Sign up to stay connected
Get the top stories of the day around the DMV.
Dreams can come true with the recent announcement that Chef Kwame Onwuachi returns to D.C. to create a new dining experience at Salamander Washington, the hotel owned by business leader Sheila Johnson. The restaurant will open later this year. Onwuachi currently owns Tatiana, rated as one of the best restaurants in New York City. He is also a best-selling author of several books, including the memoir “Notes from a Young Black Chef” and the cookbook “My America: Recipes from a Young Black Chef.”
Onwuachi was executive chef at “Kith and Kin,” a successful D.C. restaurant. Like many dining establishments, that restaurant hit a rough patch with the pandemic. He left that restaurant expressing his desire for Black ownership of a restaurant, which was not the case at “Kith and Kin.”
“The time is right to return to D.C., and I can’t think of a more appropriate location to open a new restaurant that speaks to the character and lineage of D.C. than at this storied Salamander property,” said Onwuachi in a statement from Salamander. “As a child, I spent summers in D.C. with my grandfather, a professor of Pan-African studies at Howard University, who shared his passion for the city with me. I fell in love and can’t wait to return.”
The new restaurant builds on an existing relationship between Johnson and Onwuachi as they created “The Family Reunion,” a celebration of diversity within the hospitality industry. The event returns this year to Salamander Resort in Middleburg, Virginia, from August 17-20.