Chef Kwame Onwuachi is back in D.C. with a stunning new restaurant
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Photo: Courtesy of Scott Suchman
Chef Kwame Onwuachi is making a splashy return to D.C. with the opening of Dōgon, a luxe Afro-Caribbean restaurant in the new Salamander hotel by The Wharf.
Why it matters: Onwuachi's star has risen with every restaurant opening — the New York Times crowned his latest, Tatiana, #1 in NYC — and this next debut is a buzzed-about homecoming.
Catch up quick: The Bronx native opened his first-ever restaurant in D.C. at just 26, the ambitious, short-lived Shaw Bijou. His next restaurant, Kith and Kin at The Wharf earned Onwuachi a "Rising Star" James Beard Award before closing during the pandemic.
- Since leaving D.C. he's launched a nail polish line, opened a Manhattan restaurant that's been hailed as "the future of fine dining," and pioneered an annual food festival for chefs of colors with Salamander CEO Sheila Johnson, with whom he's teaming up with for Dōgon.
- Oh, and his hit memoir, "Notes from a Young Black Chef," is becoming a movie.
Zoom in: Dōgon channels Onwuachi's Afro-Caribbean heritage, much like his other restaurants. The narrative here follows 18th-century D.C. astronomer and surveyor Benjamin Banneker, a free Black Maryland native who George Washington appointed to map out the fledgling nation's capital.
- You'll see nods to Banneker in the celestial restaurant design and in the kitchen, which melds Nigerian, Jamaican, Trinidadian, and Creole influences.
On your plate: The menu is designed to share. Onwuachi classics like Mom Duke's Shrimp — a peel-and-eat ode to his mother — are joined by new creations like barbecued greens with candied onions, roasted garlic and bacon, or whole fish over coconut-mussel curry and callaloo.
- Kith and Kin alum Martel Stone is chef de cuisine and recreates a few dishes like the famous coco bread with malted sorghum butter.
The intrigue: Onwuachi and Johnson aren't the only big names involved. Columbia Room founder Derek Brown is behind the bar program, which extends to an adjoining lounge.
- Brown, who's refocused his business around mindful drinking, created a menu which is equally divided between high, low and no-alcohol cocktails.
If you go: Dōgon opens Sept. 9 for dinner (typically closed Mondays).