He had me at the warm coco bread served with malted sorghum butter.
“He” is star chef Kwame Onwuachi, and the coco bread is the perfect start to a meal of Afro-Caribbean dishes at his newest restaurant, Dōgon, in Washington, D.C. The sleek dining room opened last month in the Salamander Hotel (which, before being purchased and renovated by entrepreneur Sheila Johnson—who opened the first Salamander in Middleburg, Virginia in 2013—was a Mandarin Oriental).
Dōgon marks a return to the D.C. dining scene for Onwuachi. The Top Chef alum lent his skill to renowned NYC restaurants Per Se and Eleven Madison Park, before going on to helm the District’s Shaw Bijou and Kith and Kin. He has spent the past two years back in his native NYC, flexing his culinary prowess at Tatiana, the restaurant he opened to a deluge of well-deserved hype that has yet to die down.
“I developed a relationship with Sheila Johnson and the Salamander Hotel about four or five years ago,” Onwuachi tells Vogue, “and I created this event called The Family Reunion at her Middleburg property, celebrating Black and brown contributions to the food industry. When she was taking over and purchasing this hotel in D.C., she asked me to come in and do the restaurant, and it just made sense.”
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The result is a dimly-lit space just off the hotel’s circular lobby, marked by chain curtains, an illuminated bar, artful columns, and an open kitchen. Designed by Preeti Sriratana of NYC-based architecture firm Modellus Novus, the restaurant also features ceiling lights reminiscent of stars in the sky—a nod to the inspiration that birthed the Dōgon name and concept. While researching the history of the restaurant’s L’Enfant Plaza neighborhood, Onwuachi brushed up on the life of Benjamin Banneker, the freed slave who was hired to help create the borders of D.C. in 1791. “I was like, ‘Okay, this guy must’ve been really good at his job to be a Black man hired back then do something as important as creating the borders of the capital of the country,’” Onwuachi says. “And I was like, ‘How the hell did he know how to do this?’ I found out that his grandfather was captured from the Dogon tribe [in West Africa], and they were a tribe of astronomers; they used to map things with the stars. So without West African science, we wouldn’t have the capital we know today. I wanted to tell the story of Washington, D.C. through a West African lens.”
That storytelling is apparent in an eclectic, shareable menu that’s teeming with Nigerian influences (Onwuachi is Nigerian-American) as well as Jamaican and Creole flavors. Per the chef’s suggestion, I ordered the hoe crab—tossed with garlic butter, topped with a shito crunch, and served in the shell with a side of plantain cakes and an aji verde sauce. The branzino came butterflied with crispy skin, and accompanied by a smooth, punchy coconut mussel curry to pour on top. Sides like crispy okra, jollof rice, and callaloo were just as notable as the main dishes, though the star of the meal was the Mom Dukes Shrimp, served whole and bathed in a decadent Creole butter.
Dōgon’s staff is largely made up of restaurant professionals Onwuachi has worked with in the past. “My chef de cuisine is Martel Stone,” Onwuachi says. “He was my executive sous chef at Kith and Kin in D.C., so it’s really, really cool to have him back on the team. I have a bunch of cooks from the restaurants that I’ve opened up in D.C., as well as servers. And then Derek Brown, he did the cocktail menu, and he’s a legendary bar director or cocktail creator in Washington D.C.” (I give high praise to the Mango-Basil Smash, made with Uncle Nearest whiskey, lemon, mango syrup, and basil.)
Such familiarity is helpful when your world becomes as hectic and high-profile as Onwuachi’s has. The week we spoke, the chef opened Dōgon in D.C. on Monday, then went back to NYC on Tuesday for a photoshoot and to test recipes for a forthcoming cookbook. After dinner service at Tatiana on Wednesday, he hopped in a car at midnight so he could be back in D.C. on Thursday morning to cook at the White House’s Black Excellence brunch. We talked after brunch and before dinner service at Dōgon. The next morning he was on the first train back to NYC to cook for an East Side Golf event that Friday afternoon and prepare the menu for Jay-Z’s mother’s birthday that night.
“It’s stressful, for sure,” Onwuachi says of his schedule (which somehow also includes near daily rounds of golf). “I live in a professional state of being tired, so I’m just used to it by now. But, I don’t know, it’s fun. Restaurants are really gathering places for people; there’s an energy about them. So when I hop on the train or get on a flight or drive down to D.C., I’m more exhilarated than I am tired because we’re not just cooking food—we’re also telling a story.”
Next May, Onwuachi will be tasked with telling the story of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s forthcoming Costume Institute exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” as he was recently named the chef of the 2025 Met Gala.
Onwuachi is no stranger to a starry guest list, but “everybody’s a VIP,” he says of his approach to hospitality. “We had a critic our first night [at Dōgon] and I don’t want to say I didn’t care—I don’t want to ever say that—but every table is important. People are waiting to eat here; they’re spending birthdays and anniversaries. That’s really special.” Still, I wonder if there’s anyone Onwuachi is dying to see walk through the doors of Dōgon. “There’s no one person that would make my night,” he says. “Maybe if my mom surprised me, that’d be dope, but I just want to cook for people and make them happy.”
