Almeda Chef Danielle Harris Creates Culinary Music Inspired by Solange

Music by Solange is the soundtrack for the life of a chef in Washington, D.C. The singer’s song, “Almeda,” inspired the name of the Afro-fusion restaurant Danielle Harris opened on Halloween in 2023.

“The big person I’m waiting to come is Solange Knowles. It is heavily inspired by her in terms of curation, design, aesthetics, and name,” says the owner of Almeda.

Lyrics from the song on Solange’s fourth studio album might best represent the spirit of the 18-seat Almeda, where Harris serves flavor-packed creations. The lines “These are Black-owned things, Black faith still can’t be washed away” echo the chef’s belief in her culinary visions.

“For me, it’s like I get to play and cook in a way that I’ve never done before, and hopefully, people like it. It’s going well so far,” Chef Harris comments.

Singing Praises for Almeda

It is going so well that Almeda’s owner has one of the nation’s top food critics singing praises about the chef’s cooking. The Washington Post’s Tom Sietsema visited twice, the first time with three other people.

“Usually, when someone comes with a party of four, they can order the whole menu, and it’s not overkill. Our menu is very small. It is only ten items,” Harris adds.

Sietsema wrote about Almeda’s food “celebrating Black culture and identity,” as Knowles’s song about a Texas town near her family’s home does. The food critic ate at Almeda a second time before writing a glowing review that is music to the owner’s ears.

“One of my mentors, who is also a chef in D.C., told me Sietsema never orders dessert. He actually ordered both desserts to go. That was kind of surprising,” says Harris.

The Post article featured one of those desserts. An interior photo shows diners in the small space, including the chef’s parents sitting in a corner. “I told myself I wanted the restaurant to receive national recognition in the first year. I didn’t expect the Washington Post review in the first three to four months, so that was really exciting,” Harris comments.

Harris agrees that positive press has helped make the Northwest D.C. restaurant a sought-after destination.

“On Halloween, we had one whole customer. It was really sweet. He tipped us a hundred dollars. Now, you need a reservation to get in unless you time it just right.”

Almeda’s arrival at 828 Upshur Street NW, which has seen a turnover of at least five restaurants, fills a void in the Petworth neighborhood. Harris hopes the creative spirit she has infused into the space will continue to attract loyal patrons.

She designed the décor and the menu. The chef cooks all the appetizers and entrees from scratch in the little kitchen on a four-burner stove. “The vision was that I wanted my shot at a full-service concept, and I wanted people to try my food in a way beyond the café,” says Harris.

The café is Little Food Studio (LFS), the eatery Harris opened with executive pastry chef Chinnell Watson in 2021. Its former location across the street on Upshur made it convenient to turn the shop into a prep kitchen and production space for Almeda.

The restaurateur recognizes a dinner-only place with so few seats might not survive post-pandemic. So the two partners operate LFS Café at Almeda from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., serving in-house pastries, sausage rolls, Tuscan street sandwiches, salads, coffee, tea and lemonade.

Harris shares her strategy. “I think what we’re doing, hopefully, the café by day and the restaurant by night, is our secret sauce. It’s keeping the lights on and people coming in and out.”

Creating Culinary Music at Almeda

The Afro-fusion cooking Harris loves is the main attraction for people vying for dinner reservations at Almeda. Her culinary approach is an amalgamation of her Midwest upbringing, culinary experiences and world travels.

In 2021, she catered an event at Fort Monroe in Virginia that solidified her commitment to food inspired by the African diaspora. “I already had a plan for Almeda with the name and some of the themes. But it wasn’t explicitly Afro-fusion. It was more of the signature dishes I had cooked over the years,” recalled Almeda’s chef-owner.

Underground Kitchen is a Richmond organization that promotes chefs of color, women and LGBTQ+ members working in the culinary industry. The group hosts one-night-only dining experiences that bring people together for a sense of occasion and community.

Founder and CEO Micheal Sparks asked Harris to plan a menu motivated by watching the Peabody Award-winning Netflix docuseries “High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America.” The dinner raised funds for a monument commemorating the first enslaved Africans brought to Virginia and enslaved Africans who gained freedom there.

“Watching “High on the Hog” and focusing my attentions there as far as the culinary journey of the event took me to a menu that I had never cooked before,” says Harris. “It was fun and different from what I normally cook. That was very impactful for me as a young Black woman.”

As a little Black girl, Harris picked collard greens with her grandmother. She learned about cooking Southern dishes and preparing some Midwestern specialties. The catfish and spaghetti on Almeda’s menu is a nostalgic nod to a family dinner she enjoyed growing up in Cleveland.

The spaghetti sauce is meatless and the catfish is crispy. “We almost chicken-fry the fish. We use buttermilk, hot sauce and our fish fry seasoning. We make all our own spice blends. We fry that little piece of catfish in its own fryer, so it comes out perfect every time,” the chef declares.

The fusion of cuisines from the restaurant’s kitchen reflects the harmony Harris discovers by combining flavors from the diaspora. Her jollof risotto is one of those dishes. “It’s technically not a risotto because there is no wine, cheese or shallots. It’s not jollof because it is Arborio rice. It’s a creamy dish that is not cooked with a crispy bottom. It’s also vegan,” the chef explains.

