Oakland’s The Bussdown To Debut First-Ever Brick And Mortar Location, Bringing Pan-African Soul Food To D.C.

The Bussdown burst on to the food scene mid-pandemic as a cloud kitchen in Oakland, California. The concept focuses on Pan African soul food, inspired by what Co-Owners and Chefs Solomon “Swoop” Johnson and Mike Woods grew up eating; Chef Swoop’s Jamaican culture; as well as Chef Wood’s travels through New Orleans and the Caribbean. Whether they are in their hometowns or traveling, Chef Woods from Oakland and Chef Swoop from Maryland, are passionate about sharing their culinary talent and heritage with those both familiar and new to the bold flavors of Caribbean and Cajun-Creole cuisine.

This time around, they’ll be debuting their innovative and thoughtfully curated cuisine with a fresh East Coast demographic through their soon-to-be opened brick and mortar establishment in D.C. Slated to open this month, July 2023, The Bussdown will be located in the new Western Market conveniently located nearby George Washington University and the World Bank. Inspired by the Southern “meat & three” style establishments, the menu at the D.C. outpost of the Bussdown will feature fan favorites like the Spicy Jerk Yard Bird and Sofrito Shrimp.

The Bussdown’s Chef De Cuisine will be Chef Swoop’s long time friend, Luis Gomez, who brings with him 10 years of professional cooking in the D.C. area, along with experience in fine dining at Michelin rated establishments, Masseria and Maydan.

“I’m truly honored to be a part of Chef Solomon’s first endeavor on the East Coast, ever since his pilgrimage to California, he’s only been growing,” says Chef Gomez. “I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I’m excited to be assisting in bringing his food/concept to the city.”

The team behind The Bussdown opening are a tight-knit group of friends and business partners, each of whom are passionate about the future of this brand and stand behind its mission. “None of this would be possible without my team,” says Chef Swoop. “I spend time away on business in California and my boys in D.C. are my boots on the ground and the driving force of OKO Hospitality Group when I’m away.”

Chef Swoop and Chef Mike are bringing with them a talented team to launch The Bussdown including D.C. native Jeff Tate, as the Chief Operating Officer for the OKO Hospitality Group (which houses The Bussdown) and Brandon Scott, as the Head of Marketing and Branding.

“This project means a lot to me as a D.C. native,” explains Tate. “Not only as a believer in Chef Solomon’s talent and drive, but I can also recognize the accomplishment of an up and coming brand like The Bussdown making it to such a major undertaking. We’re super excited for the city to try this cuisine and to get a taste of how we pour love into everything we do!”

“The Bussdown represents a full circle moment,” continues Scott, who grew up cooking with Chef Swoop when they were teens. “Me and Solomon have been as close as can be since a very young age and as we grew up committed to supporting and pushing each other in our entrepreneurial endeavors. Jeff has been a friend to us both for over a decade and is one of those people who also just loves to support and see his friends win. I’m grateful to be on a journey that brings us back to the familial aspect of how we grew up and have evolved over these years together.”

We chatted with Chef Solomon “Swoop” Johnson on The Bussdown opening in D.C., humble beginnings and more. Here’s what he had to say.

Talk about your experience opening up in a cloud kitchen in Oakland during the pandemic. How was it received? How did that prepare you to open up this new brick and mortar spot?

The Bussdown’s beginnings were very humble in a cloud kitchen, here in Oakland, California. 200 square feet, some equipment, a few shelves and an idea to create a place where our community has access to our culture’s traditional food made with real love and care.

Chef Mike Woods and I dedicated countless hours at that establishment, enduring both challenging and seemingly insurmountable moments, of which (at times) we believed to be the most trying periods of our lives as chefs and owners. The rent was so expensive and covid restrictions forced us to be hyper creative just to make the money to keep the lights on.

But once people could gain access to our product we knew we’d be able to stick around. The community gravitated to what we offered and things just started to blow up. The experience whipped us both into shape and sharpened our business minds and steal to pursue and even bigger vision.

Why the move to D.C.? How will this location be different from the last? What are you most excited about with this new restaurant and location?

The move to D.C. happened very organically. It was honestly never a part of our mission statement to make our brand bi-coastal. Some of my business advisors made the suggestion of expansion and as soon asI learned more about the actual mechanics behind expansion I was obsessed. We were offered a very rare opportunity to move into a brand new food hall that would give us the audience we were missing in the cloud kitchen.

Western Market is a beautiful space walking distance from George Washington University giving us direct access to a huge student populous, not to mention the faculty. Moreover, World Bank and George Washington University Hospital are walking distance from the food hall. The Bussdown deserves a stage like this, so it only makes since to move forward with such an exciting opportunity.

Talk about some of the challenges in opening up your first brick and mortar restaurant — has it been difficult?

As exciting as this process has been the road to opening a brick and mortar is a long one. It has been exhausting on all levels. Traveling across country is honestly the easiest part. We are truly grateful for Western Market’s patience with us through this entire process and they are just as excited to have us as a part of their team. Waiting on paperwork to be filed and returned from the city has been the hardest part.

Even after paying a permit expeditor it took us months to see any kind of real progress and without the permits from the city we couldn’t start construction. After losing momentum after two amazing summer pop ups we hosted at The Sandlot Southwest, we had the plan to open in fall of 2022, but because of set backs we had to pivot. We remained stedfast and focused on what we could control and with a little hard work, community and creativity we are slated to open July 2023! Construction will be complete this month and we will be ready for business and I couldn’t be more excited.

Talk about the inspiration for the menu at The Bussdown. Will dishes be seasonal and changing?

The menu at The Bussdown has always been inspired by the Southern “meat & three” style establishments. You pick your choice of meat and three classic sides and take a seat or head out the door.

We added our signature Pan African inspired fare to reflect the migratory path of enslaved Africans from our motherland to the Caribbean and onward to the Carolinas, where 40% of enslaved africans or more were brought through those ports with Carolina Gold rice and cow peas from West Africa. It’s a unique way to show the origins of favorite foods and how it ties directly to Afro Latino, Caribbean, and Soul Food inspired dishes.

Spicy Jerk Yard Bird and Sofrito Shrimp will be the stars of the show, but the new location will inspire local favorites like fried fish and crab cakes just to name a few. Our menu will be standardized because we plan on expansion but the secret menu will be where you’ll find the good stuff. Stay tuned.