Renowned “Top Chef” star Kwame Onwuachi will make his highly anticipated return to DC’s culinary scene this spring with the opening of his new restaurant.
Dogon by Kwame Onwuachi is set to debut as part of a substantial hotel enhancement initiative at the reinvigorated Southwest waterfront in Salamander Washington, D.C.
The Afro-Caribbean eatery (pronounced “Doh-gon”) pays tribute to Washington D.C.’s late-1700s land surveyor Benjamin Banneker and his connections to the West African Dogon tribe, DC Eater reports.
The restaurant will reflect Onwuachi’s Nigerian, Jamaican, Trinidadian, and Creole heritage.
With a design concept from the architectural firm Modellus Novus, the same designer of Onwuachi’s critically acclaimed NYC eatery Tatiana, curtains of linked chains adorn the lobby of Dogon at street level that draw inspiration from the mathematical instrument Banneker used to delineate city lines.
Behind them unfolds a spacious 200-seat dining room featuring a bar and a patio. The “astrological-like ceiling,” pays homage to the starry night sky that Banneker used as a geographical reference.
“I firmly believe that a restaurant should have a story, because when it has a story it has a soul,” Onwuachi said. “Researching the history of Benjamin Banneker, the Dogon tribe, and the connections to our location was a humbling-yet-inspiring experience.
Our menu will celebrate all the cultures within DC’s four quadrants. This is the story of Dogon.”
Historical records cite Banneker as a self-educated mathematician, astronomer, and inventor who played a crucial role in the shaping of Washington, D.C.
His pioneering use of astronomy proved instrumental in surveying the future nation’s capital in 1791.
Some authors argue that Banneker’s lineage can be traced back through his grandfather to the Dogon tribe in Mali, known for their advanced expertise in astronomy, mathematics, and engineering.
“After years in the making I’m proud to announce my new restaurant, Dogon, coming to Washington DC soon,” Onwuachi added. “Honoring the legacy of the Dogon tribe in Mali and their connection to the capitol. Benjamin Banneker was a descendant of this tribe who was hired to survey the city and create the borders. He used the stars as his guide which was a skill of the Dogon People.”
A competitor on Top Chef season 13 in California, Kwame Onwuachi is a James Beard Award-winning chef and author of Notes from a Young Black Chef.
He was born on Long Island and raised in New York City, Nigeria and Louisiana. Kwame was first exposed to cooking by his mother, in the family’s modest Bronx apartment, and he took that spark of passion and turned it into a career.
From toiling in the bowels of oil cleanup ships to working at some of the best restaurants in the world, he has seen and lived his fair share of diversity.
Kwame trained at the Culinary Institute of America and opened five restaurants before turning 30, including the groundbreaking Afro-Caribbean restaurant, Kith/Kin.
Since competing on Top Chef, he has been named one of FOOD & WINE’s Best New Chefs, Esquire Magazine’s 2019 Chef of the Year, and a 30 Under 30 honoree by both Zagat and Forbes.
“This restaurant will encompass all that makes DC special through an Afro Caribbean lens,” he added. “Can’t wait for you all to come through these doors. It’s so so so so good to be back!”
