Shokunbi earned his stripes in the restaurant business at Chipotle Mexican Grill, rising to the level of general manager at a store in his native Bowie, Md. The chain left its mark on him, not so much with its approach to customization but with its big-tent philosophy. Customers at Spice Kitchen don\u2019t walk the line and accessorize their plates of steak or chicken suya. They do something perhaps more important: They experience West African flavors in a counter-service setting, a relaxed atmosphere that, by its design, is meant to ease newcomers into a dish still largely foreign to American palates.<\/p>\n
Spice Kitchen is Nigerian street food by way of MiXt Food Hall, an airy, open space with large windows that flood the room with sunlight, perfect for shining a light on one of West Africa\u2019s beloved dishes.<\/p>\n
The chef and owner\u2019s goal is to change \u201cthe way people think about African food,\u201d he tells me one afternoon inside the food hall, as he sips on a hibiscus lemonade spiked with ginger.<\/p>\n
I would not bet against him. Shokunbi has presence: He\u2019s a tall, barrel-chested man who has a striking stillness to him, as if he absorbs all the information around him but maintains his singular drive. At age 27, he already runs two businesses \u2014 not only Spice Kitchen, but a roofing and solar company, too \u2014 and he has much larger plans to empower communities of color with investments in real estate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thin strips of beef, dusted with a formidable West African spice blend, are scattered atop a waxy sheet of \u201cThe American Times,\u201d a faux newspaper whose motto is \u201cAll the News That Changes the World.\u201d The slogan, an obvious riff on the Gray Lady\u2019s 19th-century retort to yellow journalism, seems custom-made for Olumide Shokunbi and Spice Kitchen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":5152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,2,36],"tags":[7,30,38],"class_list":{"0":"post-5155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"category-featured","9":"category-lifestyle","10":"tag-apie-project","11":"tag-culture","12":"tag-lifestyle"},"yoast_head":"\n