ChòpnBlok’s First Standalone Houston Restaurant Is a Love Letter to West Africa By Houston Eater

With new cocktails, artwork, and dishes, ChòpnBlok will kick off Nigerian Independence Day with the official opening of its first standalone restaurant in Montrose

AtAt ChòpnBlok’s new Montrose restaurant, servers will zip around delivering Old Fashioneds garnished with caramelized plantains and bowls of red stew and yassa curry. The room’s warm lighting will be just bright enough for diners to take in thoughtful design details, like a vinyl display featuring Solange and Sade and statement wallpaper depicting scenes of African community. Behind the bar will sit a deeply curated selection of African spirits. The menu, which builds on what owner Ope Amosu started at his food stall in Post Houston, will offer the earthy, unforgettable flavors of the West African diaspora.

For Amosu, centering West African cuisine and culture in Houston has always been an intentional progression. After consulting a handful of Nigerian home cooks, the 2024 James Beard Award semifinalist debuted ChòpnBlok first as a pop-up in 2018 before expanding it into a successful 670-square-foot food stall in Downtown’s Post Houston in 2021. Two years later, he followed it up with the inaugural year of Chopd and Stewed Festival — one of the largest Nigerian Independence Day celebrations in the country, which offered a stacked lineup of Black chefs and African entrepreneurs, as well as cultural activities to showcase the breadth and significance of African culture.

This year, Amosu has continued the mission and celebration with ChòpnBlok’s first standalone brick-and-mortar in Montrose — a fast-casual but fully realized love letter to the African diaspora. “It’s to really help people become more familiar with West African cuisine,” he says.

ChòpnBlok’s Montrose location offers a menu that celebrates West African cuisines staples with a modern flare.

After hesitation to serve up red stew,  ChòpnBl?k owner Ope Amosu says he finally found a recipe that would live up to experience diners’s expectations.

ChòpnBl?k owner Ope Amosu says the new Black Star Blok pairing of yassa curry, Ikoyi shrimp, and waakye fried rice has become a favorite for those who’ve tried it.

Located at 507 Westheimer Road, the Montrose restaurant will officially open on Tuesday, October 1, which marks Nigerian Independence Day. The restaurant’s larger kitchen and ample seating (ChòpnBlok accommodates just over 80 people between its dining room and bar and 20 on its outdoor patio) will allow more diners to experience the hybrid counter-to-table service. Amosu compares the model to popular Houston restaurants like Tiny Boxwoods or Loro, where diners can go to the counter to order dishes to-go or takeout or for dine-in service, which staff will deliver to their tables).

ChòpnBlok’s design — led by Zainob Amao, the founder of AMAO Creative and ChòpnBlok’s long-time creative partner, and Gin Braverman of Houston-based hospitality design firm Gin Design Group — fosters a vibrant and visual “cultural crossroads” of Africans, African Americans, and people of the broader diaspora. The restaurant walls are draped in custom wallpaper by Nigerian artist Uzo Njoku, and tributes to aso oke, a traditional West African woven fabric, envelop the restaurant’s back bar and community table. Bookshelves, filled with colorful and bold coffee table books and cookbooks from Third Ward’s Black-owned bookstore Kindred Stories, emanate Black joy, and handmade African products, artwork, prints, and accessories — some of which are created and curated by Houston-based shop Root to Home — are sprinkled throughout the bar and dining area.

The food is similarly intentional. Diners familiar with the Post Houston stall will find favorites like the Trad Blok pairing, a curry bowl with smoked jollof rice and chicken, what Amosu refers to as the “African starter pack” — but the chef has taken these bowls a step further. “I always felt like there was a gap, that some of the most fundamental aspects of the cuisine I grew up with weren’t reflected on the [original] menu,” Amosu says. In tribute to Nigerian red stew, a spice-laden soupy dish often made with palm oil, fermented locust beans, and chiles, Amosu offers his version of buka, a West African okra red stew served with steamed rice and beans, tender boneless short rib, and plantain. “We’re going to make people who grew up on this food feel like they’re having this from home,” he says.

