Eric Adjepong finally has a restaurant of his own, and the Michelin Guide already noticed

Eric Adjepong finally has a restaurant of his own, and the Michelin Guide already noticed

For years, Eric Adjepong has been one of those Washington chefs you could point to and say: watch this guy. A Bronx native and the son of Ghanaian immigrants, he made his name as a Top Chef finalist and then spent time in the city cooking under Kwame Onwuachi at Kith and Kin before running his own catering and private-chef operation around the DMV. He had the profile, the training, and the audience. What he didn't have was a room of his own.

He has one now. Elmina opened in February 2025 at 2208 14th Street NW, in the former Seven Reasons space on the Upper 14th Street corridor, and it spent its first several months quietly filling seats and building word of mouth. Then, this fall, the Michelin Guide added it to the Washington DC selection, one of eight new additions the guide announced ahead of its November ceremony in Philadelphia.

The name is not accidental. Elmina is a coastal port city in Ghana, and its history is layered: it was a center of the transatlantic slave trade, and it is also a place of life, culture, and ongoing Ghanaian identity. Adjepong has said the name is meant to hold all of that at once, not to look away from the difficult history but to claim the full story.

Two ways to eat

The Michelin Guide describes Elmina as a place with "wide-reaching appeal," where guests choose between a multicourse tasting menu or an à la carte bar menu, the latter a deliberate nod to Ghana's popular counter-service-style "chop bars." That dual format is one of the more thoughtful structural choices Adjepong has made: the bar side keeps the room accessible on a weeknight, while the tasting delivers a full arc of West African flavors refracted through a contemporary fine-dining lens.

The prix-fixe menu, available Thursday through Sunday, is priced at $265 per person. That is serious money, and the kitchen earns it. The tasting moves through scallop crudo with cucumber granita and coconut broth, braised goat with fufu (pounded plantain and cassava) finished with a tableside pour of creamy, deep orange-red nkati nkwan sauce, and closes with malva pudding cake alongside sweet pickled apricot and vanilla gelato.

The à la carte bar menu is where the room gets looser. Snacks include tartare, okra fries, and pork belly. From the full menu: kelewele, which are spicy fried sweet plantains, come in at $13, and smashed avocados with serrano, herbs, and plantain chips round out the lighter bites. The chofi, fried turkey tails with mojo onions, dawadawa aioli, shito, and hot sauce, lands at $21 and is exactly the kind of bar snack that makes you stay for another round. On the cocktail list, the Mine Castle Daiquiri runs $18, built on Ten to One white rum and San Zanj Haitian rum with malted barley, pineapple, and lime.

The anchor dishes

Two plates have defined early conversation about Elmina. The Jollof Duck Pot ($85) is the signature: smoked jollof with tamarind-glazed confit duck leg, duck breast, duck egg, shito, and roasted tomato salad. It is a generous, technically demanding dish that puts jollof rice, one of West Africa's most beloved and argued-over preparations, at the center of a fine-dining context without mocking it.

Egusi Stew Dumplings are listed alongside the Jollof Duck Pot as a signature, reimagining West African classics with fine-dining technique. For those who want the seafood version of the pot, the Seafood Jollof Pot runs $95, built on smoked jollof with prawns, scallops, and mussels, finished with roasted tomato salad.

The room

The atmosphere pairs warm Ghanaian hospitality with contemporary design, accented by natural woods and art. Guests can eat at indoor tables or on a cozy outdoor patio. The 14th Street address, at the edge of the U Street corridor, puts Elmina in a stretch that has cycled through a lot of ambitious concepts over the past decade. Seven Reasons, the Latin American restaurant that previously held the space, was well-regarded and still closed. Adjepong's version of the room feels different in intention: it is personal in a way that Seven Reasons, for all its quality, was not.

The biography behind the food

Adjepong, a Bronx native and son of Ghanaian immigrants, built his public profile through appearances on Top Chef and Food Network. He has deep ties to DC, having cooked at Kwame Onwuachi's Kith and Kin at The Wharf before running a private-chef and catering operation in the area. Elmina is his first solo restaurant, and that biography is embedded in the menu: the Ghanaian pantry (shito, fufu, nkati nkwan, kelewele) is not used as decoration but as structure.

The Michelin recognition arrived this fall, with Elmina among DC spots eyed for a star or Bib Gourmand designation ahead of the 2025 guide ceremony. Eight DC restaurants joined the Guide in that wave, but Elmina drew particular attention given Adjepong's profile and the relative scarcity of modern West African fine dining in a city that, for all its international population, has been slow to bring that cuisine into the upper tier.

What you need to know before you go

Elmina is open Wednesday and Thursday 5 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 5 to 11 p.m., and Sunday 4 to 9 p.m. It is closed Monday and Tuesday. Reservations are recommended, particularly on weekends. For Friday and Saturday reservations for parties larger than four, availability is limited, and the restaurant asks that you call directly if you cannot find a suitable online time. The phone is (202) 519-1544.

The prix-fixe is Thursday through Sunday only. Bar-menu dining is available throughout the week. If you go on a Wednesday, the bar menu is your entire option, which is not a hardship.

Sources

• Elmina official website
• Elmina menu
• Michelin Guide: Elmina listing
• TripAdvisor: Elmina
• BlackPulse HQ: Elmina profile
• PoPville: Elmina announcement