March 28, 2025
Chef Ope Amosu’s menu brings West African flavors to Houston wit fare that’s ‘approachable for everybody.’
ChòpnBlọk is reinventing daring West African dishes for a rising multicultural viewers in Houston. Credited as one of the crucial various cities in america and residential to the most important inhabitants of Nigerians, Ope Amosu believes Houston is the right launching pad for the restaurant.
ChòpnBlọk is a fast-casual meals idea impressed by components from the African Diaspora. The Naija eatery has grown from a meals corridor vendor in POST Houston to a brick-and-mortar location in Montrose, a vibrant “Restaurant Row” district for its high-quality eating scene. Opening final October, the restaurant incorporates a 70-seat eating room, 20-seat patio, and 12-seat bar, together with an expanded menu and cocktail choice.
“We began ChòpnBlọk with the imaginative and prescient to convey our West African heritage to the guts of Houston—and to make it approachable for everybody,” Chef Amosu tells BLACK ENTERPRISE.
ChòpnBlọk’s menu brings West African flavors to life with standout dishes just like the Buka Blok, a conventional purple stew served with brief ribs, steamed rice, and beans. One other favourite, the Black Star Blok Pairing, combines Ghanaian-inspired Waakye fried rice with Ikoyi shrimp and Yassa curry.
For these craving small bites, ChòpnBlọk gives appetizers like meat and veggie pastries, plantain chips with Liberian greens, and Polo Membership Suya, grilled steak skewers referred to as one in every of Nigeria’s most beloved avenue meals. The Deviled Scotch Egg—a fusion of the colonial Scotch egg and Southern-style deviled egg—can also be a must-try.
The cocktail menu additional highlights Black excellence, that includes signature drinks starring Black-owned and African spirits and wines like Chòpman, Calabash Colada, and Chapelton Vineyards. Non-alcohol drinkers can strive such treats because the Oga Palmer, a mix of African hibiscus tea and lemonade, and the Gold Coast Cooler, a glowing mixture of pineapple, lime, mango, and ginger.
“It’s not nearly nice drinks—it’s about utilizing components and spirits to inform our story,” mentioned the 2024 and 2025 James Beard Award Semifinalist for Rising chef.
The ambiance at ChòpnBlọk gives a real cultural immersion. From the infusion of the standard mud partitions and woven material, the design components spotlight the richness of African artwork, textiles, and craftsmanship.
The restaurant options shoppable ethically-sourced, handmade African merchandise curated by Houston-based store, Root To Residence, and a group of cookbooks and low desk books by Black authors, provided by Houston-based bookstore, Kindred Tales.
Amosu usually returns to West Africa to protect his cultural ties, studying from residence cooks and sourcing spices and components from Nigerian markets. Even the title ChòpnBlọk, he defined, is rooted in West African Pidgin English: “chòp” means “to eat” whereas “blok” represents a location.
“I knew I needed a reputation that was rooted in West African tradition, however even on the floor, you knew it was an institution the place you may get some bomb meals,” Amosu says.
Amosu selected Montrose not just for its proximity to “Restaurant Row” but in addition to reclaim a bit of the Black ancestral territory. Freeman’s City, a historic African American municipality established in 1865 by previously enslaved folks, is likely one of the oldest Black communities in Houston.
“We have to signify the identical method we do on the POST Houston,” the chef tells BE. “We needs to be displaying up on this space, too.”
As a well-travelled foodie, Amosu witnessed how eating places had been modernizing cultural cuisines into extra on a regular basis choices, citing examples like Rasa for Indian and Cava for Mediterranean.
“I actually love how different cultures are placing on for themselves,” he mentioned. “Why can’t we’ve got one thing like that appears like this, however for the place I come from?”
Regardless of not attending culinary faculty, Amosu, who holds an MBA from Rice College and has a decade of expertise as a company govt, believes within the potential of a West African fast-casual idea.
Whereas working full-time, he honed his abilities as a prep cook dinner and dishwasher at Chipotle, then moved on to internet hosting non-public dinner experiences to refine his menu. In 2021, he resigned from his job to formally launch ChòpnBlọk.
Now, as ChòpnBlọk settles into its new area, the group is concentrated on increasing neighborhood engagement with programming, together with a brunch sequence, pop-up occasions at Houston Rockets video games and the Chopd&Stewd Pageant, and celebrating the African diaspora by means of meals, music, commerce, and storytelling.
“Our purpose has all the time been to construct one thing that not solely serves meals however creates an area the place folks can come collectively, study, and share in the fantastic thing about our tradition,” Amosu mentioned.
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