Superstar Chef Eric Adjepong’s First-Ever Restaurant Rises in D.C.

A culinary titan has entered the neighborhood chat: Chef Eric Adjepong opened his extremely anticipated West African restaurant Elmina on Tuesday, February 18. Located simply north of U Road NW, his up to date ode to Ghanaian delicacies settles into the two-story, indoor-outdoor area that previously housed the unique Seven Causes (2208 14th Road NW).

After attending culinary faculty, receiving his Grasp’s diploma, filling out his restaurant resume in NY and D.C. kitchens like Kith/Kin, reaching the finals of Prime Chef Season 16, presently starring in Meals Community’s Wildcard Kitchen, co-hosting the James Beard Awards, and publishing his first youngsters’s e-book (with a cookbook on the way in which), the busy chef is able to manifest his lifelong dream.

“I’ve been occupied with opening this restaurant since I used to be a toddler,” he says.

Elmina reaches into his roots, “redefining and reclaiming” West African historical past and delicacies. Named for a fishing port notorious for its fortress from which enslaved Africans would board trans-Atlantic ships, Elmina is a restaurant imbued with significance, resonant with illustration and inclusion. Of the city of Elmina, Adjepong says, “there’s a lot extra there, wealth and wonder, and it’s peaceable. We have to inform a number of sides of the story.”

The menu begins with traditional Ghanaian dishes like fufu (pounded cassava root rolled right into a ball), kelewele (chunks of spiced ripe plantains), and grilled meats; and expands by up to date, seasonal, and private interpretations of his native delicacies, just like the jollof duck. Adjepong makes the fried rice “good and crispy, my favourite a part of jollof,” he says, and provides in duck served 3 ways: confit duck leg lacquered in a spicy-sour tamarind glaze, duck breast, and duck egg.

Elmina presents two choices, primarily based on the place diners sit within the restaurant: a five-course tasting menu or an a la carte bar menu. The prix fixe menu, accessible within the two eating rooms, is a “choose-your-own-adventure,” Adjepong notes. Every of the 5 programs (chilly starter, heat vegetable, protein, shared entree, dessert) options 4 decisions for every. The entree, he says, is shared by design. “Like many cultures, in Ghana, you may’t have an incredible meal by your self. It should be communal,” he says. With a wink, he notes that there will likely be “surprises” sprinkled by the tasting menu.

The a la carte facet nods to Ghana’s common “chop bars” — an informal, counter-service model of consuming kebabs and fries. This menu will likely be accessible at each the upstairs and downstairs bar areas. Right here, there will likely be pork, beef, hen, shrimp, octopus, and different kebab choices. There may even be a yassa smash burger, plus yam and okra fries, in addition to oysters and tuna tartare. Adjepong’s kitchen may even put together its personal shito: an unctuous fermented sauce, with a base of ginger, garlic, tomato, and crayfish and shrimp powder, blended with sizzling peppers and simmered to succeed in a darkish amber shade that will get anointed on the kebabs. “It’s simply so yummy, cheesy, scrumptious; it’s candy, spicy, it’s all of the issues that you really want” in a sauce, says Adjepong.

Past the night menus, “being that we’re in D.C., we’ve to do brunch proper,” he says, who’s lived within the metropolis for years now. Served solely Saturdays (Elmina is closed Sundays), brunch remixes classics with flavors and methods from Ghana (see: oxtail hash and banana grits).

Rey Lopez/Eater DC

Savory elements like cassava, plantain, sorghum, and barley make their manner into cocktails, too. A margarita referred to as Gold Coast — the colonial moniker for Ghana — affords hints of hibiscus. Different fruits like mango, papaya, and passionfruit take dips within the drinks as properly.

Elmina echoes menu themes within the design.

Emmanuel Boakye-Appiah

“We’re creating an expertise the place historical past, tradition, and delicacies converge,” says designer Jimmie Drummond. The restaurant’s a number of eating areas level to tobacco, metallic, pure pigments, sugar cane, cotton, and wooden.

The entryway cocktail lounge, draped in clay-colored ochre, evokes tobacco by its leather-based finishes; in the meantime, the splendid upstairs eating room and its deep velvet banquettes are wealthy in Indigo blue — “an emblem of the huge seas navigated by enslaved peoples,” says Drummond.

And since “you may’t have an African restaurant simply inside,” he says, he plans to make prime use of the semi-enclosed upstairs stage with a bonafide bar.

After trying to find an area for nearly two years, he noticed Seven Causes’ 2023 closing as a serendipitous alternative; the Latin sensation — which was Venezuelan chef Enrique Limardo’s first D.C. restaurant — has since relocated to CityCenter DC.

Adjepong’s plans for his first D.C. store, On the Double, fell by in the course of the early days of the pandemic. 5 years later, he lastly will get to introduce the identical roti flatbreads and doubles he by no means acquired to serve on the fast-casual Union Market counter.

Past vibing with its location within the heart of the U Road hall, Adjepong sees Elmina as a strategy to erase the stigma of effective eating.

“We stay in a world with so many alternative folks with completely different backgrounds,” he says. “Ghanaian meals, there’s a lot method and taste.”

Nico Schinco/Elmina