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SAHARA Hotel and Casino welcomes the first Black Chef Led restaurant to the effervescent Las Vegas Strip. Maroon by Chef Kwame Onwuachi will be The Strip’s second Black Owned restaurant.

Kwame first appeared on Season 13 of Top Chef and since then has been seen in Esquire, Food & Wine, Zagat, Forbes, The San Francisco Chronicle, Time Magazine, and The New York Times- having been named in top categories on several lists and winning numerous awards for his incredible gift of cooking sensational food.

With Tatiana by Chef Kwame Onuwuachi in New York and in Washington DC, Dōgon by Chef Kwame Onwuachi, it was perfect timing for the author of Notes from a Young Black Chef and My America: Recipes From A Young Black Chef to house his culinary gifts in a Westcoast venue and make history while doing it.

James Beard award-winning Chef Kwame Onwuachi is not only introducing Black culinary leadership to the iconic Vegas Strip, but he is spicing it up with Jamaican history, West African flavors and Creole Roots for Maroon at SAHARA, which is set to arrive late in 2025. Chef Kwame chose the name Maroon as an ode to the African slaves that took sanctuary in the Blue Mountains after being freed by the Spaniards once Jamaica was seized by the British. Within those mountains were a plethora of wild spices of which jerk was born.

 “Bringing Maroon, a Caribbean Steakhouse, to SAHARA Las Vegas is an incredible opportunity for me to honor my Jamaican heritage, provide exciting flavors, and tell my story to an entirely new audience,” said Chef Kwame Onwuachi.

Cuban American Billionaire, Alex Meruelo is the owner of the SAHARA Hotel and Casino and is currently the only non-white owner of a hotel on The Strip. Joe Louis partially owned The Moulin Rouge Hotel-Casino and was the first Black man to do it. Fitzgeralds Hotel & Casino was once owned by the late Don Barden making him the first Black person to solely own a Las Vegas casino from 2001 until his death in 2011. Barden also owned two other Fitzgeralds casinos in both Mississippi and Colorado.

At the frontage of Fashion Show Las Vegas, is the only other Black Owned restaurant on the Strip, owned by three-time Superbowl champion, Emmitt Smith. Emmitt’s Vegas is a premier steakhouse, led by Chef Steve Mannino and Executive Chef Antwan Ellis.

For more information on Maroon by Chef Kwame Onwuachi, tap in with SAHARA Las Vegasand stay tapped in with him on social media via @chefkwameonwuachi and online at Kwame Onwuachi.

Photo Credit: Chef Kwame Onwuachi and SAHARA Las Vegas