Challenges of Opening NYC Restaurant

NYC African Restaurants

African Restaurants

African Restaurants in NYC

The restaurant's soft industrial lighting makes the chrome gleam. A soft and expansive backdrop of blue gives the space a cool and slightly futuristic industrial like a hip loft in the future. Exposed brick walls are tinged in a blue sheen and the distressed wood chairs and tables have been stained steel gray and have marble table tops. In three weeks, Cisse Elhadji, the owner of Ponty Bistro in Midtown, will open his new restaurant La Terengea. Located at 144 West 139th St., the restaurant us nestled in between the Hudson and Harlem rivers a few blocks west of the City College of New York. The location of the restaurant is quite lucrative given its relative proximity to both Central Park as well as Yankee Stadium.

Though Elhadji has succeeded once with an African restaurant, La Teregenga is still a gamble. For the first time in his life, he's had to take on both a bank loan and money from friends and family. He initially estimated that it would take six months to renovate. However, he is already running four weeks behind schedule. "Ponty Bistro…I saved up for it" Elhadji continues. "I want to open another restaurant about six months to a year after this one." While the decor is modern and chic, the restaurant flavors and smells are robust. The menu's offerings are a hybrid of Senegalese and French meats accompanied by vegetables and spices yielding a rich flavor. Elhadji explained that the menu for La Trenga will be the same as Ponty Bistro but more streamlined. The menu is dominated by seafood but other options exist including lamb and fries. Appetizers range from seven to fourteen dollars and some can be ordered as an entree. Offerings include foie gras, truffle macaroni and cheese and salmon tartare. Soup offerings as of the printing of this article are French onion and a Soup de Calabash that include butternut squash as its prominent ingredient.

The menu continues with exquisite and delectable offerings that include pastas, chicken, seafood and even sandwiches and vegetarian choices. Entrees range in price from the high teens to the lower thirty dollar range for each item. Even less-traveled American eaters will see items on the menu that attract them such as lobster ravioli and Spaghetti Bolognese. For the more adventurous, there are traditional and extravagant Senegalese offerings such as Poulet Yassa which is a traditional chicken dish served with rice. Side items can also be ordered for six dollars apiece and they include rosemary potatoes, mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus and couscous. Both the staff and the menu encourage a wide array and peoples and cultures to come and enjoy the restaurant. Elhadji is hoping the new place will become a neighborhood hot spot in Harlem free of culture and gentrification and thus attract all walks of life. Thus, the prices appeal to people from a range of income classes. The waiters are also diverse as all of them speak at least two, if not three, entirely different languages. While the price points are certainly a little higher than those seen at lesser restaurants, they are not out of reach for most average consumers even if it is only the occasional splurge.

This same scene could occur in a number of African restaurants in New York City. Such restaurants have boomed in the past few years, with a new African restaurant opening in New York roughly every six months, a dramatic rise. Perhaps the oldest one would be the Awash Ethiopian Restaurant which opened in 1989 but the current trend did not really begin to pick up until 1995 when three restaurants opened in different parts of New York, those being the Jollof (Senegal) in Brooklyn, The Sugar Bar (African/Caribbean) in the Upper West Side and the African Kine (Senegal) in Harlem. Two years later, two more opened up with the Madiba Restaurant (South African) opening in 1999 along with the Queen of Sheba (Ethiopian) that same year. Things really started to ramp up in 2004 as at least one partially or fully African-oriented restaurant has opened every year since then. Kombit Bar and Restaurant (Haitian/African) and Awash (Ethopia) opened in 2004. 2005 openings included Nomad (Morrocan) and Zoma (Ethiopia) while 2006 was the starting year for Accra Restaurant, which has cuisine from Ghana. Most years since have had about four a year but 2012 had at least six openings in Brooklyn, Midtown, the Bronx and Harlem…and the above are just the ones with verifiable opening dates. Scheduled 2014 openings include the aforementioned La Tarenga and two others, all in Harlem. A handful have verifiably closed, those all being in Brooklyn and the Bronx. African restaurants in New York have often started in single occupancy hotel rooms. This is in large part due to high commercial renting costs and extremely high overhead, just as attested by Elhadji.

Creating a chic place where that people could bring their friends was important to Elhadji. This, of course, is due to the strong correlation between food and enjoyment of friends and other company, something around which Elhadji's naturally revolves. Many of the dishes at El Ponty involve big plates for people to share including appetizers and other finger foods meant to be shared. However, smaller plates around a cozy table are also ameable to many patrons and groups of friends. Elhadji understands that many diners are adventurous. He assesses that they want to be able to take friends to new places and be able to pick and choose among interesting dishes they've never had.

