A chef from North Philadelphia is coming home from Washington, D.C. to cook on Rittenhouse Square. Martel Stone, chef de cuisine at Dogon, joins Chef RJ Smith on Sunday, November 15, for the Ocho Supper Club Dogon dinner, a one-night menu that launches Ocho’s new Around the Table guest chef series.

Dinner is in the Lacroix dining room at the Rittenhouse Hotel, 210 West Rittenhouse Square, with seatings at 5 and 8 p.m. The price is $150 per person plus tax and gratuity, and an optional wine pairing is $75.

Reservations are on OpenTable, where tickets are prepaid for parties of one to six. They opened October 16, and Ocho says its dinners are released in limited quantities and often sell out quickly.

What’s on the Ocho Supper Club Dogon Menu

The menu includes Madai Crudo with hibiscus, concord grape and salsa verde, and Provisions, a plate of smoked pumpkin, lion’s mane mushroom and black truffle. There is a Pepper Scallop with gumbo dashi, smoked toro and green tomato, and a Jerk-Spiced Lamb in a pepperpot reduction with burgundy truffle and mustard greens. The cooking draws on flavors both kitchens share, from jerk spice to pepperpot.

Dessert is Grilled Banana Cake with Haitian coffee caramel, coconut and shiso. Each chef also contributes an amuse-bouche, so the Ocho Supper Club Dogon evening starts with one taste from Philadelphia and one from D.C. Cocktails are available, and OpenTable lists a business casual dress code.

Dogon is chef Kwame Onwuachi’s restaurant at 1330 Maryland Avenue SW in Washington, and its cooking looks at Afro-Caribbean food through his Nigerian, Jamaican, Trinidadian and Creole roots, as the restaurant describes it. Onwuachi is a James Beard Award winner who was featured on Chef’s Table.

Dogon also has a listing in the Michelin Guide, which calls its wine list “especially thoughtful.” That bodes well for the optional $75 pairing at the Ocho Supper Club Dogon dinner, and the cocktail offerings give you another way to build the evening.

Smith runs Ocho as an Afro-Caribbean supper club that pairs diaspora flavors with fine-dining technique, learned in kitchens that include Core by Clare Smyth in London and Californios in San Francisco. We covered his move into the Lacroix dining room and his September run at Scampi in Queen Village, and this dinner is the next step in that run of Ocho collaborations.

The Ocho Supper Club Dogon night opens the Around the Table series. Miss Lily’s of New York follows on Sunday, December 20, with details to come. Ocho takes reservations 30 days ahead, so that booking window should open around November 20.

Ocho is also adding A Taste of Ocho, a four-course tasting menu for $100, starting Sunday, October 25, alongside the full $160 tasting menu. That gives first-timers an easier way in before the guest dinners begin.

Come Hungry to the Ocho Supper Club Dogon Dinner

Picture the room in mid-November, with the square dark outside by the 8 p.m. seating and smoked pumpkin and black truffle on the table. Then comes lamb in a pepperpot reduction and a banana cake finished with Haitian coffee caramel. Bring a friend, or five, and come hungry. A Philadelphia kitchen opening its doors to a Philly-born chef from D.C. is the kind of Sunday you will talk about on Monday.

About Post Author

Allan Lane

Philadelphia born and bred, Allan Lane is the Publisher and Editor in Chief of digital magazines. He launched his first publication, SportBikes Inc Magazine in 2010, followed by dosage MAGAZINE in 2019. Recently, Allan launched his third online publication, Club For Man. As a journalist, Allan covers fashion, lifestyle, culture, art, and motorcycles.

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