Ever since he moved to St. Louis from Nigeria when he was a teenager, Ono Ikanone has wanted to share his culture with his adopted hometown. Now, he and his wife, Justice Johnson, are finally realizing that dream with their Washington Avenue restaurant and lounge, Levels Nigerian Cuisine (1405 Washington).
After a substantial renovation to the space, which previously housed Kitchen 4AM, Ikanone and Johnson opened Levels on July 1. While the pair is proud of the restaurant’s traditional Nigerian cuisine, prepared by chef Ruqaiya Adeyemo, they are even more excited that Levels will serve as an immersive cultural experience that will transport guests to the vibrant West African nation.
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“I saw that there was an opportunity to open a Nigerian space in St. Louis because there weren’t very many, and there aren’t any in the city,” Ikanone sys. “When I go out of town, I always look for Nigerian restaurants—a lot of Nigerians who travel have that same mindset—and I wanted Levels to be that place you find when you look up where you can get Nigerian food and culture. So far, we’ve had people from Houston, Atlanta, and Dallas come in, and they say we are spot–on. I think we are becoming that place.”
The Menu
Ikanone and Johnson see food as a way to introduce people to Nigerian culture. In that spirit, they have labored to make their cuisine as true to the experience of eating in Ikanone’s home country as possible by using traditional recipes and techniques. Ikanone admits they’ve had to adjust the spice levels a bit to accommodate diners who may not be used to so much heat, but they feel confident they have struck a good balance with such dishes as pepper soup (pictured at right), a delicate yet spicy, flavor-rich broth brimming with tender, slow-cooked goat meat, which is typically served at Nigerian celebrations as a first course.
Other offerings include egusi soup (pictured at right), a West African specialty made from melon seeds, spinach, and a tomato broth. More scoopable than brothy, the dish is served with a side of pounded yam, which is meant to be pulled apart and used as a scoop.
Tilapia, Ikanone’s favorite offering (pictured below), is served whole and grilled, then topped with sautéed bell peppers and onions. Accompaniments include jollof rice, Nigerian coleslaw, and fried plantains.
And every meal at Levels begins with chin chin (pictured at right), corn nut-sized balls of flour, sugar, and nutmeg, which Ikanone describes as a cookie-like Nigerian snack; he likens the tradition of giving everyone a dish of chin chin as soon as they are seated with being served chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant.
“This is exactly how would have this food in Nigeria,” Ikanone says. “We’ve had to do a couple of things to adjust our spice levels; we pulled back a bit because we realized that everybody can’t handle it; Nigerians say it’s not spicy enough and Americans say it’s too spicy, so we pulled it back to medium. This caters to American diners who are adventurous, but also to Nigerian diners to say, ‘I see what they did here.’”
At the same time, it was important to the restaurant’s co-owners not to sacrifice too much of who they are to appeal to the American palate. “Sometimes, we have struggles with clientele who want to dip their toe in but not put their whole foot in,” Johnson says. “A lot of times, we have to explain that this is how it comes—if we take the spice out, we are taking what the dish is away.”
The Atmosphere
The lofty, two-story shotgun space has housed a number of dining and nightlife concepts over the years: Hiro Asian Kitchen, Kitchen 4 AM, and Tangerine nightclub. Ikanone and Johnson kept Hiro’s stunning thatched chandeliers, which give the space a warm, natural feeling, and have added botanical elements, dark-green paint, and wooden accents. True to the immersive vision, the restaurant and bar area have television screens, which play a mix of West African music videos, shows and films, and a collage-like mural that Johnson put together from colorful photographs depicting a variety of Nigerian scenes.
“We wanted to give a full depiction of what Africa looks like, not just the rural parts but also the developed,” Ikanoe says. “We wanted to show a broad depiction that centered around food to go with the theme that food brings us together.”
Art is also an important part of the Levels story. Ikanone and Johnson see the upstairs loft area, which is available to rent for private functions, as a hybrid events space and gallery. The room will be filled with a variety of West African artwork, including several pieces that Ikanone’s mother recently brought back from a trip to Nigeria, and the couple plans to display rotating pieces from local artists.
The Backstory
Ikanone’s culinary journey began when he moved to St. Louis at age 14 and found himself thrust into the role of family cook. While he was growing up in Nigeria, his mother handled the family’s food prep, but once he arrived in the United States with just his father (his mother temporarily remained in Nigeria), that all changed—and he admits that he wasn’t quite ready for it. “My dad worked a lot, and my first experience with cooking was that he’d buy groceries and go to work, and I had to figure out what to do,” Ikanone recalls. “I would call my mom and get step-by-step instructions. That was my first practice with making Nigerian food—trying it out, messing up, and doing it all over again. With time, I got better.”
Once he got to college, where he studied engineering, Ikanone kept cooking Nigerian food—this time for his friends as a way to share part of his culture. These casual gatherings turned into him putting on larger-scale events involving food, music, dance, and a variety of transportive experiences. It inspired him to dream of opening a place that would serve as a permanent home for his vision of bringing people together through culture and cuisine. After purchasing the building at 1405 Washington Avenue in October 2022, the couple renovated it into their vision of what Levels could be. Along with chef Adeyemo, they’re now thrilled to watch that vision finally unfold.
“We’re a perfect mix for everybody,” Johnson says. “We get people in who have never tried Nigerian or West African food: people who are experienced, people who have had it just once, and Nigerians who say it’s the real deal. That’s what we’re hoping for—we wanted to cater to everyone, so they love it and want to come back.”