Elhadji moves through his current restaurant, Ponty Bistro, like a benevolent tornado. He shakes hands, laughs with and talks with customers. It is readily apparent that he is trying to make everyone feel welcome and he does so quite effectively. He understands that success depends not only on food and decor but also on his own charisma and that of the staff which are, of course, seen as an extension of the management and ownership of the restaurant. Many of his customers predict that La Terenga succeed because of his presence and his understanding of what restaurant goers demand.

Elhadji has scheduled the soft opening of the new restaurant for July 15th and says he enjoys the challenge of opening up a restaurant. At the same time, he concedes how difficult it is. Two reasons generally underscore his actions. First he says, "Always try to grow and make a better life." Second, La Terenga is the restaurant he has wanted his entire life: big and expensive. A self-professed workaholic who doesn't smoke or drink, he believes in the importance of working long hours. As he explains, "In 1996, I came here to this country with nothing. I just keep going. It's life. I work hard. I believe. I play by the rules. You make money. If the restaurant isn't full it will drive me crazy. I find a way. Find a solution. Rent is very high. I can't afford one month without paying rent. This is my job. Never had a publicist. I always do it myself. Ponty Bistro has always been only word of mouth and reviews on restaurant review websites like Yelp and Yahoo. Residing in Manhattan, Elhadji is only 32 years old and has only been in the United States since 1996. He stands a fairly short five foot eight tall but possesses beautiful white teeth and a magnetizing smile, Elhadji hails from the country of Senegal. He speaks French as well as his native dialect from Senegal, known as Wolof. His English is outstanding but he does possess a slight accent. Even though is his fairly short for a male, he is quite muscular and has a commanding presence even with his fairly casual attire that consists of plaid shirts and blue jeans. However, when he strolls into the kitchen, he is all business with a full chef's coat and hat.

Elhadji is attempting to evolve and update his approach, however. For example, even though he has had no publicist at Ponty, he has indeed interviewed two publicists. He concedes that because Terenga is a new and bigger restaurant, he needs to promote it more aggressively. His reasons for working so hard and for wanting to leave his stamp on New York are not unlike others that aspire to come America and attain the good life. He believes that America is absolutely a place presents the opportunity for people to put their stamps on it and make their experience truly their own.

He also speculates that perhaps part of his motivation stems from the fact that both his parents are dead. A typical day for Elhadji involves getting up at 5 am and going to his computer to answer email and check inventory levels. He then heads over the new restaurant to check on the construction work and assess its progress. His schedule involves a series of meetings with a range of people working the project such as publicists and social media figures. Around 4 pm, he goes to Ponty where things are being set up for the dinner shift. During dinner, Elhadji bounds through the restaurant, helping to expedite orders and making sure to greet customers. He completes his day at Manhattan home with a two-hour session on his computer to check email, stay in touch with vendors and distributors.

A variety of factors have helped propel this wave of African restaurants. Some are connected to immigration, a growing familiarity with this population, and an overall trend towards a more adventurous taste in eating. Serving African cuisine presents certain challenges. It can be harder to find African chefs due to the relative dearth of qualified people even in New York City. However, New York's African immigrants have made this simpler through networking and collaboration. However, other challenges such as the very high cost of living in all corners of New York, the very high cost of operating a business in the same and lack of money and resources for newer immigrants all present challenges. However, people like Elhadji have proven that even these details and challenges can be overcome.

However, experts see the rise of African restaurants as a natural progression. These new immigrants started small by operating out of their apartments or hotel rooms via the selling simpler food choices. After gaining some experience and profits, they commenced in getting their bearings as street vendors and this allowed them to expand. By starting small, they could determine what was popular with their clientele and with the average New Yorker's palate. Thus this allowed them to get their feet under them as business-people. It also gave them a time to make connections and to organize before paying rent and hiring employees. They learned to omit certain ingredients either because they were unable to source the ingredients here or import ingredients to keep the authentic tastes of the dishes.

One of Elhadji's fellow Senegalese that is doing quite well is Pierre Thiam, who is a Senegalese chef. He notes that his first restaurant was not a traditional one but he was able to make it work nonetheless. He says it manifested as a bistro and that the Bedford-Stuyvesant area, commonly referred to affectionately as Bed-Stuy (pronounced Bed-Sty), had not seen a place like before and it was actively embraced and enjoyed by the local populace. He says that many considered it a "destination" rather than just another place to eat. Pierre is a purist that wants to keep the purity and power of African cooking. He notes that French cooking use to be a gold standard but that it has tailed off over the last decade or so, at least in the United States. Further, he notes that a lot of the predecessors to African food in terms of coming to prominence including French, Chinese, Italian, Indian, Thai, Japanese and Mexican actually takes some or many queues from African food. Thiam insists that tamales, a food staple commonly embraced and used by Mexican and other Latino food types, actually originated in Africa. Further, he insists that Africans are the ones that brought rice to Africa and it's a valid question to ask where the United States and the rest of the West would be without rice. Certainly, the Chinese or some other food genre would have done so if Africa did not, but it is certainly still a valid question worthy of answering.

