A restaurant serving fast-casual West African street food will open this week at the miXt food hall in Brentwood.

Spice Kitchen West African Grill will hold a soft-launch Wednesday and Thursday and officially open doors on Friday, Oct. 1. The eatery was previously located at Mess Hall, a restaurant incubator and ghost kitchen space located near the Brookland neighborhood of D.C., where it opened last October.

“We initially started as a ghost kitchen during the pandemic, but it had its limitations,” owner Olumide Shokubi told the Hyattsville Wire. “We wanted a space where we can interact with our customers and establish a better Spice Kitchen experience.”

Spice Kitchen’s menu includes items like fried wings, grilled shrimp and chicken; side dishes such as jollof rice, fried plantains and spinach Efo-Riro, a popular Nigerian vegetable stew; and desserts like puff puffs, which are sweet fried dough balls.

Shokubi, a first-generation Nigerian-American who was born and raised in Prince George’s County where he currently resides, focuses on suya, a spicy meat skewer popular in West Africa.

Dishes are served on food-safe parchment paper that look like a newspaper, which Shokubi said is a play on how suya is served in Nigeria, which is in actual newspapers.

“We started Spice Kitchen to be able to appeal to everyone and create access to West African flavors while demystifying any common misconceptions about African food,” Shokubi added.

Beginning Friday, once they officially open, hours of operation will be Wednesday and Thursday, 12:30 – 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 12:30 – 10 p.m. and Sunday 1 – 8 p.m.

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