Kwame Onwuachi Finds His Voice at Maroon

It would have been easy to replicate Tatiana's formula. Onwuachi openly acknowledges that possibility. Instead, he built something riskier: a restaurant centered on the history of the Jamaican Maroons, communities formed by formerly enslaved Africans who escaped British colonial rule and survived in Jamaica's mountainous interior. Their cooking techniques, particularly jerk, emerged from necessity and concealment, with meat smoked underground over pimento wood so fires would not reveal their location.

That history informs nearly every decision at Maroon. "The thought process is meeting people where they're at," he says. At Maroon, that means using the familiar framework of the American steakhouse as a point of entry before gradually reshaping it through Afro-Caribbean flavors, techniques, and references. The menu includes all the expected markers of luxury dining: seafood towers, tartare, porterhouse steaks, truffle-laced sides, and tableside presentations. But each incorporates Afro-Caribbean influences in ways that distinguish it from a traditional steakhouse menu.

Toro bujol swaps Trinidad's traditional saltfish for bluefin tuna belly served with fried saltines. The chopped salad incorporates gooseberries and piri piri. A truffle mac pie transforms Caribbean macaroni pie into something decadent and deeply comforting. The oxtail Wellington wraps braised oxtail, jerk beef bacon, and black truffle in beef patty dough rather than puff pastry.

Even the steak program resists convention. Maroon's beef is dry-aged, then wrapped in rum-soaked cheesecloth before further aging. After cooking, the steaks are brushed with green seasoning and Creole-spiced butter that melts into the meat.

For Onwuachi, jerk is not simply seasoning. It is process, preservation, smoke, labor, and history. That philosophy comes into focus in one of Maroon's most compelling dishes. The restaurant's chicken undergoes a meticulous four-day preparation involving brining, marinating, smoking, drying, and repeated cooking over pimento and guava wood. The result is tender, deeply aromatic, and intensely flavorful without overwhelming heat. The dish also serves as one of the menu's strongest examples of how Onwuachi approaches familiar food. Many diners arrive with a preconceived idea of jerk chicken. Maroon's version slows the process down, emphasizing technique, smoke, and the historical roots of the dish.