Papa Diagne at Jollo's at home in Brooklyn says he had never cooked in his life but he changed that by teaching and learning himself how to do so. He started with cooking traditional foods like rice and stew in America with his siblings. When he lost his job, he got requests from lots of friends to cook for them and this led to him getting the idea of opening up a restaurant. "I always have my kids and family here. I use to hold them and serve customers. Now they take orders and run the restaurant."?Diagne has since gone on to impart his knowledge and delegate some of his duties to his children. They do not yet cook but they do take orders and help in the administration of the restaurant not related to the making of the food. Something unique to restaurants in general but that Diagne can claim is the fact that he borrowed no money to get his restaurant going or keep it operating. He says this is a liberating fact as he is not on the hook with anyone in terms of money or resources owed back. He says it is true freedom to realize one's dream and not have to attribute one's progress to the deep pockets of a bank or another person. He adds that it helps him greatly to love what he does and that this keeps him going. However, while he knows much about cooking, he refuses to call himself a chef. He calls it art and showcasing the food in line with the types of food prevalent in Western culture.

Location continues to be a vital factor, says Ahmed Abdellah, owner of Accra Restaurant in Harlem: "The success-consistency! Once you master something the first time. And you duplicate it. People know you. Duplicate it. People will come back. People come from all over. Customers. Africans lift us. Our Harlem location attracts everyone. Caucasians come to try something different." Abdelleh goes on to echo a theme that is prevalent from several different owners, that being that inspectors and regulators can be exceedingly punitive and scruitinzing of restaurants. An example that Ahmed points to is the "A" grade he received from the food inspects and he boasts that he has to "bust his ass" to get that grade. He also has very high aspirations about the future of his restaurant, stating that he has a huge restaurant and that he could very well be the next McDonald's. Indeed, the family has three restaurants in total with one being in Harlem, one is in the main part of the Bronx while the other is in the College Avenue part of the Bronx. Ahmed is successful in his own right, though. Only 32 years old, he shared that he is a product of Monroe College for cooling and culinary skill. Like others engaged in his trade, he imports the authentic spices he wants to use including yagi and suya powder. The import in bulk as they often come in hundred pound bags and comes straight from Ghana. He refuses to use any other source for his spices. His store opened in Harlem in March 2013 and his father pushed him to be the face of the restaurant. However, he also pushes himself to be humble and a follower as is needed to learn and hone one's craft. Not unlike many other American-born business owners as well as immigrants open restaurants, Ahmed has embraced the marketing tactics of today including the use of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. However, he also notes that not unlike the other African food stops in the area, a lot of his business is word of mouth between friends and family of those that frequent his restaurant.

Akin Akinsaya, founder of New York African Restaurant Week, is also an African immigrant from Nigeria. Held most recently in April 2014, the celebration of African food in New York has only been around for two years. However, it has made a clear impact and has the buy-in of many of the African and other restaurants in the area including Elhadji's Ponty Bistro, Farafina Lounge, Tolani Wine Bar, Queen of Sheba, Accra Restaurant, and that is just in the Manhattan area. The most recent festival offered patrons a three course Prix Fixe meal at the reasonable price of $16.95 for lunch and less than $25 for dinner.

Because the African restaurants scattered around New York also cater to immigrant communities, they also tend to offer an array of unfamiliar flavors. For example, Sisay Kassa, founder of the Ethiopian restaurant Lalibela in Gramercy Park, notes that friends and family help import the right spices. "Ethiopians can tell the difference in spices. I get my spices from Ethiopia. I got my family to bring it." Examples of these spices include the two Ethiopian spice staples Berbere and Niter Kibbeh. Berbere is a mix of red chili, garlic, paprika and salt, among other spices. Niter Kibbeh is an enhanced and flavored butter. Other spices specific to Ethiopian cuisine are Alicha Kimem, Koseret, Beso Bela, Mitten Shiro, Korerima Ground and Mitmita. Mashood uses the same approach to stock Buka with the right ingredients to give his Nigerian clientele the true taste of home. It used to be extremely hard to get legitimate and authentic spices from Africa into the United States but the explosion of global e-commerce including even natively American vendors and websites like Amazon.com have allowed sellers from all over the world to sell their authentic wares all over the world.

