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Sweet potatoes, candied yams, mac n’ cheese, cornbread, collard greens and crispy catfish are just some of the offerings at the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Sweet Home Café.
While Executive Chef Ramin Coles said he doesn’t have just one favorite dish, he said the seasonally rotating menu is meant to be shared.
“Don’t come alone, and split it up,” he said. “We try to meet everyone’s expectations. We want everybody to be able to come in and eat.”
In the concourse level of the museum, you will often see large crowds coiled in a line waiting to get in. Inside the cafe, visitors sit cafeteria-style, surrounded by mementos of African American history, including an entire wall with an image of the four original men who started the Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins.
The cafe’s menu caters to multiple kinds of dietary restrictions — from vegan collard greens, which are typically served with smoked turkey or ham hocks, to “some solid vegetables that you can build a meal around,” Coles told WTOP.
Coles, who has been the cafe’s head chef for seven years, said he’s always loved to cook and has been doing so ever since he was a teenager.
While still in high school, Coles studied culinary arts before moving on to the now-closed L’Academie de Cuisine in Maryland. He studied under D.C.-based chef Robert Kinkead and worked at the now-closed Kinkead’s restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue. He also competed in the globally celebrated Bocuse d’Or chef competition in 1998.
After all that success, Coles now prioritizes having a good work/life balance, taking a few days off and relying on his “wonderful sous chef who really picks up the slack,” he said.
Coles has taken all the skills he’s acquired over the years into cultivating creative menu options that align with the museum’s exhibits.
“A couple of years ago, we did a program on Afrofuturism, and we developed an entire menu based off … where food could go. We also looked at how, if history was a little different, instead of the world coming to Africa and taking from Africa, if Africa went out to the world and was considered more of an exploratory culture … how the flavors and techniques could merge,” he said.
He added there’s always something happening at the cafe and they have “the ability and flexibility with working with the museum to do a lot of cool projects.”
Coles noted there’s no competition between the D.C. area’s museums’ restaurants and cafes and that they’re “more of a family.”
“Everyone’s portfolio is geared to their museum,” he said. “We’re not just chicken tenders and French fries. People come to museums, especially when you go out of town … you think that it’s just geared toward kids and burgers, and we do have those things, but we really pride ourselves on cooking from scratch.”
Among their multiple food stations highlighting Black culinary history, one dish Coles boasted about is their 24-hour brined fried chicken with a proprietary spice and herb blend based on a recipe from his mother. The stations — Agricultural South, desserts, off the grill and a chef highlight station — provide vast examples of the contributions of Black Americans to the national culinary landscape.
“Every year, we’re always looking to innovate and top what we did the year before. We do a lot of food with not the biggest staff. A lot of people think, because of the quantity we serve, the amount of people we serve, that we have this massive staff. We really don’t. We have some really talented people who work here,” he said.
On a regular day, the cafe may have only eight chefs producing food for up to 1,500 visitors, Coles said.
He added that, in dealing with such large crowds day in and day out, the cafe tries “to be as consistent as possible.”
“A lot of times, we’ll have people come and they’re like, ‘Hey, this is not how my mom makes it!’ We do our best to give a consistent product that’s not middle of the road,” Coles said.
To celebrate Black History Month, the museum will highlight celebrated chefs from across the country twice a week to takeover their menus based on their heritage. The events are free to attend, but timed-entry passes are required.
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