How this James Beard Award-winning restaurant handles high demand
This story was produced by Square for its publication The Bottom Line and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
How this James Beard Award-winning restaurant handles high demand
At the modern Senegalese restaurant Dakar NOLA, the menu tells a story. The menu is intentionally designed to give diners a view into the people who influenced New Orleans cuisine today. Everything here is served family-style in homage to West African dining tradition.
"There's a word in Senegal that we use all the time that defines who we are as a community, as a people. It's called 'teranga,' which is hospitality, but it's beyond that," said Chef Serigne Mbaye. "Hospitality, to me, is giving someone your home and spending time with them, quality time." Everything in the restaurant is infused with this sentiment. When diners come to Dakar, they come into the restaurant's home, Square reports.
The restaurant was born out of a pop-up at Mosquito Supper Club, where Mbaye served as chef de cuisine. Today, the seasonal prix-fixe tasting menu makes the relationship between the West African and Caribbean enslaved laborers (many of whom were Senegalese) of the 1800s and the mark they've left on New Orleans cuisine the topic of conversation. There is one seating a night, four nights a week, featuring multiple courses.
Navigating Food Costs Without Compromise
Using local ingredients is core to the restaurant's mission. It also makes tackling rising food costs critical. Mbaye says they approach ingredients with climate change and sustainability in mind. He considers how much work goes into a farmer producing certain vegetables, what struggles they may have had within the season, and treats the ingredients with care.
"We go to the farmers markets sometimes two or three times a week. By getting something like grapefruit or persimmons, whatever it is, we come back and our bartender comes up with this beautiful concept of a drink," said Mbaye. "We want to know at the end of the day how much we sold from the drink and how much money we made for it."
He adds that because the menu is so dynamic, they don't plan out several months in advance and work around what is available to them. One of the ways Dakar manages costs is by actively managing inventory. Using their point-of-sale software, they can track the ingredients they use daily and are a part of the set prix-fixe menu.
This comes into play even more so when it comes to the restaurant's bar menu. They can gauge which repeat guests prefer mocktails versus cocktails or how much fresh hibiscus to keep in stock. By being able to test and see what works, Dakar is able to keep shifting and refining its approach. For example, he says they created a really delicious cocktail the year before. By tracking sales often, they were able to look back and see it didn't sell as well as they thought.
Prepping for the Service Rush
With a small team, having tools that give them a holistic view helps them see the numbers daily. It also allows them to personalize moments for returning guests. They do this by keeping track of dietary needs, guests' favorite wines, or preferences for cocktails versus mocktails.
He adds that using their payment system also gives customers the opportunity to tip at the end of the night, and it easily lets the staff know how much money they make.
All of his experiences led to a career-defining moment when Mbaye's restaurant was awarded the 2024 James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant. With experience in French, Cuban, Creole, and Cajun cooking, it felt especially rewarding to win while cooking his own food. Mbaye says this award has not only increased foot traffic, it's also given the restaurant a platform for its mission while inspiring other chefs from the diaspora.
This award allowed the restaurant to grow the company, brand, and staff. The menu has grown, and with that, the staff, as they share the story with the community.
