{"id":2811,"date":"2022-08-25T10:43:23","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T14:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/?p=2811"},"modified":"2022-08-25T10:43:56","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T14:43:56","slug":"2811-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/2811-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Eko House brings West Africa home to Rockville"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_2814\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2814\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2814\" src=\"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Eko-House-4-lighter-scaled-e1661438493926.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2814\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by Jesse Berman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rockville-area foodies looking for a new type of dining experience can turn to Eko House, marketing itself as an upscale, pan-African restaurant serving patrons cuisine from Nigeria and other West African countries, which held its grand opening this summer.<\/p>\n<p>Inside Eko House, in Rockville Town Square, booths and tables surround the bar, with large flat screens displaying news on sporting events, paintings by Nigerian artists hang on the walls, while African music plays.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s a place that we hope to have Nigerians, Africans in the diaspora and lovers of West African culture come in and enjoy the taste and the environment,\u201d said co-owner Francis Odiase.<\/p>\n<p>He recommended the jollof rice, a popular West African dish, and the eko rice, a dish unique to the restaurant that includes goat meat bites. Partner Yomi Ajao recommended items featuring seafood, such as tilapia, or their various \u201csuya\u201d items, similar to kebab.<\/p>\n<p>Odiase comes from a family of restaurateurs that owned establishments in Nigeria and the United Kingdom, and it had long been his dream to have a restaurant of his own. He partnered with longtime friend Ajao, and the founded Eko House together.<\/p>\n<p>Ajao and Odiase said there was both a lack of and desire for an upscale Nigerian restaurant. They chose Rockville Town Center for the area\u2019s affluence and diversity.<\/p>\n<p>Since the soft opening in February, Eko House has seen around 1,000 customers a month, said Ajao.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding the name, Odiase explained that Eko is the original name for Nigeria\u2019s capital, Lagos.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo it&#8217;s a home environment, that&#8217;s why we call it \u2018Eko House,\u2019\u201d Odiase said. \u201cSo when a customer comes in we want them to feel comfortable, like you&#8217;re home. You&#8217;re going to eat [a] home-cooked meal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eko House leverages its West African food choices, artwork and selection of music to transport diners to Lagos, which Ajao called the \u201cNew York of Nigeria.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo it&#8217;s trying to take them back into that environment so they can re-experience it, if they are already Nigerians and they are familiar with the environment,\u201d said Ajao. \u201cAnd for the folks who maybe have not been to Nigeria before or been to Lagos before, it is a little bit of a window for them to experience it with us before they can make their way down there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Odiase said that as a pan-African restaurant they are also looking to include cultural aspects from other African nations. For instance, Odiase hopes to bring in visiting chefs from other parts of Africa and artwork by artists from other African countries.<\/p>\n<p>Last summer, Eko House hosted a party for Senegalese patrons that featured a Senegalese DJ.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe feel, by doing that, we continue to push that story of one Africa and pan-Africanism,\u201d said Odiase.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Eko House<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><em>http:\/\/ekohousedmv.com\/<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><em>150 Gibbs Street, Rockville<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rockville-area foodies looking for a new type of dining experience can turn to Eko House, marketing itself as an upscale, pan-African restaurant serving patrons cuisine from Nigeria and other West African countries, which held its grand opening this summer. Inside Eko House, in Rockville Town Square, booths and tables surround the bar, with large flat [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":2814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,61],"tags":[463,464,329,465],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Eko House brings West Africa home to Rockville - Montgomery Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/2811-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eko House brings West Africa home to Rockville - Montgomery Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rockville-area foodies looking for a new type of dining experience can turn to Eko House, marketing itself as an upscale, pan-African restaurant serving patrons cuisine from Nigeria and other West African countries, which held its grand opening this summer. 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