Las Vegas will bet on almost anything, except, historically, Black culinary talent at its most iconic address. But Chef Kwame Onwuachi is changing the odds on the roughly 4-mile stretch of South Las Vegas Boulevard with his highly anticipated restaurant, Maroon.
When Maroon opens later this year inside the SAHARA Las Vegas, it will be one of the few Black-led restaurants on the Las Vegas Strip. A few steps away, Chef Antwan Ellis is making his own mark as the executive chef at NFL legend Emmitt Smith’s restaurant, Emmitt’s Vegas. Together, these two are part of a small but growing wave of Black culinary talent claiming space in one of the world’s most famous destinations.
Most people are familiar with Chef Onwuachi, a culinary visionary and James Beard Award winner, for his Afro-Caribbean restaurant Tatiana in New York City. Tatiana is his love letter to New York City, inspired by his “Afro-Caribbean-by-way-of-the-Bronx heritage.” Tatiana is named after his beloved sister, who looked after him while their mother worked as a chef in the Big Apple.
Others may know Chef Onwuachi for his other restaurant, Dōgon in Washington, D.C., which honors his West African Dogon tribe lineage. The restaurant serves vibrant cuisine through an Afro-Caribbean lens, drawing on Onwuachi’s unique Nigerian, Jamaican, Trinidadian, and Creole background.
On the Netflix series, “Chef’s Table,” Onwuachi highlights his journey of defying the culinary odds by running his restaurants while celebrating and introducing people to Afro-Caribbean cuisine. Now, he’s taking his passion and knack for pushing cuisine boundaries out West.
“Expanding my restaurant portfolio outside of the East Coast is a huge milestone in my career, and I’m thankful to be welcomed into such a dynamic culinary community, located right in the heart of Vegas,” said Chef Onwuachi.
From Jamaica’s Blue Mountains To The Las Vegas Strip
As an artist and storyteller at heart, Chef Onwuachi will tell a powerful narrative of Caribbean cuisine through bold, authentic flavors that come to life in imaginative new ways.
As explained in an excerpt from his book, “My America: Recipes From A Young Black Chef,” Onwuachi explained the significance of the name Maroon. He explains that during the 17th century, when the British took rule of the Spanish occupiers of Jamaica, the Spaniards set many enslaved Africans free. Instead of submitting to the British, many of those freed found refuge in the Blue Mountains, where they later became known as Maroons.
Life was far from easy for the Maroons, who eked out a living through subsistence farming, Onwuachi explained. What the Maroons had in the mountains was the Jamaican pepper, along with Thai bird chili, wild thyme, and other herbs that grew wild. Jerk was born under these circumstances, and “it lives still two hundred years later, in the stalls that line Boston Beach in Jamaica … in the shops of Flatbush … North Bronx in New York and Croydon … Brixton in London and wherever else the Jamaican diaspora has reached,” Onwuachi writes.
Maroon is expected to introduce the history of jerk and Jamaican cooking to a new audience while elevating the Las Vegas steakhouse.
“Bringing Maroon, a Caribbean Steakhouse, to SAHARA Las Vegas is an incredible opportunity for me to honor my Jamaican heritage, provide exciting flavors, and tell my story to an entirely new audience,” he said, adding, “It’s beyond overdue.”
It’s still unclear what will be on the menu. However, Onwuachi and his team are encouraging people to join the interest list to stay in the loop on opening details and more. The restaurant is expected to open in early 2026.
