in the restaurant are her own, coming from the dishes and recipes she learned while traveling the world when she was growing up. 

Paris was born in Cape Verde, to a mother who was a professional chef, and moved to Switzerland, when she was seven. She also lived and was raised in France and Portugal. 

“I started cooking when I was seven, and I wanted to be a chef like my mom, and of course she told me no because long weekends, long hours, and I was really good in school. She [wanted me to] ensure my education first before I even adventured into anything food,” said Paris, “But this is a meaningful initiative.”

Paris wants her food to be locally connected and accessible, and she plans to work with local farms to get  her ingredients.

She has two kids, one of whom is a picky eater. She wants to ensure they get authentic and good food, and that is partly behind her inspiration for the restaurant. 

“I’m looking to increase access to real, fresh, and boldly flavorful high-quality food that are definitely world and locally inspired,” she said. 

It should be opening at the end of February, but she has no set date yet.