Inside Gourmega, a secret Greenwich Village restaurant that’s an all-out celebration of African diasporic culture

Gourmega interior. Image by Seth Caplan

Wallpaper* Magazine’s Adrian Madlener visits Gourmega:

At the centre of Gourmega, a new restaurant in New York, there’s a single long table, topped with interconnected circles of Nubian alabaster. Guests sit around its unusually contoured edge on walnut chairs that, when placed back-to-back, resemble the arches of The Bronx’s High Bridge.

But Gourmega isn’t in the Bronx. In fact, it’s located in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The choice was an intentional one: Gourmega sits in what was known more than three centuries ago as Land of the Blacks – the first free African settlement in North America. Later on, it played host to many Black supper clubs.

Such references are at the heart of Gourmega, which was designed by award-winning Niamey, Niger; Zurich and New York-based Nigerien architect Mariam Issoufou for celebrated culinary collective Ghetto Gastro. The restaurant marks Ghetto Gastro’s first permanent, self-operated eatery and is a holistic celebration of both African and African diasporic culture. Every detail, colourway and material – as well as a closely curated seasonal chef’s tasting menu – nods to this rich source of inspiration.

Read the rest of the article here.