Amosu also finally centers suya, a popular street food consisting of marinated, skewered beef that holds the same cultural significance in Nigeria as the burger in the United States, according to Amosu. The chef avoided tackling such a foundational dish for some time: “I know the culture is super passionate about their suya, and we actually wanted to serve suya to taste back home,” says Amosu. He sourced the traditional yaji peanut pepper spice from Nigeria and closely mirrored the recipe from Nigeria’s Lagos Polo Club, which Amosu says has the best version of the dish and inspired its name — Polo Club Suya.

ChòpnBlok’s menu, which extends into broader African cuisine, isn’t afraid to be irreverent, featuring a reimagining of the colonial Scotch egg with a Southern twist on deviled eggs, plus a prominent through-line of plantain featured in nearly every course. The ripe, sweet, and often stewed starchy, banana-like fruit makes a noticeable appearance in most of the Blok pairings, including ChòpnBlok’s Black Star bowl, a comforting combination of waakye fried rice, plated with creamy yassa curry and a topping of Ikoyi shrimp that pays homage to coastal Ghana. For dessert, warm plantain bread offers a sweet, balanced ending on a plate of creme anglaise with sliced strawberry.

Drinks are also a canvas for sticky, caramelized plantains: A decadent spin on the Old Fashioned features spiced plantain blended with bourbon, palm sugar, and angostura bitters — garnished with a fried and bruleed plantain. The Calabash Colada, a West African cross between a pina colada and golden milk, is a rum-loaded drink made with roasted plantain, pèbé or calabash nutmeg, coconut milk, and turmeric.

ChòpnBlok’s bar is a showcase of African and African American spirits and art.

ChòpnBlok is enveloped in African prints and Black culture.

ChòpnBlok has tapped Third Ward Black-owned bookstore Kindred Stories to provide a selection of cookbooks and coffee table books that channel African culture and Black joy.

ChòpnBlok’s full drinks menu showcases African spirits like no other West African restaurant in Houston has before. Alexis Mijares, a mixologist and consultant from Split Base Creative, says she collaborated with Amosu to develop a cocktail lineup that prioritizes African, African American, and minority-owned spirit companies (in that order). There’s African agave by Sango, the hemp seed-based Highway Vodka produced by Texas’s first Black-owned distillery, and the South African-born Bayab Gin, which makes its way into ChòpnBlok’s signature frozen gin and juice.

“We wanted to make sure when we were curating that there were all of those pockets for every drinker,” says Mijares, who transforms classic margaritas with flavors like strawberry-chile and tamarind, and sidecars by using cognacs infused with chocolate rooibos tea, orange liqueur, lemon, and creme de cacao.

Sommelier Danny Davis curated a wine list that Amosu describes as “very black, very female, very intentional,” including picks from Chapelton Vineyards in Washington, Texas, and Aslina Wines by Ntsiki Biyela, one of the first winemakers in South Africa. Nonalcoholic beverages also put African flavors centerstage, with the Oga Palmer, a mix of African hibiscus tea and lemonade, and the Gold Coast Cooler, a sparkling combination of pineapple, lime, mango, and ginger.

In the true spirit of ChòpnBlok, Amosu plans to use the Montrose flagship as a gathering space for events that amplify West African culture, including live music, panel discussions, and special dinners in the spirit of his pop-up origins and festival. Brunch, which channels ChòpnBlok’s earlier Brunch After Dark pop-up series, will also return, according to Mijares, with innovative dishes and drinks like a suya bloody mary. The restaurant plans to further educate the community by launching its Smallchòps newsletter to spotlight West African creatives and influencers from around the world and to give updates about ChòpnBlok happenings, including its reservations-only grand opening preview party on Saturday, September 28.

“We’re bringing more to the Montrose community than just food,” Amosu says.

Following its October 1 opening, ChòpnBlok Montrose will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, and from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

ChòpnBlok’s Montrose location debuts a new menu, which features small plates like peppery Camaroon shrimp, veggies pies, and perfectly charred suya.

ChòpnBlok’s cocktails are a showcase of African and Black-owned spirit companies.

Diners at ChòpnBlok can take in West African cuisine, culture, and cocktails all in one place.

For owners Ope and Janelle Amosu, ChòpnBlok’s new Montrose location has been part of a vision to further provide a platform for West African cuisine and culture.

ChòpnBlok’s standalone restaurant in Montrose will serve as its flagship.

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Source: www.houston.eater.com