Almeda’s spicy awaze galbi ribs is another favorite entrée of the chef and her patrons. Harris describes the dish as a play on Ethiopian food and Korean BBQ she’s eaten in D.C. “It’s a house-cooked Korean-style short rib. We make our own awaze sauce with imported berbere. You eat them like lettuce wraps, kind of Korean BBQ style.”

Chef Watson’s desserts are made from original recipes and also combine different flavors and culinary techniques. “I can tell Chinnell the flavors that I want out of something. She’ll run with it and come up with something fantastic,” says Harris. “I told her I wanted a coconut cake for dessert. She made this crazy coconut mini-bundt cake with a coconut fudge and white chocolate, raspberry heart.”

Almeda’s owner gives her Trinidadian pastry chef, a Johnson & Wales graduate, credit for helping her develop more professionally, especially with the organizational structure needed to create full menus.

Harris appreciates how sound management frees her to take more risks in the kitchen. “For me, it is blurring the lines and realizing there are no rules. If you treat the food with respect and your flavors are where they need to be, then you are good.”

Following a Culinary Path to Chicago and D.C.

Chef Harris brings a couple of decades of experience into the kitchen. She started cooking at age eight or nine and became a devotee of Food Network. She chuckles, remembering how her mom was okay with her daughter experimenting in the kitchen as long as she didn’t burn the house down.

Harris grew up making recipes from celebrity chefs Emeril Lagasse and Ina Garten, including a special occasion meal for her mother. “I made her this steak dinner with shrimp and rice and a little pan sauce. That was sort of the beginning of it all.”

The restaurateur chose to study design in art school rather than get a culinary degree. However, the cost of college kept her from finishing. Instead, her restaurant jobs, from dishwasher to kitchen manager, led her to become a chef.

“I was the only Black woman in the kitchen. “I became #2 in that kitchen, and I was 19, managing 30-year-old men. A lot of them I still talk to, and I’m grateful for them,” says Harris.

One of the crucial lessons she picked up along the way was the difference homemade makes. The owner of a Flipside burger bar in Cleveland taught Harris everything from making all the sauces to preparing hand-cut fries.

“That is how I was able to understand how important it is to actually make everything from scratch. If you are not, you’re really just an assembler, right? You’re not creating much,” she emphasizes.

Harris later went from that 14-hour-a-day job making $8.30 an hour to a position as a line cook at one of world-class chef Stephanie Izard’s restaurants in Chicago. “That was really cool. It was a huge operation. That restaurant sat 150 people on its main level. She was making everything from scratch, including the buns,” Almeda’s owner recounts.

The Cleveland native added childcare to her work experience in Chicago and gained a valuable mentor. Dr. Bonnie Mason moved to Maryland, and in March 2015, she hired Harris, her former nanny, to cook for the family and look after her two sons.

RELATED: Angel Barreto Pursues a Passion for Korean Food at Anju in D.C.

Dr. Mason pushed Harris to start DMH & Company, a private dining, meal prep and catering service. “She sat me down and said, ‘You need to start a business. You don’t need another part-time job. You need to just cook for my friend,’” continues Harris.

“She let me use her house as a home base to cook everyone’s food, and I just had to go deliver it.”

The chef was familiar with D.C. from visiting relatives as a child. Her adventures in the city’s hospitality industry eventually led to a job at acclaimed chef Kevin Tien’s now-closed Emilie’s.

Before opening his 5,000-square-foot restaurant on Capitol Hill, Tien operated the Himitsu restaurant at the Upshur Street address where Almeda is. “I have always been a fan of Kevin, who is now a good friend of mine. Emilie’s was my first full-time front-of-the-house position. We had our backs against the wall when the pandemic came, and that’s why the restaurant closed when it did,” says Harris.

Composing New Culinary Music at Almeda and Beyond

Almeda’s chef-owner hopes to keep her restaurant succeeding by adding more dishes to the menu. She also plans to open the Blend Bar Company, an acai bowl and juice shop in the LFS café space on Upshur Street.

“We’re also looking to expand Little Food Studio into the National Museum of Women in the Arts downtown. Once that is settled, my goal is to do some fun brunch items for the café by late summer,” Harris indicates.

The D.C. entrepreneur would like another taste of TV cooking competitions after appearing on Hulu’s “Secret Chef” last year. Her priority, though, is to keep celebrating the flavors of cuisines once seen as too humble for casual fine dining. Harris considers herself blessed to own Almeda.

RELATED: Elias Taddesse Creates a Best-Selling Culinary Story in D.C.

“I think it is a big honor to be able to employ people full-time, and I don’t take that lightly at all. I think putting on people who look like us is something I will always be down to do.”

When she turns 32 in October, Chef Harris wants to travel somewhere for more culinary inspiration. Her main focus now is expressing gratitude for all the support she has received, working hard to improve and remembering to take risks.

“It’s my duty to tell my own story. I think staying true to myself and pushing myself is going to take me as far as I want to go.” It might even bring Solange through Almeda’s doors.

Follow Chef Harris on Instagram and also Almeda and Little Food Studio on the social media platform for updates.

This story originally appeared in Cuisine Noir Magazine