Bed Stuy Restaurant Nominated For 2023 James Beard Award

BED STUY, NY — Bed Stuy landed one restaurant on the shortlist for a major category in the 2023 Restaurant and Chef Awards nominees announced Wednesday by the James Beard Foundation.

Dept of Culture, a Nigerian restaurant on Nostrand Avenue near Quincy Street, was one of 10 nominees for Best New Restaurant.

The category includes any restaurant opened between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30, 2022 "that already demonstrates excellence in cuisine, atmosphere, hospitality, and operations, while contributing positively to its broader community," according the James Beard Foundation.

Winners will be announced June 5 in a ceremony at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Dept of Culture opened on January 15, 2022 as a fun project for owner Ayo Balogun to highlight his culture after multiple different Bed Stuy projects, he told NY Eater.

The restaurant features a prix-fixe tasting menu with a la carte options in a fine dining environment that still preserves the feeling of a cafe in Nigeria. Balogun hoped to create a space where even the "most shy" patron could talk art and politics with other patrons, he told NY Eater.

Dept of Culture is no stranger to recognition — the restaurant was also named one of Eater's Best New Restaurants 2022.

Dept of Culture is not Balogun's first Bed-Stuy spot. He opened Civil Service Coffee in 2013, but the beloved coffee shop shut years later after a car crashed into the building, NY Eater reported. He reopened the place as The Council Cafe at Nostrand Avenue and Clifton Place.

In 2015, Balogun opened a restaurant called Trade Union Cafe, which also showed off his Nigerian cooking roots in pop-up dinners, NY Eater reported.

Three other Brooklyn eateries were included in this year's nominations: the Llama Inn in Williamsburg, Clover Hill in Brooklyn Heights and Sofreh in Prospect Heights.

The James Beard Awards, first presented in 1991, recognize exceptional talent in the culinary and food media industries and are often regarded as the “Oscars of culinary arts.” They recognize a range of experiences, from fine-dining restaurants to casual gems, in 23 categories.