Like her brethren, Kassa got started fairly recently, opening the place in 2012. Kassa has always loved to cook and was left wanting after seeing the wares and options at Kassa's sister's restaurant. Kassa had coveted a place in Harlem but deemed the area to be too cost prohibitive. Instead, she settled on a location in Midtown and decided to commit to the long haul in the form of a ten-year lease and a five-year option beyond that. Her place took six months to renovate. Possession started in January 2012 but the place did not open until June that same year. Despite this protacted time frame and the relative infancy of the existing restaurant, Kassa plans to open a new restaurant in about five years, but this time in Harlem.

Yet another face in the African food sphere in New York is Lookman Mashood, owner of Buka Restaurant in Brooklyn. Opened in 2010, it is run the passionate Mashood. He explains that is actually quite difficult to teach someone to cook and it is not as simple as just telling people how much to put in and when. Instead, he insists that is something that you just have to "know" and that it has to be done based on conditions and progress with each cooking of the meal. Like Kassa, he would prefer to be in a different borough, although his preference is where Kassa is now, that being Midtown. Also like Kassa, he sees the current place as a beginning although his timeline to open his second place in roughly five years which would be nearly a decade, rather than just five years, like Kassa. Mashood cites the common themes of overhead beign high and the plight of keeping an African place open given the non-mainstream status of African food. However, he also concedes that it is only a matter of time before African places enjoy the same niche as Italian and Chinese places do right now. Mashood actually caters to the Nigerian population which is one part of Africa that is not highly represented, even in New York City. Indeed, most of the cooks are themselves Nigerian or West African. Mashood is a very active participant in the daily operations of the restaurant including the kitchen. He is sometimes the only cook on duty and he claims he can make every item on the menu on demand.

Kassa touts her strong link to the surrounding community including the church-goers and others. Kassa loves that people can go on Yelp to find the place or see the reviews of others that have already been there and/or are seeking out an African experience or something new in general. Kassa follows the pattern of many of the other African restaurants in that there are a lot of different options including vegetarian, corn beef and lamb. Similar to the aforementioned Ahmed, Kassa takes to social media as well but prefers the use of American Express rewards and Groupon over Facebook and Instagram.

Akin Akinsanya can explain the success and phenomenon of so many of these African restaurants [Include quotes from interview] The impetus for the celebration of African cuisines is that food is seen as a logical natural of the culture and of the community and the entire work in pushing forth the African culinary arts means sharing that history and background with others who might totally be unacquainted with it. However, many African cultures and, by extension, restaurants are blended with foods from other parts of the world. Akin explains "we see people reacting to it. Now there a ton of Caribbean people here. They started Caribbean restaurant week. We take initiative and highlight our cultures." Akin continues by pointing out that a Chinese restaurant, if not several, seem to exist on every block and would like to see the same thing for African restaurants. Akin is involved in the prior-mentioned New York African Restaurant Week, which is now held on a biannual basis. New York African Restaurant Week promotes food and culinary creativity, but is also tries to give others a taste of history and understanding about African taste in the diaspora. "African cuisine, just like culture all over the world, there is a place where cultures intertwine and intersect and different things happen at the point where they intersect," Akinsaya adds.

For instance, Lamia Funti is the owner of La Souk in Greenwich Village. Lamia had run a prior restaurant location from 2001 to 2010 but opened her second place in 2008. The new place is run by Lamia, her husband and her brother. She touts it as the only Moroccan place that segues into a lounge. She started quite small at 600 square feet but that has increase nearly ten-fold in just a year. Lamia explains that her "customers are diverse. Some are famous. Everyone comes together and I want to keep it that way. The trend of people is interest in food." The Moroccan fare offered by La Souk keeps away from being too spicy but instead favors sweetness and strong flavor. Not unlike the tenacity and pathway of Elhadji, Akin asserts that all of her business is word of mouth either online or directly from person to person. Also similar to Elhadji is the fact that the name of the restaurant is centered on something true to the culture and feel of the source country. In the case of El Souk, the name refers to markets that sell spices.

Mona Musa is another restaurateur who has had a profound influence on the development of new African restaurants. Mona plans to open a Somalian restaurant in Harlem within the next few months. An event like New York African Restaurant Week can help her with networking and learning about recipes particularly useful in New York. As one restaurant owner explains, New York City restaurant owners "face a ton of bureaucracy to work around." Mona is speaking personally as there are challenges facing Mona's restaurant including procurement of funding. However, Mona already has two other locations in Toronto, Canada and Minnesota. Mona's cuisine is a blend of Somalian, Tanzanian and Kenyan. Mona cut teeth as a restaurateur by growing up in a family business in Kenya.