African Restaurant Sustainability.

Where are all the West African Restaurants?

July 2021

Background —>

 

Considering our experiences of Nigerian and West African restaurants, both within and outside of the United States, we got together to walk through our communal memories of local Nigerian restaurants, their historic sustainability, and attempted to sketch out the Nigerian restaurant of our dreams!

Nigerian Restaurant Sustainability_Comp1.jpg

Talk #2: Nigerian Restaurant Sustainability (Summer 2021)

“Why can’t I say, ‘I want Jollof rice,’ and drive to find it as certainly as I could find a well-braised and seasoned octopus, here, in the middle of the Sonoran Desert?”

Click here for the Presentation!

What we Learned.

A successful restaurant needs to support a community.

The challenge in sustaining a West African restaurant in Phoenix is exactly the challenge of building community and cultivating love for the West African food experience within the context of the Phoenix, Arizona.

What We Did Next

  • Studied Recipes

    We took a ton of time studying, attempting, and grading recipes for traditional Nigerian dishes until we had a short list of favorites. The Nigerian culinary tradition has many elements to respect. We hoped to distill from the history our top five dishes, ranking them according to our ability to make the food and to how a farmer’s market crowd would likely experience each dish.

    Click for our Demo Menu!

  • Prepared to Serve

    We did the math. We ran the numbers. We made the charts.

    Make It

  • Cultivated Community and Love

    We took our favorite dishes to the local farmer’s markets to introduce people to the culture! We gathered public feedback on the dishes

Results Coming Soon!

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"Nne Nne" Children's Song Lesson